Audiobook10 hours
Hope's Boy: A Memoir
Written by Andrew Bridge
Narrated by David Drummond
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
When Andrew Bridge was seven years old, he and his mother-a mentally unstable woman who loved her child more than she could care for him-slid deeper and deeper into poverty, until they were reduced to scavenging for food in trash bins. Welfare officials did little more than threaten to take Andrew away, until a social worker arrived with a police escort and did just that while his mother screamed on the sidewalk. And so began Andrew's descent into the foster care system-"care" being a terrible irony, as he received almost none for the next eleven years.
Academic achievement was Andrew's ticket out of hell-a scholarship to Wesleyan University led to Harvard Law School and a Fulbright Scholarship. Now an accomplished adult, he has dedicated his life to working on behalf of the frightened children still lost in the system. Hope's Boy is his story, a story of endurance and the power of love and, most of all, of hope.
Academic achievement was Andrew's ticket out of hell-a scholarship to Wesleyan University led to Harvard Law School and a Fulbright Scholarship. Now an accomplished adult, he has dedicated his life to working on behalf of the frightened children still lost in the system. Hope's Boy is his story, a story of endurance and the power of love and, most of all, of hope.
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Reviews for Hope's Boy
Rating: 4.070588185882353 out of 5 stars
4/5
85 ratings8 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A great book?I enjoyed listening to it. Thank you very much!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What a truly valuable, praiseworthy memoir. Loved the title. The story is impressively detailed and passionately written. The attention Andy dedicates to recalling the people coloring his memory stand out. The love he held out for his mother and her return I as well admire and respect. So of course their meeting (Andy & Hope in the final chapter) moved me to tears. But what is most moving... and outstanding, is the way Andy opens his memoir; arms raised, palms flat, facing outward...surrendering a credible advocate for children in foster care. A humbling memoir of extraordinary integrity and reliability.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This memoir is about hanging on to that bit of love experienced. Through a description of his own childhood, most of it lived in the Foster Care system, he exposes how little love or consideration for love exists in the system. He was one of the very few lucky ones who had known his mother's love and then used his intelligence, school, and perseverance to survive his Foster care childhood. He presents a clear and brave picture of that process. Enjoyable in its honesty
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hope's Boy is a biography of Andrew Bridge's life as he remembers growing up within the California Foster Care System. He survived a loveless foster home although they cared for him the entire eleven years he lived in foster care. It is a touching story about how he used his schooling and teachers to get through each day and never gave up on all the love he had for his mother who left in the foster system. What Andrew didn't know was that his mother was institutionalized during most of his foster care years. Read this book to understand how he grew into a professional lawyer as well as an advocate to helping children living in the foster care system.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Andy 'Andrew' Bridges' job as a lawyer takes him to an instituion for children in state custody--an institution eeriely similar to the one he found himself in years ago as a yound boy. Bridges then flashes back to tell us the story of his childhood--a childhood where his mother, Hope, took him at age 7 from his grandmother. For a while things were fine with Hope and she tried to be a good, if somewhat eccentric, mother, but her mental conditon continued to deteriorate and eventually Andy was taken away from her. Then he found himself in the care of the state where he lived through several hellish years of institutional and foster care. He never forgot his mother though, the one person whose love he could count on, who he was sure he belonged too. It is a poignant story and very well told. Bridges does a good job of expressing just what his childhood feelings were in very vivid scenes and words. I was enthralled by the audio version and highly recommend reading or listening to this story.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What an amazing life story. I was totally enthralled with the way Andrew Bridge told his story, felt for him and his desperation to have a tie to his mother, and how he didn't live through his childhood, but survived it. Really great book, really worth reading.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unforgettable and courageous. In his debut memoir, Andrew Bridge lays bare the realities of state care. He writes beautifully, with a clean, elegant style. An absolutely uplifting story. He shows us how much better we can and need to do for our kids. Thank you, Andrew.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One, if not the most beautiful and moving memoirs that I have ever read. A devastating story of boy's loves for his mom and of what she gave him in spite of terrible odds. An absolute triumph! A MUST READ! I loved it.