I really enjoyed “Hope Was Here” by Joan Bauer, the story of a teenage girl who doesn’t know where she belongs, until she finds a place that’s better than anything she could have imagined.
She was born prematurely and underweight. Her mother, a flighty, irresponsible woman barely older than a girl herself, took off and left her at the hospital, after sticking her with the impossible name of Tulip. Hope’s aunt Addie took her in, raised her, allowed her to change her name, and gave her a backbone of security. With just one flaw – they’ve had to move frequently.
Addie is a world-class café cook and as the job market has shifted, so have they, moving from place to place. She’s famous for her pies and meats, but sometimes that’s not enough to pay the bills, so they pack up and off they go. Every time they have to leave, Hope finds an inconspicuous place and writes “Hope was here,” believing that’s the only way she’ll truly make a mark.
When Addie gets a job at a café called Welcome Stairways in a tiny Wisconsin town, Hope also gets a job as waitress. She’s been doing it for a long time and is pretty good, even if she is only eighteen. There are no qualms about the job itself – both women are professionals. What they didn’t expect was to get so emotionally involved with the owner, the other employees, and the town – they’ve always kept their distance before.
G.T., the owner of the café, has leukemia. He’s also decided to run for mayor, figuring that only a man who’s staring death in the face can really understand the value of life. He goes head-to-head with the current mayor, who’s a crook, and while it’s not easy, Hope and all the other teenagers in the community stand behind him. As his relationship with Addie grows, Hope realizes that all her dreams of having a father are being answered by this one man, and he’s so much better to her than she would have ever dreamed.
This is a book about starting over, about continuing to try even when it seems the odds are stacked against you, and it really is a book about hope. While marketed toward the young adult audience, this is one adults can fully enjoy as well.
(This book was published in 2000 by Puffin Books.)
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