Customer Reviews
Parents and teachers! Don't miss this book. 
2008-07-15
This is not a book to miss. All too often, it falls to a teacher to recognize and act on the needs of a child. It can be a responsibility of a parent to make their children aware of the meaning of "foster children" and how to treat and include these children into their activities. Andy's story is repeated in every court system in this country. So many children fall through the cracks. Despite her own mental illness, Hope finds a way to assure Andy that she loves him and later realize she did what she could do under the circumstances. Without this, Andy could have ended up the way the majority of children in the system do. A simple act of kindness could change a child's life.
An Important Book and an Extraordinary Read 2008-07-15
Hope's Boy is a profoundly important book for all of us to read. Though other books about foster care have been written, few ever go into the inner life of child and what that child feels, thinks, and misses after enduring a devasting loss and the most tragic conditions. Equally refreshing is that Mr. Bridge shows not a bit of self-pity, acknowledging and describing the children that he saw and still remembers who suffered even great losses than he did. This is a story about a boy who loved a deeply flawed mother -- one struck down with a horrific mental illness through no fault of her own.
Bridge reminds the reader that simply warehousing a child in foster care -- giving him bed and food -- is not enough. We take these children into all of our care and we owe them the love and the nuturing needed to care and to tend for them.
Apart from an extraordinary story, the book is a beautiful read. It is tenderly written account about love and children who endure more than they ought to and often need to have endured.
Mr. Bridge has commited his life to helping these children. He has never forgotten or turned his back on them. As a Harvard Law School graduate, he could have done that. He did not. We should all remember these children as he does. We live in a society where hundreds of thousands of children wait for hope.
Beginnings of a good story, but lacks convincing detail 
2008-06-14
*Minor spoilers*
The beginning of Andy's story, first with Grandma Kate and then with Hope, is very compelling. It is clear that he has taken pains to recall everything he could about a brief but influential window in his life.
However, after the first year or two in foster care, the details start to become few and far between, and it felt somewhat empty to me. Like some of the other reviewers, I found his perspective on his foster family to be skewed. I wanted to believe him, but I simply found the Cinderella-esque description of his life in this setting to be a bit flimsy. Oh my God, Mrs. Leonard made terrible snacks and wore garage-sale clothes! And did I mention she was FAT??
This family shared a home with him for a decade and did more for him than Hope did. When a social worker tells the adult Andy that Hope came close to winning him back several times but sabotaged the reunion at the last minute, why didn't he consider that maybe Hope DIDN'T want him back? He shows more generosity in his memory of a woman who seriously endangered him and reduced him to living in a closet and stealing cat food than he does for a family that provided him with a home and some semblance of security, if not love, for 11 years. He admits that he stayed in touch with the Leonards even into his years with the law firm, but he doesn't fully explain why beyond grudgingly saying it was a place to go to at Christmas or on school breaks.
I think in the end he has a very important point to make, that he would have preferred what he perceives was his mother's love and transient life over the relative stability but frigid conditions in foster care. But I'm not sure how that translates into reality for the thousands of children who are removed from their families each year. Bridge raises many questions, but he doesn't offer realistic answers. He hints that someone should have told him Hope wanted him back, or that someone should have helped Hope reunite with him. But how could this be achieved? Hope battled a serious mental illness, and he does a valiant job of defending her, but realistically, what can the state do to help a schizophrenic woman maintain ties to her child? If he has ideas -- and he may very well might -- they aren't noted here in any detail.
What a great "take-away" message of Hope! 2008-06-08
A friend of my wife's recommended Hope's Boy. It drew me in immediately. Bridge tells his story in such a way that I kept reading, wanting to find out more about what would happen to him and Hope. His writing style is poignant, yet without self-pity. I was struck by the profound loneliness he felt - being taken from his mother, and then living in a foster home where he was treated indifferently, at best, and abusively, at worst. Yet, despite all of those obtacles, he relied on his strengths and belief in Hope's love for him to persevere and excel in the ways that the "outside" world valued and rewarded, while keeping his "inside" world hidden. High school honors, college scholarship to Wesleyan University, Harvard Law School, Fulbright Scholar, legal advocate for kids in foster care. What a great take-away message of the power of hope!
A Read for Anyone Who Works with Children 2008-06-08
Andrew Bridge has written an extraordinary memoir about our country's most vulnerable women and children. Anyone who works with children and families or cares about what we need to do to help them should read this book.
Wow... 2008-06-07
From the moment he was born, Andrew Bridge and his mother Hope shared a love so deep that it felt like nothing else mattered. Trapped in desperate poverty and confronted with unthinkable tragedies, all Andrew ever wanted was to be with his mom. But as her mental health steadily declined, and with no one else left to care for him, authorities arrived and tore Andrew from his screaming mother's arms. In that moment, the life he knew came crashing down around him. He was only seven years old.Hope was institutionalized, and Andrew was placed in what would be his devastating reality for the next eleven years--foster care. After surviving one of our country's most notorious children's facilities, Andrew was thrust into a savagely loveless foster family that refused to accept him as one of their own. Deprived of the nurturing he needed, Andrew clung to academics and the kindness of teachers. All the while, he refused to surrender the love he held for his mother in his heart. Ultimately, Andrew earned a scholarship to Wesleyan, went on to Harvard Law School, and became a Fulbright Scholar. Andrew has dedicated his life's work to helping children living in poverty and in the foster care system. He defied the staggering odds set against him, and here in this heartwrenching, brutally honest, and inspirational memoir, he reveals who Hope's boy really is.
memories 2008-06-07
After reading the "Hope's Boy" book bonus in Reader's Digest I was able to meet the author at a B&N signing. His honesty, sincerity and deep love for his mother made me want to read more.
"Hope's Boy" was hard to put down. I, too, have many vivid memories of my childhood. Unlike Andrew, my memories are of a big family and happy times. It breaks my heart to think of the children with memories of separation, loneliness and fright.
Good luck to Mr. Bridge as he works with the childcare system.
Not enough storyline to keep me interested 
2008-06-04
I listened to this audiobook on CD and had high hopes. It started off well but it soon became to focused on meaningless details (ie "she was wearing a light blue, ribbed turtle neck shirt") when the author was only 5 or 6. This type of detail became annoying and seemed to be more important than actually putting any meat into the story. With the lack of any captivating story line follow I bailed after the third chapter.
another memoir that just doesn't line up for me 2008-06-04
1. Why didn't the state of Calif. place Andy back with his grandmother like they did 2 year before when his mother, Hope, was arrested and sentenced to prison? "I was not quite four years old when I was sent to live with my grandmother, who had moved to Chicago." "She [Hope] went to prison and then she got out and asked for me back. And my grandmother very reluctantly sent - put me on a plane."
So why isn't this GM keeping track of her daughter and Grandson she so reluctantly gave up? And why is it when she does contact him after *eight years* she doesn't offer him a home? Why doesn't Andy ask his GM, since he's got her there on the phone or in a letter, if he can come back and live with her? Why didn't he ask his Social worker if he could be placed BACK with his GM at the very first???
2. What happened to Hopes brother? Andrews Uncle?
3. How is it that a 5, 6, 7, 8 yr old can remember whole detailed conversations he had with others. Or conversations other people had. Down to facial expressions, body language, what they were eating, doing etc.. EVERY LAST DETAIL. Day to day events, everyday. I mean it's like he's got his whole life on film with sound. How can that be?
Does Mr. Bridge claim to have total recall? "Lots of people claim to have a photographic memory, but nobody actually does." [...]
4. Why is it that EVERYONE in this book is bad, rude, cruel. EVERYBODY he ever meets, treats him badly. That's no exaggeration I'm on page 213 and so far there's not a soul (except for the old woman who gave him cookies) who doesn't treat him bad. Even perfect strangers. What's the chance of that ?
5. His foster family the Leonards are weirdos of course. Mrs. Leonards was holocaust survivor. Came out when she was 12. Came to the U.S. when 16y/o Her children are 10, 12, 14. Andrew is 8. When exactly was Andrew born? I don't remember any dates being given.
Mr. Leonards is an electrical engineer with some defense contractor so he makes good money YET, according to Andrew, would root thru peoples garbage at night scavenging stuff to sell. Mrs L would take old snagged panty hose, cut out the snagged leg at the crotch and tape a good leg from another pair on and sell them!!!! WHAT? They raised and butcher rabbits in the backyard until the neighbors threatened. Just all kinds of bizarre stuff.
6. There was an endless parade of foster kids in and out of the Leonards. One, Lindsey, arrived in a full body cast. Her father was raping her regularly and when she told a teacher "he beat her with a bat, breaking her arms, legs ribs, and back, but leaving her skull intact." What was she doing there and not in a hospital???? "The county allowed her father to visit, as long as he stayed ten feet from her." Wouldn't the father be in JAIL?? Wouldn't there be a restraining order? Would any court allow visitation in this circumstance?
And it goes on and on. Like I said, I'm on page 213. 90 more to go.
I don't believe Mr. Bridge. Just like I don't believe Augusten Burroughs and his seemingly endless bizarre biography. Nor Mary Karr - The Liars' Club. And a few other "memoirs".
Excellent, compelling read 2008-05-31
This was one of the most interesting and compelling reads. I read it in less than a day. I am a teacher and I believe all teachers should read this book and remember that they are the life-line for children. I felt for this child and am so proud that he has overcome his pitiful life and became a great man.
