Gingerbread

Plot: this book is about a 16 year old girl named Cyd Charisse. She has only met her real father, Frank, once and her goal in life is to reunite with him. She lives in San Francisco with her mom, brother, sister, and stepdad. She recently broke up with her boyfriend, Shrimp, because he wanted his own space for a while. She is rebelious which is why she got kicked out of boarding school and is boyfriendless and friendless. She finds out she has a brother who is gay and a sister whom she doesn't get along with from her dad's side. In the end, this book is very good for all ages, but i recommend it for girls.

Character Description: the characters i am choosing to describe are Cyd Charisse and Shrimp.

**Cyd- she is 16 years old, but mature for her age. She definitely has an attitude, but she is the sweetest person with her younger brother Josh and her younger sister Ashley. I like Cyd because she isn't afraid to say what she means, but yet i don't like her because she doesn't try hard enough, isn't a bright student, and is sneaky around her parents. From what i see on the cover page, i can tell she is goth like because of all the black plus the high combat boots.

**Shrimp- he is Cyd's ex-boyfriend. He has an older brother named Wallace who works at a java shop called Java the Hut. To me he doesn't seem like the best boyfriend because he didn't really support Cyd or treat her very nicely which i guess means i don't like him very much. When i first saw his name i kept wondering why his parents named him Shrimp. Maybe if Shrimp talked more and showed more emotion, i would likke him better.

Your Thoughts: I thought this book was good, but since i am completely different than Cyd, it was hard to make any connections. This book wasn't was i expected it to be because when i read the back i thought she was living with her dad and didn't get along so well, but when i read the first 2 chapters i noticed that the book is called Gingerbread because the doll her dad gave her at the airport where they first met, was called Gingerbread and to Cyd it reminded her of that precious moment. I would give this book 4 stars.

Reading Strategies: the reading strategy i used was questioning. I questioned a lot in the book because it was very confusing at times. The first question i had was, "is Shrimp really his name?" because the first page talks all about him. I also asked questions like why did she name the doll Gingerbread? Why she is goth? does the divorce of her parents have to do by the way she dresses? and more. The author didn't include much detail and i didn't like the way she transitioned from one subject to another.

Author Information: the author of this book is Rachel Cohn. She grew up outside of Washington D.C, but now she lives in Manhattan. Gingerbread is her first novel she has written. She hasn't won any awards. I like the way the author used her personal experience in the book to describe what was going on. i liked this because i knew that this situation could really happen and it wasn't just a story about a girl who is mean and goth. Rachel has now written 2 more books that are a series with Gingerbread, they are called Shrimp and Cupcake.