Student Review: "Hope Was Here," by Joan Bauer

Hope, the protagonist, was abandoned by her mother as an infant and she didn’t know anything about her father. She was raised by her aunt Addie. As the story begins, she moves to Wisconsin from Brooklyn with her aunt Addie to work in a diner called the Welcome Stairways as a waitress. As soon as they get there, the owner of the diner G.T, a leukemia patient, announces that he is running for the mayor of the town. A big part of the story talks about Hope organizing his campaign with Braverman, the grill guy at the diner, and some high school kids. The corrupt mayor of the town plays a lot of dirty tricks to stop their campaign, and even manages to get fake votes but nothing worked. G.T wins the election, thanks to all the hard work of his team. He also marries Aunt Addie, adopts Hope, and Hope also starts a relationship with Braverman. G.T dies in the end, and it’s devastating for Hope but at least this time she has a family and home. I did not really like the book. It had a lot of detail about the election process and I am not really interested in all that. I think the book is a good recommendation for anybody who is interested in politics. I enjoyed the happy ending though, and the fact that it gave me AR points.

Mohid Ali's Rating: ***

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