Books : Brooklyn Bridge
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Binding: Hardcover
EAN: 9780312378868
ISBN: 0312378866
Label: Feiwel & Friends
Manufacturer: Feiwel & Friends
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: September 02, 2008
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: September 02, 2008
Sales Rank: 39491
Studio: Feiwel & Friends
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Product Description:
Karen Hesse has achieved many honors for her more than twenty books over the course of her award-winning career: the Newbery Medal, the Scott O’Dell Historical Fiction Award, the MacArthur Fellowship “Genius” Award, and the Christopher Medal. Her novels burn with intensity, and keenly felt, deeply researched, and are memorable for their imagination and intelligence.
So it is with great pride and excitement that we present Karen Hesse’s first novel in over five years: Brooklyn Bridge.
It’s the summer of 1903 in Brooklyn and all fourteen-year-old Joseph Michtom wants is to experience the thrill, the grandeur, and the electricity of the new amusement park at Coney Island. But that doesn’t seem likely. Ever since his parents—Russian immigrants—invented the stuffed Teddy Bear five months ago, Joseph’s life has turned upside down. No longer do the Michtom’s gather family and friends around the kitchen table to talk. No longer is Joseph at leisure to play stickball with the guys. Now, Joseph works. And complains. And falls in love. And argues with Mama and Papa. And falls out of love. And hopes. Joseph hopes he’ll see Coney Island soon. He hopes that everything will turn right-side up again. He hopes his luck hasn’t run out—because you never know.
Through all the warmth, the sadness, the frustration, and the laughter of one big, colorful family, Newbery Medalist Karen Hesse builds a stunning story of the lucky, the unlucky, and those in between, and reminds us that our lives—all our lives—are fragile, precious, and connected.
Average Rating: 
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Fourteen-year-old Joseph Michtom narrates this fascinating, enduring novel inspired by the true story of the family who invented the Teddy Bear. With its colorful descriptions of Jewish immigrant life in Brooklyn in the summer of 1903, Newbery Award winner Karen Hesse weaves the yearnings of the Jewish teen for everything that has been put aside to make room for the booming business of manufacturing Teddy Bears, with the descriptions of his aunts' life on the Lower East Side and a parallel plot about abandoned children living under the Brooklyn Bridge. Joseph longs for his father's attention, the jovial family life he had with his 3 aunts, his sister Emily - a voracious reader who petitions the city for the ability to open a home library in their store - his baby brother Benny, his Uncle Meyer, and the many colorful individuals who people his neighborhood, and the acceptance by the boys in the neighborhood who no longer invite him to play stickball because they think he's too good for them since his family received a letter from President Theodore Roosevelt about the Teddy Bears. But most of all, Joseph longs for the opportunity to get to Coney Island where he thinks he can escape the drudgery brought on by the overnight success of the family bear business. He knows he should consider himself lucky, but he doesn't feel lucky at all.
This is an outstanding story with numerous plot lines deftly intertwined and ultimately resolved and tied neatly together in the last ... Read More
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A moving mix of historical fiction and fantasy from award-winning author Karen Hesse. In the summer of 1903, 14 year old Joseph Michtom really wants to go to Coney Island, but his parents--the inventors of the "Teddy Bear"--are so busy filling orders that there's never any time for fun. The book provides a sensitively done portrayal of the lives of Russian Jewish immigrants at the turn of the century mixed with the story of homeless children who live under a bridge and is filled with lots of colorful characters. The book is told in two styles; an almost mystical style for the stories of the children under the bridge and a first-person narrative in the style of a young boy for Joseph's part of the story.
This novel is an excellent read for boys or girls, especially those who like historical fiction.
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Karen Hesse is back, baby! A person only gets so many golden opportunities in their life, you know. There are only so many times you get a chance to say that someone's back. Someone who may have taken a small vacation from writing for a while. Karen Hesse is a good example of this. She's done some picture books and short stories but her last novel, Aleutian Sparrow came out in 2003. Now she's returned to the field in force and with a full-length no-verse-in-sight middle grade novel on her hands. I mean Hesse was always the queen of verse. Her Out of the Dust won itself a Newbery, and I cherish in a soft place in my heart The Music of Dolphins. I guess you could say it was my favorite Hesse book . . . until now. Brooklyn Bridge takes a fancy to the summer of 1903. A time of bears, Coney Island, hot nights, and sharp delicious pickles.
To hear fourteen-year-old Joseph Michtom tell it, everything was fine before the bears. Yeah, his family wasn't rich or anything. His dad ran a candy store and they were like everyone else in their neighborhood. They made do. Then President Roosevelt had to go and NOT shoot a bear and everything went wrong. His Dad got this crazy idea about making stuffed bears out of cloth instead of wood or metal and suddenly everyone and his brother wanted one! Now Joseph's dad never has time to do little things like take his kids to Coney Island, and with all the family drama Joseph's feeling a little shut out. Paired alongside Joseph's thoughts are ... Read More
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My Review of BROOKLYN BRIDGE by Karen Hesse
Well worth the five year wait, award winning author Karen Hesse's new book, Brooklyn Bridge, is a memorable mix of historical fiction with a trace of enchanting fantasy. Hesse introduces this immigrant tale with a quote by Isaac Newton:" We build too many walls and not enough bridges". This quote could be considered "a spoiler" if one could interpret its relevance prior to reading the story. However, readers must finish the book in order to see what Ms. Hesse means by using this quotation symbolically in relation to the actual Brooklyn Bridge and humanity, especially in the special era she wrote about.
In the early 1900s, the family of fourteen-year-old Joseph Michtom has come from Russia to settle in America where the streets are made of gold. His is the typical lively and colorful family who has come to live the immigrant life of 1903 Brooklyn. Joseph who has a pretty good life for a kid in those days, filled with stick ball, a good home, family and lots of friends, is blessed but his dream centers on going to the new and thrilling amusement park known as Coney Island. However, Coney Island must wait. The Michtom family, in Joseph's mind, is doing fine with their candy store when suddenly his Dad gets an idea that instead of making toy bears out of metal or wood, they should be made of cloth. Before you can say `teddy bear', the idea takes off and the family is swamped with the demand for these bears. Joseph's ... Read More
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