This year’s WINCHESTER READS book is Hope’s Boy: A Memoir by Andrew Bridge.

 

Click on the title to request a copy. Additional copies of the book are available in the Library and at a discounted price at BookEnds.

Click and find out about:

An evening with Jack Williams (WBZ-TV, Wednesday's Child) on Thursday, September 30

An evening with Andrew Bridge on Thursday, October 21

and Reading Tie-ins for this book

Review from Library Journal:

In this memoir of a dysfunctional upbringing, Bridge, a Harvard Law School graduate, successfully employs the technique of first presenting an event of the near present, then going back in time to disclose the details of his childhood. As he relates in the prolog, he was involved as a lawyer in a case against an Alabama facility housing teenagers in state care who, though they were not juvenile delinquents, were being treated as such. Knowing that Bridge managed to rise above his unfortunate childhood helps the reader cope with the narration that follows. Bridge first lived with his grandmother until the age of five, while his parents were in prison for check fraud; then he spent two years with his mentally deranged mother before landing for 11 years in foster care, where he endured meanness and loneliness. He kept to himself at school and excelled at his schoolwork, entirely unbeknown to either his foster parents or the foster-care system until, at the age of 18, Bridge won a college scholarship. He went on to attend law school, was a Fulbright Scholar, and later became the CEO/general counsel of the Alliance for Children's Rights. An inspiring account recommended for high school and public libraries.-Dorris Douglass, Williamson Cty. P.L., Franklin, TN Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

WINCHESTER READS is sponsored by:

The John & Mary Murphy Educational Foundation,
with additional support from Book Ends, Friends of the Winchester Public Library, the Friends of the Winchester Public Library, the Winchester Multicultural Network, Winchester Public Schools and enthusiastic volunteers.

Previous WINCHESTER READS Selections

Click on the links to request the books and related materials.

2009
Song Yet Sung by James McBridge

2008
Run by Ann Patchett

2007
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

2006
In Revere, In Those Days
by Roland Merullo

2005
The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini

2004
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder

2003
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee

2002
Seedfolks
by Paul Fleischman

 

Contacts for more information

Barbara Yuan
Molly Wiellette
Winchester Public Library
Dede Gallagher
Book Ends