Hope's Boy: A Memoir

Haunting: I was lucky enough to read an early version of this book, and it's stuck with me for all the months since then. Told with unflagging honesty, and about a life that's riveting and fascinating.

A heartbreakingly honest tale of a young boy removed from his mother at age 7 due to her deteriorating mental state, and left to make the best of it in a loveless foster home. He goes on to become a successful litigator on behalf of children who have entered the foster care system...wonderfully written and deeply moving.

What 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. ( )

This 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 ( )

Hope'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. ( )