ALA Booklist (Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2008)

Rooted in the Jewish immigrant experience in early-twentieth-century New York City, this story weaves together one boy's immediate personal narrative with a community's historical struggles. As the first natural-born American in his family, Joe, 14, always hears about the hell his parents escaped from in Russia. But what are the family secrets no one talks about here in America? Why won't his aunts cross the bridge to his home in Brooklyn? Alternating with Joe's narrative are chapters that focus on a community of vagrant kids. Joe's dad has wild success manufacturing America's first teddy bears, and a fascinating final note fills in historical facts about the toys. It all makes for a much denser story than Hesse's spare Newbery winner Out of the Dust (1997), but just when things seem too bogged down in cultural detail, suddenly the plot reveals intricate connections, up to the very last chapter, that will make readers return to the beginning of this gripping story and see everything in a new way.

Horn Book (Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

In 1903 Brooklyn, fourteen-year-old Joe dreams of Coney Island. Interspersed throughout the story of Joe's family (based on Russian Jews who created the first teddy bear) are third-person segments that poetically describe homeless children living under the Brooklyn Bridge. The narrative includes tightly interwoven elements of multiple genres--adventure, romance, comedy, drama, ghost story--without compromising authenticity of plot or character.

Kirkus Reviews

An immigrant family's tale, Impressionistic glimpses of street children living under the Brooklyn Bridge and vintage newspaper excerpts braid themselves together to form this spellbinding novel. The newly arrived Michtoms (based on fact) are the lucky ones, rising from shopkeepers to successful teddy-bear manufacturers. The travails of their neighbors and extended family, the city's human flotsam under the bridge and a "Radiant Boy" who is a "death omen ghost" represent the brutal side of the "golden land." Fourteen-year-old Joe Michtom tells his own story, establishing the story's central theme of letting go: of old possessions, secrets, mistakes that limit freedom. He is also central to the mystery behind the "Radiant Boy" buried under the bridge, whose "ghost" terrorizes the street children who live there. In this tale of Dickensian contrasts in kindness and cruelty, Brooklyn comes alive with the details of time and place, but it is the shadow of pain and transcendence cast symbolically by the bridge that haunts and compels. Another work of enduring excellence from Hesse. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)

Starred Review for Publishers Weekly

Inspired by facts surrounding the inventors of the teddy bear, Newbery Medalist Hesse (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Out of the Dust) applies her gift for narrative voice to this memorable story set in 1903 Brooklyn. Fourteen-year-old Joseph Michtom's parents, Jewish immigrants from Russia, are the envy of the neighborhood when their toy bears make them prosperous. The principal narrator, Joe, copes with the ironies of their fortune: “Now it's like I got some special kind of power. Only I'm not doing anything good with it.” Resented by his former friends, Joe works in the bear business, gets crushes and longs to go to brand-new Coney Island. Interspersed throughout are brief profiles of street children who make their home under the Brooklyn Bridge, haunted by a ghost they refer to as the Radiant Boy. Deftly paced story lines about Joe's extended family indirectly raise questions about different types of bridges: those from the old country to America, those that cross generations, those that link the unlikeliest individuals. Not until the final chapters does Hesse produce the connection between Joseph and the street children with their ghost, and then the novel explodes with dark drama before its eerie but moving resolution. Ages 10–14. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Sept.)

School Library Journal (Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2008)

Gr 6-9 In 1903, school lets out for summer vacation, and Joseph Michtom dreams of visiting Coney Island. But the 14-year-old's plans have to be placed on hold while he helps out in his father's toy-making business. The family stumbles on an idea that leads to the creation of the first teddy bear and achieves financial success. Set in Brooklyn and narrated by Joseph, the novel portrays the joys and heartaches in the lives of Russian-Jewish immigrants at the turn of the 20th century. Alternating with this story line is a parallel narrative devoted to abandoned children who forge a life for themselves under the shelter of the Brooklyn Bridge. Readers will have a hard time putting down this compelling story. Caryl Soriano, New York Public Library