At 16, Ginny finds that her love of painting connects her to the artistic Haitian mother she never knew and eases the isolation she feels as the only mixed-race teen in her Welsh village. When she learns she has a half-brother by her father's first marriage, her world is shattered. Ginny embarks on a quest for the truth that will allow her to claim her artistic heritage--and face her father.
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Book Description
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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
PW commented that the author "deftly interweaves strong themes" in this "moving" tale of a half-black teenager growing up in rural north Wales. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 8-12-- Ginny, 16, has always felt somewhat an outsider in her Welsh village. Her Haitian mother is dead, but Ginny has always derived security in her relationship with her English father, and in the creative talent inherited from her artist mother. Then she discovers she has a white half-brother who is about to join the family; suddenly half-remembered scenes from her childhood begin to take on meaning. Step by step Ginny begins to peel back the mystery of her life, drawing on hitherto untapped resources of courage and resilience to raise the questions that need to be asked, and then to search out the answers, however painful that process may be. Her past and present are filled with ``broken bridges'' needing repair or rebuilding before she can cross them and move on with her life. As Ginny herself comments, nothing is what it seems, whether memory, event, or character. Haitian cultural details, and the influences of art in Ginny's life are clearly but unobstructively incorporated. Pullman moves as comfortably in this contemporary small town setting as he did in Victorian London in his previous novels, without sacrificing richness of plot or character. Unfortunately, the usual absurdity of translating British into American English is also maintained, while phrases in French and Welsh have been retained. The unusual setting; plot twists; and touches of pathos, humor, contemporary social concerns, and even voodoo, combine to make this an original treatment of concerns familiar to teenage readers--Who am I? How do I fit in? --Barbara Hutcheson, Greater Victoria Public Library, B.C., Canada
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
The Broken Bridge is a beautifully written book about a girl named Ginny Howard, who is one of the very few black children in Wales. Ginny lives with her father, striving to reach her goal of becoming an artist. Then she finds out that she has a white half-brother named Robert. Even worse, she is illegitimate. Knowing that her father may not be telling her the whole truth about her own life, Ginny decides to find out all that she can about herself and her mother. The plot is embellished with Ginny's unique ideas about herself and also her artistic views. This book was very inspiring and I find that I can associate many of the things discussed in it with my own life. I am definitely better off from reading it.
By A Reader
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This is a wonderful book. I think it will resonate with many readers, who might relate to it even though the circumstances are unique.
Philip Pullman has a powerful gift. It convinces us to not only enter into the minds of his protagonists with sympathy, but to emerge actually caring about them. I really miss Ginny now, having finished the book. I try, in my imagination, to watch her grow up. I think she'll be brilliant, just like many of the readers who can relate to her and her step-brother.
As you begin reading the book, you're not told a whole lot; and I liked that. It made me more alert to cues in her thinking, watching her moods and the things that happen around her that she doesn't quite pay enough attention to.
On the other hand, the things she *does* notice are with the eyes of an artist, and one with a creative imagination. Readers who also like to draw and paint will find lots to like about the way Ginny thinks. It's a view of an artist's way, from an artist himself... and just like the best art, it moves something in us in a very subtle but profound way.
The book deals with feelings of isolation, which many of us encounter through race issues but everyone *could* understand, given a writer like Pullman. And then there's the matter of growing up. What happens when Ginny's secure world seems too small, but getting out of it is too scary? What happens when what she thinks she knows is not half of what's really there beneath her nose? Pullman makes her story a lot like our own story. We're hooked.
Her growing awareness of others' lives, her ability to move from a genuine and thoughtful sympathy to actual empathy - putting herself in their shoes, rather than looking at their shoes from her perspective, so to speak - is handled so well, I can't help but think we readers all benefit too.
By A. J. Watson
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Not up to the same standard as 'His Dark Materials' but it's aimed at a different market, I guess.
I found the writing good, creating that dreamlike, unreal, almost nightmarish feeling when your world is suddenly turned upside down.
The book grips you and you feel dragged along with our heroine as she tries to make sense of what is happening and the 'visions' she has; the only failing is the ending which seems a bit of an anticlimax.
Nevertheless, a very good read.
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4.8 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
It was slow to start but hard to put down!
This was nice and yet it was slow to begin with. I enjoyed it very much. I have read almost all his other books and am hoping to get the one coming out in January. Read more
Published on July 31 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good book for people who like none-action books
This is an exelent book. It lets you in to the mind of Ginny, a sixteen year old who is trying to get through life in Whales with black skin. Read more
Published on Jun 2 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars
A compelling, powerful story about a girl's search.Excellent
I have already given away my copy and will buy several more, because this is an enormously insightful, moving story of a 16 year old girl of mixted parentage, who lives with her... Read more
Published on Sep 15 1998
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