The Bridge to Nowhere [Hardcover]

Megan McDonald (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1993

For seventh-grader Hallie her father seems like a stranger--a man of steel whose world is dark and distant. He is obsessed with a bridge that was never finished, a bridge that was his life until he lost his job. The bridge to nowhere. An early draft of this dramatic novel was awarded a work in progress grant from the Society of Children's Book Writers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite this first novel's firm sense of place--Pittsburgh--its grasp on time, narrative structure and characterization remains rather shaky. A pivotal event, in which protagonist Hallie's father "flies" his car from an unfinished bridge across the Allegheny River, is--according to a note in the text--based on an actual incident in 1964. McDonald does practically nothing to anchor the story in that period. She sets the scene for a problem novel rife with dramatic possibilities--embittered unemployed father, mother struggling to support the family, older sister with dark secret, a seventh-grader's first love--but she constantly misses the payoffs. Her troubled family is miraculously fine again after Hallie's father suffers amnesia following his car stunt, Shelley has only to sniffle a little to be straightened out, and Hallie's fears of physical intimacy with older admirer Crane melt away with a mere hug. Lack of a satisfying resolution makes this an uncompelling read. Ages 11-up.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

From the author of a number of beautifully written picture books (The Potato Man, 1991), a first novel about a seventh- grader trying to deal with her father's depression. Hallie's dad built bridges; the never-completed span across Pittsburgh's Allegheny that he was working on when he was laid off is a bitter reminder that his livelihood and his beloved vocation are both gone. He hangs out in his shop, making metal ``sculptures'' that even Mom disparages, and lashing out, especially at Hallie. Meanwhile, Hallie's becoming friends with a nice ninth grader, Crane; unfortunately, her impulse to confide her worry about Dad (she's just seen him walking the bridge's girders) coincides with Crane's first kiss, a dissonance Hallie can't handle; she flees Crane, then erupts at Dad. His response almost ends in tragedy, but extraordinary luck intervenes. The dramatic events at the end precipitate a believable reconciliation; but the fully realized characters are the book's greatest strength, especially Hallie- -thoughtful, thrown on her own by her sister's departure for college and Dad's personality change, striving (sometimes awkwardly) to build new bridges to her loved ones. The writing, too, is unusually well crafted: accessible, lyrical, with wonderfully natural dialogue (the impatience between parent and teenager, the tentative confidences of early friendship). An excellent debut. (Fiction. 11-15) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 154 pages
• Publisher: Orchard Books (NY); 1St Edition edition (April 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0531054780
• ISBN-13: 978-0531054789
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,872,973 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

10 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT ME

10. The first book I ever wrote was about a hermit crab, inspired by a pet I once owned.

9. My favorite color is purple.

8. I love to read mysteries. When I was Judy's age, I read all 56 classic Nancy Drew books . . . in order! Jeepers!

7. I used to collect scabs so I could examine them under the microscope that I got for my 8th birthday.

6. My four sisters and I often made up our own language, which included the words "Hoidi Boidi", "oogey", "retzel crummypuss" and "poony-poony".

5. My favorite TV show is JEOPARDY!

4. To research my Sisters Club book, THE RULE OF THREE, I toured San Francisco in search of the ultimate cupcake. The winner: Sleepless in San Francisco. Think chocolate + coffee.

3. When I was a kid, I fell down a hill from chasing the ice-cream truck and had to get stitches.

2. When I was a librarian, I used to tell stories in sign language. That's how I got the expression "same-same" for Judy.

1. I share a birthday (February 28) with a famous princess, race car driver and gangster, a Rolling Stone, a French tightrope walker, and a winning racehorse named Smarty Jones.