"Hope Was Here" By: Joan Bauer

I am reading Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer. A girl named Tulip is abandoned by her father and left to live with her aunt by her mother. She absolutely hates the name her mother left her with, so her aunt allows her to legally change it to Hope. Hope and her aunt, Addie, move around a lot going to different schools and working at different restaurants. Hope is constantly making new friends and then moving away from them meeting new people.
Right before Hope’s junior year of high school, her aunt and her move to Wisconsin. They are working together at the Welcome Stairways, Addie cooking and adding new things to the menu, and Hope waitressing. G.T., the owner of the Welcome Stairways has been struck with cancer, so he can use all the help he can get.
One day while the current mayor is giving a speech about why he should be reelected, G.T. decides he is going to run against him. Since G.T. has been diagnosed with cancer he is realizing everything about life that he has not realized before. Now he is noticing that he needs to make a difference in the world and all of the changes that need to be made in it. Adults and teens all try to get people to vote for G.T., but Eli Millstone, the man G.T. is running against is a liar. He makes up things about G.T. and other things in the election to get people on his side. He lies so much that people stop believing what is true.
Everything starts getting better when Addie and G.T., and Hope and Braverman, another guy from the kitchen, start to date each other. G.T.’s cancer is put into remission. He is so happy that he decides to ask Addie to marry him. They do, and the next surprise is that he asks Hope if he can adopt her. She accepts.
Right when G.T.’s friends become full of hope that he is going to win, it is announced that G.T. has lost the election. This cannot be the end of this battle. Everyone has worked too hard for G.T. to lose. I figured Eli had to have something to do with this, and he did. This left G.T. winning the election. As soon as you would think nothing could be better, G.T’s cancer gets so out of hand that the doctor says he will never pull out of it this time. Hope becomes depressed and shares one last thing with G.T. the day before his death. Everyone fills the diner with flowers the day after the funeral as a memorial. G.T.’s family and friends are depressed at first, but eventually everyone moves on with life and makes the best of things.
The theme of this book is that you should never give up and it is always important to live your life to the fullest. Some conflicts we found throughout the book were G.T. battling cancer while fighting in the election to become mayor. Things that we found as symbols are the flowers filling the diner at G.T.’s memorial, and the way Addie improves different foods already in the diner. The flowers represent G.T.’s full life, and the improvement of old foods represents a second chance or new beginning.
I feel that this is a very emotional book. G.T. getting cancer and being turned away by so many people because of it is a sad concept. Try to put yourself in other people’s shoes before you judge them. Just because someone has a disease, it should not change the way you look at them. Diseases only make a person stronger.