Hope Was Here
Hope is a very big word if you think about it. The dictionary definition of hope is “to wish for with expectation” (“Hope”). Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer makes it obvious that hope is so much more than that. Throughout this novel, the reader will notice that all of the events that occur latch on to the theme of hope in some way.
In the beginning of this story the reader is introduced to fourteen year old, Hope, who is a waitress and has battled against many obstacles in her life such as her mom not wanting her and giving her up to her aunt, not knowing who her father is and having to move to different states almost every year. The main setting of this book is Mulhoney, Wisconsin. Her aunt, Addie, is a chef that now has a job at a local diner in Mulhoney. The owner of this diner is G.T. Stoop: a very nice middle aged man who has been diagnosed with leukemia. Since her aunt Addie was the cook, Hope became a waitress. Hope has great waitressing skills. She says they are in her blood because her mother was a very successful waitress also. At this diner there is a busboy named Eddie Braverman (also known as Braverman) whom Hope begins to date. About this time, G.T Stoop decides to run for town mayor against Eli Millstone, the town’s current mayor. Together, Hope, G.T., and Braverman create a campaign group called Students for Stoop. Students for Stoop is a group of high school students that go around to different people and ask them to vote for G.T. Some people are supportive of what the students are trying to do while others are very rude. Hope has a very unique personality. One thing that I as a reader recognized is that she had a great amount of perseverance. For example, she never gave up or got discouraged even when things got rough for her during the Students for Stoop campaign. The ending of this book defiantly puts Hope’s perseverance to the test, but as far as I can tell as a reader, she still maintains to keep a positive attitude.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It had a very good story line and also had some humor to it which is the perfect type of book for me. I can compare this book the author’s short story, “Pancakes.” One thing I noticed that was similar about the two stories is that both of them had to do with waitressing and to some degree, they both had to do with everything being perfect. For example, in “Pancakes”, Jill is a waitress who has a system for everything. In Hope Was Here, Hope is a waitress who has perfect waitressing skills. The only thing that I would change about the book is that the ending is alluded to a little too much; I was able to predict the ending after only reading about half of the book.
Overall, I would recommend this book to any girl who wants a quick and easy read. This book is not hard to understand at all. The way the author writes makes it easy to comprehend. Also, this book is shorter than most other books on the 9th grade reading level so it doesn’t take as long to read.

Work Cited
“Hope.” Dictionary.com. 2011. Web.