Who knew that brown paper bag lunches could be a way of saying "you're loved" but to 11 year old Maurice that is exactly what they say.
Busy single well off white woman Laura almost walked past the boy destined to be her child because she was, like so many, immune to the daily sounds of the world beyond her bubble of personal space. But something about the boy calling out for spare change on that NYC street corner stopped her and she went back and offered to by her him lunch.
What began with a Big Mac that day turned into a lasting relationship that saved them both. Maurice learned what it is to feel human and Laura learned her troubled upbringing led her to help a young boy the world would have otherwise tossed aside. In return she was saved too.
At the end of this book I was crying, there is a letter from Maurice to Laura and it is powerful.
I almost walked past this book in the store but the NYC skyline always tugs at me and there it was on the cover. I stopped, picked it up, read the back, saw the NoKidHungry (something the Congressman I intern for is a huge supporter of) stamp on the cover and had to grab it. From the opening lines of the introduction I was hooked.
It's nice to read about normal people doing something just because it is right. Laura did that. And her and Maurice both were changed for the better because of she stopped that day in 1986.
(finished July 16, 2014)
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