WingSpan Press (2010)
ISBN 9781595944214
Reviewed by Madeline McElroy (age 9.5) for Reader Views (12/10)

This book is about a ten-year-old girl named Mourning. She is an orphan who lives with five other orphans under a bridge near a castle. She has been a stray her whole life and being a stray is not easy.

During the winter, Mourning and her friends only had small rags to keep warm and only a small amount of food - they were hungry. Sometimes Mourning and her best friend Jo would sneak around a certain house where a woman who lives there throws parties all the time. After the party, the girls sneak into the house and get some leftovers.

One cold evening, Mourning and her friends heard the orphan hunters. They were all really scared of them because they rode on dragons and captured orphans! When one of Mourning’s friends is captured,

all the orphans are sad. Later, a carriage pulls up at the castle in front of the bridge. When the man in the carriage spots Mourning, he put a cage on her like she was an animal! To everyone’s surprise she finds out that the man who captured her was her older brother! His name was Damien.

Soon everything turned out fine with Mourning and Damien. Although Damien’s wife Flora, and her kids Draken, Rowan, and Lacy have a couple fights with Mourning, they soon accept each other and everyone was happy. Damien and Flora adopted Mourning and helped the rest of the orphans find a special place to live. The next chapter will blow your mind, nothing was what it seemed!

I liked “Mourning Under the Bridge” because all the characters and fantasy stuff in the book made it real interesting.  I think kids eight to thirteen would like this book just as much as I did. If I could, I would give this book fifty stars!