Folds in the Map: Stories of Life's Unlikely Intersections

by Jeff Bauer
Ann's book paperback 147 pages
genre: memoir, essays

Ann loaned this to me ages ago! Bauer was someone she worked with at The Family Partnership. I wasn't super excited about reading it, but I'm so glad I did. Some of the essays didn't connect for me, but others were thought-provoking and powerful. My favorites were "Secret Wars" and "Beauty and Bread."

In "Living in the Middle," there was a passage I marked. "Children, with all of their curiosity and vulnerability, learning to become themselves while, at the same time, absorbing everything from the world around them. Scared, joyful, insecure, needing of unconditional love and protection. Just children." He is writing about seeing the fear and need in people's faces that reflects a child's need. He writes about the powerful impact of having his consciousness altered . . . but then notes that the intense awareness faded with time and returning home.

This is a lovely book. Kudos to Bauer for writing it and getting it published!

Hope Was Here

by Joan Bauer
PRMS paperback ? pages
genre: realistic fiction, coming-of-age

Hmmm. This was a re-read and I was just going to add some notes to my original post. But I cannot find an original post. Darn! I don't really feel like blogging.

Synopsis: Hope Yancey was left by her mother with her aunt Addie as an infant. She's never known a father and her mother drifts into her life sporadically, calling her "Tulip," a name given her at birth but which she shed on her twelfth birthday. Hope is an excellent waitress (like her mother) and makes a great duo with her aunt who is a marvelous cook. Their lives have moved them across the country, but Hope loves Brooklyn and her friends. Until they are double-crossed by a "friend" who takes their money and runs off with the night waitress and their trust. And so they move to a small town in Wisconsin to help G.T. run his restaurant. Dealing with leukemia, G.T. needs them. And the more they get to know him and others in town, the more they need him.

Eddie Braverman - young cook who didn't go to college because he's supporting his mother and sisters.
Deputy ??? - I can't remember her name. Tough cop from Minneapolis who isn't afraid of the crime in town.
Mayor Millhouse(?) - lying lowdown skunk
Sheriff - also a dirty dog

Some nice romance, great civics lessons, wonderful story. Won a Newbery Honor award.