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Tarfumes.com - The Family Under the Bridge
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List Price: $5.99
Our Price: $5.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780064402507
ISBN: 0064402509
Label: HarperCollins
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 128
Publication Date: 1989-02-15
Publisher: HarperCollins
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Release Date: 1989-02-15
Studio: HarperCollins
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Editorial Reviews:
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This is the delightfully warm and enjoyable story of an old Parisian named Armand, who relished his solitary life. Children, he said, were like starlings, and one was better off without them.
But the children who lived under the bridge recognized a true friend when they met one, even if the friend seemed a trifle unwilling at the start. And it did not take Armand very long to realize that he had gotten himself ready-made family; one that he loved with all his heart, and one for whom he would have to find a better home than the bridge.
Armand and the children's adventures around Paris--complete with gypsies and a Santa Claus--make a story which children will treasure.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Perfect story for a Winter's night
Comment: This was a lovely Christmas story about discovering what the best gift in the world is.
Armand, an old hobo, lives in the olden days of Paris. In the freezing cold before Christmas, he finds a small helpless family, and he surely can't leave them to fend for themselves.
He knows he has to protect his soft heart before the children find it, but he does find himself warming up to them nonetheless.
Join the little gang in the simply-written, but effective heart-warming story.
It might be a young children's book, but anyone young-at-heart will certainly enjoy "The Family Under the Bridge".
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great little novel
Comment: I didn't read this book until I was a mom, and that's a pity, because I would have loved it when I was a kid. I find the ending, where the family is provided with a home, particularly fine. Their new home is only a cellar apartment, but you know it is going to be a great, safe, environment for the children to grow up in, where their mother has suitable employment and they have a grandpa as well.
I was amused by the readers' comments that this book was strange because the mother leaves the kids to fend for themselves in the city while she goes to work, and because they never reminisce about their dead father. Well, this is not a story about suburban America! In Europe, kids were not traditionally coddled as they are here. Adults routinely let them fend for themselves. (See the great French short film "The Red Balloon," for example.) Kids in Europe even nowadays take public transit alone at quite young ages, and they don't necessarily have babysitters when the parents go out, either. And as far as cozily reminiscing about the father ... maybe that would be the recommendation of a modern American psychologist, but it isn't necessarily the way things are in the real world! I find the bitter, proud, overwhelmed mother to be a masterful characterization, and her silence about the father is consistent with her personality.
This book's picture of homelessness is far from the one-sided image "homeless people are lazy" that some readers found. There are lots of reasons (psychological, cultural, and economic) provided for homelessness in these pages. There are no deinstitutionalized mentally ill people or substance abusers, though, so it's not a picture of homelessness in modern America.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Lovely Book I Read As a Child and Now Is A Keeper Book
Comment: This is a true classic for me that struck such a chord with me when I was younger. I just had to have the hardcopy for my "keeper" bookshelf. I think children who have single parents nowadays can identify with this charming story of 3 children and their mother who live under a bridge who come find a new and stronger meaning of family with a kindly old hobo. Regarding the review by the person who thinks it was not cool for the parent to leave her children alone while she looked for work, deal with it. It happened in 1958 and it still happens today in many parts of the country and world.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Doesn't everybody want to be a hobo
Comment: I picked this book up at the library thinking that it might help me in my own writing process and found it to be a good story with a wholesome underlying message.
Armand is a friendly hobo in Paris who is entering the holiday season. At these coldest of times, he makes his way to his usual dwelling under a bridge. This year he finds three young children and their mangy dog occupying his normal spot.
What Armand comes to find out is that these children and their mother are homeless because they can't afford rent. Armand is firm about moving on because he doesn't want the "starlings" to steal his heart. Yet, the children eventually soften his heart enough that he feels compelled to stay and help.
This story helped me realize why we actually go to work. Most people would probably not go to work if they didn't have bills or a family that needed their care. Honestly, it would be very intriguing to pack a small bag and travel around the country. Oh, you might have to humble yourself and ask for a few things on the way, but it sounds fun. I probably wouldn't mind sleeping outside on occasion. You figure, everyone needs a breath of fresh air and the outdoor sounds could become peaceful. Yet, I suppose there would come a time that you would have to move on.
Armand put it best about begging when he said, "It takes away a man's self-respect." There comes a time in a man's life where he has to decide whether he's bum or whether he is willing to work. We all know work is not fun. That's why it's called work. You do your job not because you like it (even though that might be the case), but because you must for your family's sake. It is for the love of your family that you move on and face a job full of hardship.
I pray that more people change their ways like Armand and decide to love and care for other people besides themselves.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Light, Cheery Read
Comment: Like a cheery cup of cocoa, this little book will warm you during the holidays. A Paris hobo, Armand, is content in his life alone, and refuses any sort of commitment, never letting anything affect his freedom or his heart. This all changes when he finds his favorite winter shelter is occupied by a homeless family of three children. Cold, tired and hungry, he sets out to cheer them up by taking them to see Santa Claus, getting them fed along the way by taking up change for their singing. When the mother finds out, she is furious, and refuses all charity. Armand packs his meager belongings and walks away, only too happy to leave the little "starlings" on their own, lest he loose his heart and experience any more ingratitude. As he says, "The street has a way of taking your pride."
The next day, however, he finds a pair of do-gooding women on their way to the authorities. Armand knows their do-gooding will surely result in breaking up the family while the unsuspecting mother is at work. What to do? And what to do about the children's insistence that Santa is going to bring them a house for Christmas? How can he keep them together, without their loosing faith in Santa and all of the good things of this world?
This is a cheery, well-written story that will take you no time to read--it's not much bigger than a short story. However, the author throws in some clever twists that lead you to a different ending than you would normally expect. Uplifting and simple, it's the kind of book to get your children at Christmas to make them aware of not only other people's needs, but other people's kindness.
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