One aspect of that sense of belonging would be finding out the identity of her father, another person missing from Hope's life. Ever since her mother abandoned her as a baby, the only constant Hope can depend upon is her Aunt Addie. The journey will be one you will long remember.Īnother move. So, if you are up for a journey where the destination will change along the way, if you are unafraid of strong-willed, intelligent young women, if you are looking for connections yourselves, read Hope Was Here, Backwater, and Rules of the Road. Like all great fiction writers, Bauer leaves readers with more questions than answers.

We know that Hope, Ivy, and Jenna will survive we just don't know their story in its entirety. Perhaps this, then, is the great power of Bauer's stories: They present realistic characters who show gradual change and incremental growth. As in real life, the journey is never fully over, the goals never completely realized. What readers discover is that the journey will continue past the end of the story. Along the route each takes are important life lessons, lessons that extend beyond the pages of the book and seem to transcend boundaries of age, gender, and region. Whether the young woman is a waitress, or an amateur historian, or a shoe salesperson, all these characters are attempting to come one step closer to realizing a goal. Each courageous young female, setting off on a perilous journey in search of some missing piece that will help her better form a complete picture of herself, attempts to reach beyond herself to find answers in a world full of questions. Those connections may be to family, to friends, or to the past. All of Joan Bauer's novels center on the characters trying to forge connections. Have you ever felt as though you were disconnected from the rest of the world, left dangling with more questions than answers in a particular situation? If so, you will immediately connect to the characters in the novels of Joan Bauer.

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