Waiting for Christopher: A Novel

by Louise Hawes

Shortly after moving with her mother to Florida, a lonely, fourteen-year-old bibliophile is reminded of her infant brother who died and decides to care for an abused, abandoned child with help from a new friend.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction

242 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

I live in North Carolina, where time moves more slowly than it did in New York. That means my day can include writing, working with new writers, yoga, and hanging OUT with my sweet teacher, Mother Nature.

I have two grown children, both teachers. They are, deliciously and, to me always surprisingly, among my two best friends on the planet.

I'm a teacher as well as an author, serving proudly on the faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts in the MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults Program, and at Mainely Writing, an intensive week-long writing retreat on the coast of you know which beautiful New England state.

What's new? A collaborative graphic novel, A FLIGHT OF ANGELS, comes out from Vertigo/DC Comics in November!

Reviews

[Olivia Carpenter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of this did not make sense to me so I kept reading and hoping it would(it didn’t ever really make sense.) I feel like many parts of the story are a lazy way of moving the plot along/ saving it. The plot was there, I think it could have been done better and without some of the perverted writing.

[aarifa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending was so disappointing. I was hoping for something more. :-/

[Victoria]

Can't wait to read this!

[2remias_rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 2 Quarter 3- I really enjoyed reading this book. It related to my contemporary issue of child abuse. The story really kept you on your toes which I absolutely loved and it had a surprise ending which really shocked me as the reader. I also liked how the story was told in third person because it brought a lot of perspectives from the outside world into the story. Overall I thought the story was very good.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beware. It is what I call a "message in a bottle bottle" book. That's a movie my husband hated because it did not have the happy ending he was waiting for. While I did enjoy this book, I was left with a sense of sadness and incompleteness. So don't read this book if you are looking for something with a fairytale happy ending.

[Florence Primrose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feena, a high school freshman in a new school is lonely. One day on an impulse she takes an abused toddler left in an amusement park by his mother. She finds an ally in a popular girl from school as they work out care for this chid.

Although considered a young adult book, the story is interesting as Feena struggles to find answers.

[Vicki · Rating 1 out of 5]

Feena's brothers died when he was 1, her parents divorced & she & her mother are in grief spirtually lost. Then they move to Florida, when Feena watches a small boy a lot like her brother in looks & w/the same name being physicaly & emotionally abused several times, bh his mother. When his mother abandons him, Feena cares for him along with a new friend Raylene. OK

[Stephanie A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a big fan of kids, so it was hard to put myself in the girl's shoes or totally fall in love with the story. That said, this is exactly the kind of solid, well-plotted, modern day, not-centered-around-a-boyfriend YA novel that the world needs more of.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

omg i love. so sad i cried. i know understand better about child abuse. so so so sad. defenitely should read absolutely

[Steen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually finished this a long time ago, and just forgot about it. It was weird...I don't have much to say about it. Unrealistic, yet realistic.

[Savanna Bunnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good, grabbing read. The story becomes very real to you. You will not be let down.

[Sabrina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't really remember what this book was about...but it was just okay...it was really good at first but had a crappy ending =/