Gingerbread by Rachel Cohn

• ISBN: 978-0689860201
• Plot summary: When Cyd Charisse gets kicked out of boarding school, she returns home to San Francisco to endure the wrath of her mother and stepdad. Cyd has a friend in Sugar Pie at the senior living facility where she volunteers and a smoking hot boyfriend in Shrimp, but these allies are not enough to keep her from feuding with her family. Cyd Charisse and her parents decide it might be best she take some time to cool off--at her biological dad's house in New York City. Cyd meets her half siblings and learns how to navigate the city, but a run in with her ex-boyfriend ruins all the fun. Even when she's not hidden away at boarding school, her past comes to haunt her in a Manhattan midtown Gap.
• Critical evaluation: The bumpy life of a little hellion such as Cyd Charisse makes for an exciting read. When Cyd is not mouthing off to her parents, she's cooped up with her boyfriend in the back of his Pinto, slinging espresso at his hot brother's java joint, or spending time with Sugar Pie getting her cards read. Yet even with the company of other's that she actually joys, the storm within Cyd Charisse continues to brew and the mission to meet her family in New York is concocted. Watching this young person careen through life on her own terms is a little unnerving, but ultimately an empowering experience. Even though I'm not a teenager anymore and I have no one to rally against, I can still see how constrictive life might be like for someone like Cyd Charisse.
• Reader's annotation: Cyd Charisse just got back from boarding school and already they're shipping her off to other family members.
• About the author: Rachel Cohn lives in New York City where she channels her own past and her favorite teen authors (Blume, Konigsburg, Conford) when writing for young adults.
• Genre: Fiction
• Curriculum ties, if any: None
• Booktalking ideas:
• Do you think Cyd Charisse should have told her parents about her troubles sooner?
• Reading level/interest age: 14+
• Challenge issues: Sexuality, substance usage, profanity
• Why was this item included? This series of books was recommended to me by my younger sister.