This well-told tale—about a Jewish immigrant family in New York in the early 1900s—is fascinating and full of suspense.” —The Washington Post
“Alternating with this story line is a parallel narrative devoted to abandoned children who forge a life for themselves under the shelter of the Brooklyn Bridge. Readers will have a hard time putting down this compelling story.” —School Library Journal
“The narrative includes tightly interwoven elements of multiple genres—adventure, romance, comedy, ghost story, and family drama—without ever compromising the authenticity of the plot or the characters.” —The Horn Book
“Rooted in the Jewish immigrant experience in early-twentieth-century New York City, this story weaves together one boy's immediate personal narrative with a community's historical struggles. . . . . the plot reveals intricate connections, up to the very last chapter, that will make readers return to the beginning of this gripping story and see everything in a new way.” —Booklist
“It's such a relief to be able to count on an author time and time again.” —School Library Journal
“In this tale of Dickensian contrasts in kindness and cruelty, Brooklyn comes alive with the details of time and place, but it is the shadow of pain and transcendence cast symbolically by the bridge that haunts and compels. Another work of enduring excellence from Hesse.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
“This intimate novel, written in stanza form, poetically conveys the heat, dust and wind of Oklahoma. With each meticulously arranged entry Hesse paints a vivid picture of her heroine's emotions.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review for Out of the Dust
“What Copeland created with music, and Hopper created with paint, Hesse deftly and unerringly creates with words: the iconography of Americana, carefully researched, beautifully written, and profoundly honest.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review for Witness
“Deep, literary, and soulful, Ms. Hesse once again holds us in her spell as she reconstructs the past at an intense time in United States history. . . . The tapestry of plot and subplot is woven with brilliant craftsmanship.” —Children's Literature for A Light in the Storm: The Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin
“Sparkling with humor, poignancy and adventure . . . Hesse's impeccable research buttresses the narrative with a wealth of detail. . . . an author's note and extensive glossary round out this compelling volume.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review for Stowaway
Inspired by facts surrounding the inventors of the teddy bear, Newbery Medalist Hesse (Out of the Dust) applies her gift for narrative voice to this memorable story set in 1903 Brooklyn. Fourteen-year-old Joseph Michtom's parents, Jewish immigrants from Russia, are the envy of the neighborhood when their toy bears make them prosperous. The principal narrator, Joe, copes with the ironies of their fortune: "Now it's like I got some special kind of power. Only I'm not doing anything good with it." Resented by his former friends, Joe works in the bear business, gets crushes and longs to go to brand-new Coney Island. Interspersed throughout are brief profiles of street children who make their home under the Brooklyn Bridge, haunted by a ghost they refer to as the Radiant Boy. Deftly paced story lines about Joe's extended family indirectly raise questions about different types of bridges: those from the old country to America, those that cross generations, those that link the unlikeliest individuals. Not until the final chapters does Hesse produce the connection between Joseph and the street children with their ghost, and then the novel explodes with dark drama before its eerie but moving resolution. Ages 10-14. (Sept.)
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Gr 6-9
Karen Hesse weaves a tale (Feiwel & Friends, 2008) about early 1900s Brooklyn and the Michtom family, Russian immigrants, who invented the first stuffed teddy bear. The story is told by 14-year-old Joseph Michtom who doesn't feel like the "lucky" Joe everyone calls him. The only thing the boy really wants is to visit the new Coney Island amusement park, but now he must help out at his parents' business. Joe doesn't have time to spend with his friends and the family has little time together. Interspersed with Joe's story are newspaper headlines as well as a parallel story of lost, runaway, and cast-out children living under the Brooklyn Bridge. Fred Berman's narration is as authentic as the story. Listeners are transported to Brooklyn, into the homes, streets, and trolley cars, with fully voiced and accented characters brought totally alive. The Michtom family's emotions are clearly expressed and poignantly felt. The two layers of the story are vocally distinct in their telling, allowing listeners to shift seamlessly between the experiences. The only flaw is the mispronunciation of the author's last name in the introduction (it is correct in the closing credits). A compelling listen for school and public libraries.-Stephanie A. Squicciarini, Fairport Public Library, NY
An immigrant family's tale, Impressionistic glimpses of street children living under the Brooklyn Bridge and vintage newspaper excerpts braid themselves together to form this spellbinding novel. The newly arrived Michtoms (based on fact) are the lucky ones, rising from shopkeepers to successful teddy-bear manufacturers. The travails of their neighbors and extended family, the city's human flotsam under the bridge and a "Radiant Boy" who is a "death omen ghost" represent the brutal side of the "golden land." Fourteen-year-old Joe Michtom tells his own story, establishing the story's central theme of letting go: of old possessions, secrets, mistakes that limit freedom. He is also central to the mystery behind the "Radiant Boy" buried under the bridge, whose "ghost" terrorizes the street children who live there. In this tale of Dickensian contrasts in kindness and cruelty, Brooklyn comes alive with the details of time and place, but it is the shadow of pain and transcendence cast symbolically by the bridge that haunts and compels. Another work of enduring excellence from Hesse. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)
