Tuesday, February 18, 2020

{ 52WRR }: Review of The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman

Welcome to Week 3 of { 52 Weeks of Recommended Reading }!

I'm reading one book every week that is an award winner (or honor book) or has been included on a list of great books. You can find my reviews from previous weeks here.

(Just as an FYI... the start of this year was unexpectedly busy so I'm a little behind - I'll be posting a few of these in a row to get caught up on my weeks. :/ But then the plan is that it will be a once-a-week feature, posting on Tuesdays.)


The Bridge Home
by Padma Venkatraman

Available as: hardcover, Kindle edition, ebook, audiobook
Pages: 208
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Publication date: February 5, 2019
Suggested tags: middle grade, realistic fiction, India, homelessness



From the publisher:
"Four determined homeless children make a life for themselves in Padma Venkatraman’s stirring middle-grade debut.

Life is harsh in Chennai’s teeming streets, so when runaway sisters Viji and Rukku arrive, their prospects look grim. Very quickly, eleven-year-old Viji discovers how vulnerable they are in this uncaring, dangerous world. Fortunately, the girls find shelter–and friendship–on an abandoned bridge. With two homeless boys, Muthi and Arul, the group forms a family of sorts. And while making a living scavenging the city’s trash heaps is the pits, the kids find plenty to laugh about and take pride in too. After all, they are now the bosses of themselves and no longer dependent on untrustworthy adults. But when illness strikes, Viji must decide whether to risk seeking help from strangers or to keep holding on to their fragile, hard-fought freedom."

Awards/Booklists (as of the time of my review - if you know of more please let me know!):


This is a beautiful, heartbreaking book. Viji tells her and her sister Rukku's story, which is not an easy one, with honesty and strength. From their time at home with an abusive father and a struggling mother, to their time on the streets with their new "family," struggling to survive in every sense of the word... It's far more than girls their age should have to face, and while this story is fiction, it is painful to read because I know many children in the world are living this reality every day. Viji shares a range of emotions with readers: anger at her father and their situation, happiness with her new friends and their freedom, the uncertainty and stress of making decisions for herself and her sister (who seems to have a developmental disability)...

This is an amazing story, and I think an important story, but it is not easy to read. Ultimately, it ends on a note of hope for Viji, who is now able to envision and better future for herself, but the road that got her there is full of pain and struggle. The relationship between Viji and Rukku and their new "brothers" is a beautiful example of how friends can become more like family, which adds a warm, uplifting feeling to the story. For older middle grade readers or those who can handle difficult subject matter, I think this is a great book to read and discuss, to give readers around Viji's age an idea of what life might be like for other kids around the world that we don't often hear about.  


Final verdict: I loved it! I thought this book was great! I might buy it for myself and I would definitely recommend it to others.



{ My reviews are honest and my opinions are my own; 
your reading experience may vary, so give it a read and see what you think. :) }
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