Mary Quattlebaum (Children's Literature)
Joan Bauer has won many accolades for her novels featuring spunky teen protagonists grappling with--and getting a good grip on--life's difficulties. Bauer has a wonderful ability to blend humor with insight and the first-person voices of her heroines all ring true. In her most recent book Hope Was Here, a sixteen-year-old hash-slinger in a Wisconsin diner deals with the town's corrupt politics, her aunt's attraction to a man with leukemia, and her own absent mother. 2000, Putnam, $16.99. Ages 11 up.

Uma Krishnaswami (Children's Literature)
Sixteen year old Hope (formerly called Tulip) knows all about survival, but the latest move she must make with her aunt Addie is calculated to test even her resilience. In Wisconsin, the Welcome Stairways diner awaits Hope, as does its owner, G.T.Stoop, and a cast of characters both noble and nefarious. Hope's is a fresh young voice, and her story is about finding trust in the middle of corruption, optimism in the mayhem of small-town politics, and faith, above all, in the power of the spirit. Which is good, because when she comes to face the reality of loss, Hope is going to need all the spirit she has and then some. Bauer creates a believable world in this crisply-told tale. 2000, Putnam, $16.99. Ages 12 up.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2000 (Vol. 68, No. 17))
Another entry in Bauer's growing collection of books about likable and appealing female teenagers with a strong vocational calling. Ivy Breedlove in "Backwater "(1999) is a historian, Jenna Boller in "Rules of the Road "(1998) is a talented salesperson, and Hope Yancey's gift is for waitressing. As the novel begins, Hope, 16, and her aunt Addie are about to move from Brooklyn to Mulhoney, Wisconsin, where Addie will manage and cook for a diner called the Welcome Stairways. Hope, whose mother abandoned her as an infant and who has never known her father, is pretty well-adjusted, all things considered. She throws herself into her new life in the small town, working on the grassroots mayoral campaign of the diner's owner, quickly acquiring a boyfriend and friends, and proving herself to be a stellar waitress (she's been working in restaurants most of her life, after all, and one of the few things her mother has given her is a list of waitressing tips). Despite having moved so often and having had such inadequate biological parents, Hope isn't afraid to connect to people. The relationship between Hope and G.T., the man who owns the diner and who eventually marries her aunt is especially touching and sweetly portrayed. He's everything Hope ever wished for in a father. It could be said that the occupation of waitressing is over-idealized; it's portrayed as the noblest of professions. But the lessons she's learned from the job are essential to Hope's character and a part of why the plot develops as it does. More important, and as always from Bauer, this novel is full of humor, starring a strong and idealistic protagonist, packed with funny lines, and peopled with interesting and quirky characters. 2000, Putnam, $16.99. Category: Fiction. Ages 11 to 16. © 2000 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Paula Rohrlick (KLIATT Review, January 2001 (Vol. 35, No. 1))
Sixteen-year-old Hope is "trying to live up to her name," even though she is deeply upset that she and the aunt who has raised her are moving to small-town Wisconsin from exciting New York City. Her aunt Addie is going to be the manager and cook of a diner; the owner has leukemia and needs help. Hope will be working at the diner too, and she is proud of her skills: "I took to waitressing like a hungry trucker tackles a T-bone," she says. Hope gets involved in town politics when the diner's owner, kind and honest G.T. Stoop, decides to run for mayor against the corrupt incumbent. With the help of the attractive young short-order cook, Braverman, Hope and other teenagers in the town work on G. T.'s campaign, and see it finally succeed despite the odds. Aunt Addie and G.T. marry, and Hope finds in him the father she has always sought, only to lose him to cancer at last. At the end, she's ready to move on to college, but feels like she has finally found a real home in Wisconsin. As in her acclaimed Rules of the Road, Bauer here tells the story of a smart, funny, strong-minded teenage girl overcoming obstacles to achieve fulfillment, and standing up for what's right. Hope is admirably determined to be upbeat (she changed her name from Tulip), despite her mother's abandonment, her lack of a father, and the many moves in her life, and readers will root for her to succeed. The other quirky characters in the novel are also well drawn, from food-obsessed Addie to brave Braverman to G. T. and his graveyard humor. I like how Bauer's teenage characters enjoy their jobs, and take them seriously, too. There's lots of hard-won wisdom here, a bit of romance, and many funny scenes as well as some sad ones. This is a wonderful read. KLIATT Codes: JS*--Exceptional book, recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2000, Penguin Putnam, 186p, 00-38232, $16.99. Ages 13 to 18.

Jerry Weiss (Parent's Guide, Fall 2000 (Vol. 3, No. 1))
Fourteen-year-old Hope, a waitress, and her Aunt Addie, a cook, leave Brooklyn for a new job at the Welcome Stairways Diner in Mulhoney, Wisconsin. When they meet G.T. Stoop, the owner, Addie loses no time in telling him she will improve the cooking and the menu. Stoops has very serious medical problems, but he decides to run for mayor against an incumbent who seems to have the election locked up. Bauer provides lots of political action and humor. Fast and most enjoyable reading. Putnam, 2000, $16.99. Ages 12 up.

Beverly J. Jackson (The ALAN Review, Winter 2001 (Vol. 28, No. 2))
Moving from New York City to a small town in Wisconsin is the latest in a long string of disappointments for Hope. Abandoned by her mother and pining for the father she has never met, Hope yearns to stay in one place, but more importantly, to belong. Aunt Addie provides stability in Hope's life, but it is Hope's own sense of humor, her ability to relate to people, and her considerable skills as a waitress that forge her a place as an important citizen of Mulhoney, Wisconsin. In the process, Hope discovers integrity, romance, and a resolution to dreams she has long carried in her heart. Joan Bauer excels in using humor to address serious issues such as responsibility, political double-dealing and acceptance. Hope Was Here also offers a central character who, while plagued with adolescent insecurities, remains strong. This book is particularly recommended for the way it shows young people performing competently outside of school, at work, and in politics. Genre: Coming of Age/Relationships 2000, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 186 pp., $16.99. Ages 12 up.Columbia, South Carolina

Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, September 2000 (Vol. 54, No. 1))
Teenaged Hope is a waitress extraordinaire, traveling around with her aunt Addy, a temperamental and brilliant diner cook. Now they’re settling in a town just outside Milwaukee at the Welcome Diner, owned by G. T. Stoop, who needs assistance since contracting leukemia. It turns out there’s another reason he wants some extra hands in the kitchen: he’s making a run for the mayor’s office against the corrupt and otherwise unopposed incumbent, who’s in the pocket of the local corporate dairy. Hope and the rest of the diner crew (including Braverman the grill man, with whom Hope finds a connection beyond the culinary) are solidly behind their idealistic Quaker boss, and they throw themselves into the political fray despite the possibility of dangerous repercussions. Bauer’s fiction (Rules of the Road, BCCB 2/98, etc.) has always had a Capra-esque flavor, and this novel takes that tendency to its height in this warm and compelling account of the little guy going up against the political Goliath. Though there’s some Capra schmaltz as well (G. T. is pretty darned saintly), there’s enough drama in the rage against the machine and in Hope’s increasing investment in the people around her (she sees her mother only once every few years and knows her father not at all, and she harbors secret yearnings for proud parents) to keep the proceedings absorbing. As usual, Bauer allows readers into a world of professional devotion and dedication on the part of her heroine, making Hope’s vocation for waitressing understandable and praiseworthy; her search for familial closure is less breezy but equally solidly drawn, and its bittersweet success is poignantly satisfying. (Reviewed from galleys) Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2000, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2000, Putnam, 192p, $16.99. Grades 7-10.

Susie Wilde (The Five Owls, March/April 2001 (Vol. 15, No. 4))
Joan Bauer's Hope Was Here is a triumph of wit, word, structure, and character. Her heroine is Hope, a sixteen-year-old who was deserted by her mother at birth, doesn't know who her father is, and has been moved around the country by her Aunt Addie, an obsessive chef who is wise in more than matters of food. Hope is no whiner and she sees the positive partly because of Addie's influence. Since the time Hope was little, Addie's had her keep a "Best of Mom" book which holds hints, gleaned from her mother's years of waitressing and living. Hope has picked up these practical tips from the few times her mother has visited, and they have added to Hope's perspective and success. Hope's mom has told her, for example, "three hard and fast rules that every professional waitress has to follow: 1) The customer is always right 2) The cook is always right 3) If the customer and the cook disagree, and you can't settle it, your tip is history." These concepts and her own waitress experiences have informed Hope's life. She is a keen and thoughtful observer. Hope's narration simmers with humor-filled restaurant-speak. She sees a morning go down "like cold rolls with a hot meal" and food imagery even creeps into "an excellent kiss--the kind where you feel your stomach burn hot and you know it's not from indigestion." Hope finds strength in serving and expresses this in culinary vernacular. "When you can carry five full dinner platters on your left arm, you should be able to vote, even if you're not eighteen." And at the bittersweet ending, "joy and sadness mix together like cream in coffee." There's another side of Hope that's more serious. She's kept scrapbooks her entire life, filling them with mementos that she hopes to share with her father, if he ever shows up. And every time she leaves a place, she scribbles "HOPE WAS HERE" on something permanent. At the book's beginning, Hope and Addie are moving to a small town in Wisconsin to manage G.T. Stoop's diner while he deals with his leukemia. Hope's still smarting over the way their last cooking colleague stole their money, trust, and business, but moving has become part of her way of life, and she knows that she's always found friends. The new cast of characters she meets is amazing. It's not just the daily traffic of the restaurant, though the cameos are as rich as one of Addie's good gravies. Nor is it the staff who brings Hope's life and the book the depth of a bottomless cup of coffee. The story's most powerful character may be G.T. Stoop, who balances Hope's lights and darks like a well-planned meal. He is unlike any man Hope has ever met, and before long, she's immersed in helping him win a election against a dishonest politician. Stoop's potential death creates a bond between him and Hope, who has a profound understanding of the transitory nature of life. Commemorating is as important to G.T as it is to Hope. He plants trees to remember those he loves. "I like thinking they'll be here long after I'm gone. All those fine memories pushing up to the sky." By the book's end, Addie's married G.T., he's won the election and adopted Hope, and she shows him the scrapbooks she's assembled throughout her life. When G.T. opts for the long version and listens attentively, Hope tells him, "You're as real and true a father as a human being will get in this world." Ironically, though Hope loses G.T. at the book's final chapter, her future seems more certain and meaningful than ever before. 2000, Putnam, $16.99. Ages 12 up.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2001)
Sixteen-year-old Hope takes pride in her job: she's a short-order waitress who has come from Brooklyn with her aunt Addie to run a diner in Wisconsin, its proprietor sidelined by leukemia. Addie and Hope, long peripatetic, find a new life in Wisconsin as well as a cause: the diner's owner takes on the corrupt mayor in an upcoming election. And Hope's tentative romance with the cook is sweet indeed. The story's humor is warm and real. Category: Older Fiction. 2000, Putnam, 186pp, $16.99. Ages 12 to 14. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.

Kathleen Roseboom (The Lorgnette - Heart of Texas Reviews (Vol. 13, No. 3))
Hope is sixteen and living with her aunt who travels from diner to diner as a cook, a lifestyle that is unique but leaves her without the feeling of belonging any one place. Hope is a young girl that has been "given" to her aunt because her mother did not feel she could cope with a premature baby and all the responsibility that goes with raising a child. Thus, her aunt becomes Hope's lifeline and mother. When Hope's own mother pops in from time to time, reality is never within her grasp. Hope and her aunt continue to forge ahead with a close bond that is keeping them together and expanding their lives to a fulfillment neither had anticipated. This book shows that life can be what one chooses to make it. And Hope chooses to make it in many ways by never giving up or letting her situation get her down. She finds hope not only in a name but in the people around her. n/a. 2000, Putnam, 186p, $16.99.

Julie Wilde (VOYA, February 2001 (Vol. 23, No. 6))
Hope moves from Brooklyn to a small town in Wisconsin with her Aunt Addie, a diner cook. Hope's mother left her as a baby, and since that time, Hope and Addie have moved from town to town and diner to diner. At sixteen years old, Hope is a great waitress but is not excited about her new small-town life and job. Soon after they arrive, their employer, G. T., announces that he is running for mayor although he has leukemia. As Hope adjusts to the new place, she and the tall cook, Braverman, become friends, and soon they are a main force in the fight to elect trustworthy G. T. over his corrupt incumbent opponent. Hope fights some personal battles as well, as she deals with not knowing her father, missing city life, and feeling ignored by her mother when she visits. Bauer has succeeded in creating another quirky, poignant, and funny novel about a strong girl who admits her frailties. Hope lives up to her name in the face of loss, of which she has been handed her fair share. Some great waitressing advice is thrown in, and anyone who appreciates the power of a good meal will smile at the comfort-food references. Although the message against corruption gets somewhat heavy-handed, politically minded readers will enjoy the election story line. Her relationship with Braverman--"sometimes I think he likes me and other times I don't think he does and I'm finding the whole thing really irritating"--reveals complexities beyond a typical teen romance. Hope's story is highly recommended for both middle and high school students. VOYA CODES: 4Q 4P J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2000, Penguin Putnam, 192p, $16.99. Ages 12 to 18.