Review: The Bridge Home

The Bridge Home, by Padma Venkatraman (narrated by the author) (Listening Library 2019)

First line: “Talking to you was always easy, Rukku. But writing’s hard.”

My first choice for #MiddleGradeMarch was a book I’ve been meaning to get to for years. The Bridge Home was all over the place back in 2019 when it was released, earning all sorts of starred reviews from major review sources and the coveted Walter Dean Myers Award, which recognizes children’s literature written by diverse authors that celebrate and discuss diversity in a meaningful way. (Past winners have included favorites such as Firekeeper’s Daughter, A Long Way Down, Punching the Air, and The Poet X.)

The Bridge Home follows sisters Viji and Rukku who have recently run away from an abusive father and have decided to try to make it on their own on the streets of Chennai in India. Although Viji is technically the younger sister, Rukku has a developmental disability that has always made Viji feel responsible to watching out for her. While Viji knows that staying at home was no longer a viable option, she finds out that the streets are more dangerous and frightening than she was expecting. But soon the sisters meet two other young outcasts, Muthi and Arul, and the four become a tighter-knit family than any of them have experienced in the past.

I found this to be a beautiful story of found family and survival. In a story that could have been a “depressing” book, and one that definitely had its heartbreaking moments, I didn’t feel that way reading it, and think that Muthi’s humor and Viji’s determination keep it from veering in that direction. I was also glad that this book didn’t succumb to the “all adults are terrible” trope so often seen in children’s literature. While there were certainly some villains here, there were also good and compassionate adults that helped these kids survive when they might otherwise have not. The author narrates this audiobook (which isn’t always a good thing where fiction is concerned), and she did an excellent job bringing her characters and situations to life.

A solid addition to the middle grade canon, and one that will be eye-opening to many young readers.