On the Other Side of the Bridge

Gr 7 Up—In this slow-paced novel, 13-year-old Lon Chaney Rodriguez loses his mother to violence, then slides into homelessness with his unemployed father. Lonnie's feelings of guilt ring true—he got into trouble and disappointed his mother on the last night of her life. However, the story doesn't always sustain reader interest, even after Lonnie's mother, a security guard, is shot and killed. Lonnie, with his love of horror movies and his heartfelt attempts to improve his life, is a sympathetic character. The quality of the writing doesn't provide the needed emotional heft, though. With his mother gone, Lonnie's possibly alcoholic father can't support the family. They end up in a sleazy hotel, then a shelter. While the novel addresses a worthy subject, it feels disjointed; it reads like two different stories, first about grief and then about homeless families. The details about the struggles of homeless families and the underlying causes of homelessness could have been interesting. Instead, minor characters offer judgmental statements about homelessness resulting from "bad decisions" and panhandlers preferring life on the streets. Lonnie accepts this assessment without question, despite his own situation and that of another family in the shelter, who lost their home to a fire. Religion and changes in Lonnie's father's behavior offer hope in the end. Still, teens searching for novels about the loss of a parent or about homeless students would be better off looking elsewhere.—Miranda Doyle, Lake Oswego School District, OR