Hope Was Here

Infobox Book |
name = Hope Was Here
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author = Joan Bauer
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country = United States
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genre = Young-adult fiction
publisher = G. P. Putnam's Sons
release_date = 2000
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback), Compact Disc, Book on Tape
pages = 186 pp (Paperback edition)
isbn = ISBN: 0142404241 or 0-698-11951-7 (Paperback edition)
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"Hope Was Here" is a 2000 novel by Joan Bauer. It was declared a Newbery Honor Book in 2001.

Plot summary

Hope Yancey is a teenager who lives with her aunt, Addie in New York City, where Addie works as a chef and Hope works as a waitress. Hope lives with her aunt because her mother didn't think she was a suitable mother. Hope has no idea who her father is and feels that she cannot know where she can't be whole until she meets her father. When the restaurant they work at closes down because the owner stole all of the restaurants money, Addie and Hope decide to move to Mullhoney, a small city in southern Wisconsin, where they will work at a small-town diner. Hope's new boss, G.T. Stoop, is a kind-hearted man, but he has leukemia which keeps him off of his feet at the diner. G.T. decided to run for mayor, against the current mayor Eli Millstone. The current mayor supports a huge company that causes a lot of problems for the townspeople, but his political power causes few to run against him.

Meanwhile, Addie has been changing the menu at the diner, much to G.T.'s amusement. Hope starts dating the cook, a recent high school graduate named Eddie Braverman. Hope befriends the two other waitresses, Flo and Lou Ellen, and a Russian immigrant, Yuri, who works as a bus boy at the diner. Lou Ellen has a young daughter, Anastasia, who is ill and refuses to eat. G.T. sets up a nursery in his office and lets Lou Ellen bring her daughter to work. Hope and Braverman help Lou Ellen by watching Anastasia and they finally succeed in getting her to drink from a bottle.

Braverman, Hope and a group of students from the area high school form a Students for Stoop organization to support G.T.'s campaign. G.T. has recently discovered that he is in remission. Because of Braverman's participation, he is attacked by a group of Millstone's supporters. Then, Millstone's campaign spreads a rumor that G.T.'s cancer has spread to his brain. The teens, Addie and G.T., along with Brenda, the deputy sheriff, all attempt to spread the truth about G.T., but they aren't able to convince enough people and G.T. loses the election.

A few weeks later, Hope and Braverman are going over the list of voters, and they discover that Millstone rigged the election. G.T. is named the new mayor of Mulhoney. Addie and G.T. marry and afterward, G.T. decides to adopt Hope. About two years later, G.T.'s leukemia returns. G.T. dies after Hope tells him that she thinks of him as her real father, the one that she was always looking for. Hope and Braverman then leave for college, since he can now pay for it thanks to G.T.'s reform programs.

Characters

*Hope Yancey: A 16-year old waitress
*Addie: Hope's aunt; a short-order cook
*G.T. Stoop: Owns a diner; has leukemia
*Eddie Braverman: A 19-year old cook; dating Hope
*Eli Millstone: Mayor of Mulihoney
*Flo: A waitress
*Lou Ellen: A waitress with a young daughter
*Brenda Babcock: Deputy sheriff
*Yuri: A Russian immigrant; bus-boy at G.T.'s diner
*Jillian: Hope's best friend
*Adam Pulver: A friend of Braverman's; head of Students for Stoop
*Sid Vole: Adam's uncle; a spin doctor
*Deena Yancey: Hope's mother