I chose the book because of the bridge, I got much more.

My summer reading is off to a great start!! So far in this first full week of summer vacation I have read 4 books. All of them are Young Adult novels chosen from the library I work in at the middle school and all of them so far have not disappointed. Today's book actually brought me to tears. That is rare that a book makes me cry. I feel the emotions often but real tears are not usual.

I chose the book because of the cover. I know, I know, don't judge a book by it's cover is something we all have heard and I say that over and over and over again during the school year as I talk to the kids about what they chose or why they didn't choose a book. This one was obvious to me. The cover is an amazing picture of the Brooklyn Bridge spanning the river. And it is by a great author; Patricia Reilly Giff.

all the way home (that is how it is written, no caps) is the story of 2 kids in 1941 who are very very different, very very determined and very very in need of each other. Without giving away too much, cause you may want to read it yourself, it is the story of Mariel, a polio victim living with her foster mother a few blocks from Ebbets Field and Brick, a boy moved to spend the year with them after the orchard his parents are attempting to farm is almost destroyed one summer.

Brick wants to go home to upstate NY to help his elderly and hurt neighbor Claude bring in the harvest. Mariel wants to find her biological mother who lived in the same area where Brick is from--her only memories of her being recollections of her from her time in the Iron Lung which kept Mariel alive. Laced in and out of this pair's tale are the positive influences of wonderful adults. The nurse, the cop, the mentor, and the Dodgers on their way to maybe winning their first pennant in 20 years!!

Now you may think this book made me cry because of the loving adults or the familiar names of places like Ebbets Field or Prospect Park or the descriptions of the borough of Brooklyn. You may think I was sad for the little polio stricken girl or the lonely but loved little boy. You would be wrong. I cried at the end of the story while reading about the conclusion of the baseball game that may make an entire state happy!! The emotions and the conclusions and the parallel of sport and life hit home. It is so subtle and so well done.

Doing the right thing, being real friends, never giving up, having courage and sharing the ups and downs of life with the people you love is the message I got. It is the message I need to hear sometimes and I get it in the most unlikely places- like the description of my Father's team making the state cheer! As LaVar Burton always said on Reading Rainbow, "of course, you don't have to take MY word for it."