Brooklyn Bridge

Title: Brooklyn Bridge
Author: Karen Hesse
Series: None
Genre: Juvenile Fiction


I love New York City. I find the Brooklyn Bridge to be absolutely beautiful and when I came across this book, I felt that I had to read it.

Karen Hesse tells the story of Joseph Michtom, a young Jewish Immigrant who lives in Brooklyn with his family in the early 1900s. They originally owned a candy store, but due to a cartoon of Theodore Roosevelt, they decided to start making cloth bears, teddy bears. The Michtom's are the real family that started to make teddy bears, although the story that surrounds them otherwise is fiction.

We learn of the difficulties of the time and the family has a special connection with the Brooklyn Bridge.

I thought the story was enjoyable to read, however every few chapters there would be a chapter in italics and it would tell a short story (although they all came together) or the people living below the bridge and how they got there. These, I didn't like. I ended up reading just the chapters that were not italicized. Perhaps I missed some of the story, but overall I think the story did just find without the italicized chapters that didn't connect (well until the last one) anyway.