Patricia Reilly Giff is one of my favorite authors for young people. This is another story set in an historical setting, against the backdrop of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, and how it touches the lives of the characters. Bird and Thomas are two well written eighth graders who are already deciding what to do with their lives and the story weaves them together with a great cast of supporting characters. ( )

Just ok. I liked learning about the Irish Americans/Brooklyn Bridge (New York, N.Y.) Learned that all laborers were inflicted with the bends (caisson disease)to a certain extent on the Brooklyn Bridge and some died.Takes place in 1875.

Juvenile GIF ( )

Giff, Patricia Reilly. Water Street. Wendy Lamb Books/Random House, Inc., NY: 2006.
• This historical novel, best for grades 6-8 learning about US or NY history, follows the lives of Bird (short for Bridget) and Thomas, children of Irish immigrants living in an 1875 tenement building overlooking the construction of the new Brooklyn Bridge. Giff masterfully interlaces historical facts into the lives of the protagonists, who face choices not unlike today’s teens; she touches on the Irish potato famine, lives and recipes of a healer (Bird’s mother), gossip of the time (a woman taking over the bridge’s construction after her husband and son are incapacitated), and illnesses of the time (scarlet fever outbreaks and Cassion’s Disease, a early form of “the bends” suffered by underwater bridge workers). Giff’s descriptions focus on the close togetherness of Bird’s family, who help each other and their friends – including Thomas – during harsh times; Bird’s attempts to balance her desire to be a healer like her mother while enduring the sights of blood and grave illness; and Thomas’s difficulties watching out for an alcoholic father while pursuing his love of reading and writing.
• This story offers numerous extension possibilities, including exploration of readers’ heritages, in-depth discussions about 19th century construction projects, or class brainstorming on what each student would choose as a career if their education ended after eight grade.

In the shadow of the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, eighth-graders and new neighbors Bird Mallon and Thomas Neary make some decisions about what they want to do with their lives. They will need courage determination and love, to realize their dreams. Will they succeed?