A review by sde
The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman

4.0

Great story about a life you don't often see portrayed in adult literature, never mind children's - kids living on the street in India. Obviously, this is a difficult and dangerous life. But what I loved most about the book is that it didn't depict it as one big downer after another. The characters were three-dimensional. They faced hard times just trying to get enough to eat or find a dry place to sleep in monsoon season, but they also played, joked, supported one another, and helped each other grow. They were all real people, and not just some dismal problem that is far removed from our world. A good introduction for middle grade readers to lives that are quite different from theirs.