Hope and Other Punch Lines

Hope and Other Punch Lines

YA fiction
"...In the photograph, the one that turned me from Abbi Hope
Goldstein into The Baby Hope, I'm being whisked away to safety by
Connie Kramer, one of the women who worked at the day-care center in
the World Trade Center complex. I'm wearing a paper crown and holding
a red balloon, and behind me the first tower is collapsing."
Although she's nearly sixteen, Abbi has not fallen off the radar
of the legions who have become inspired by an iconic photograph taken
on her first birthday, a photograph that adorns many kinds of
merchandise. Total strangers constantly are telling her how glad they
are that she survived and tearfully sharing their memories of 9/11.
As you can imagine, she'd like those well-meaning strangers to go away
and leave her alone.
Noah, too, has a connection to the tragedy. Everyone tells him
that his father died that day. But a man in a blue hat in the picture
bears a striking resemblance to his dad. What if he really survived?
Maybe Noah can track him down.
Abbi and Noah, narrators of Julie Buxbaum's Hope and Other Punch
Lines, are working at the same summer camp. Abbi wants eight weeks
free from the well-meaning strangers to just enjoy life. Noah wants
her to lend credibility to his quest to interview the people in the
picture to learn as much as he can about the man with the blue hat.
This coming of age narrative gives readers a good look at the
ways people attempt to survive and thrive following the kind of
tragedy that divides lives into befores and afters.
On a purrrsonal note, I hope you had a fantastic weekend. I sure
did. Saturday Community Garden was fabulous. The weather was
perfect--sunny with a breeze. We had a great crew. The garden was
bursting with produce, much to the delight of our many recipients.
People stuck around to chat. There was a total party atmosphere.
There was enough surplus produce for volunteers to take plenty home.
I was able to cook up a big pot of super fresh, uber local beet greens
for supper. Then Sunday Katie, my middle daughter, and her
significant other, Jacob, who had been in the area for a wedding
stopped by for a visit on their way home. Spending time with them was
wonderful. I showed them the two scrapbooks I'd made during the
beginning of the pandemic. Katie was telling Jacob the stories behind
the pictures. It made her so happy. Katie thinks we should do some
scrapbooking with all the other pictures I've gathered from around the
house. That will be fun. They gave me some lovely flowers from the
wedding. I gave them a bunch of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies
and a lot of lettuce from the garden. Later I went with Eugene to pay
the cell phone bill. He thought that was the only stop we'd make.
But he didn't object to stopping at Goodwill. He bought two pairs of
jeans and paid for a Black Lives Matter shirt (those are so hard to
find) for me and an art kit for my friend Emily's daughter. On the
way home we stopped at a yard sale. I bought ten of the cutest Boyds
Bears angel bears, the limited edition numbered kind for only 50 cents
each. Beautifully hand painted. I'll have to find a really special
place for them. (Jules)
My hoomans was home instead of camp. That's my favorite kind of
weekend. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to the garden crew, Eugene, Katie, and
Jacob.
Tobago and Eugene Hathaway


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