"I have promised to be a model citizen daughter....I have confined my Shrimp time to making out with him in the Java the Hut supply closet and quick feels on the cold hard sand at the beach during our breaks, but enough is enough....Delia and I are planning a party at Wallace and Shrimp's house and I am spending the night whether Sid and Nancy notice or not. I will be as wild as I wanna be." After being kicked out of a fancy New England boarding school, Cyd Charisse is back home in San Francisco with her parents, Sid and Nancy, in a household that drives her crazy. Lucky for Cyd, she's always had Gingerbread, her childhood rag doll and confidante. After Cyd tests her parents' permissiveness, she is grounded in Alcatraz (as Cyd calls her room) and forbidden to see Shrimp, her surfer boyfriend. But when her incarceration proves too painful for the whole family, Cyd's parents decide to send her to New York to meet her biological father and his family, whom Cyd has always longed to know. Summer in the city is not what Cyd Charisse expects -- and Cyd isn't what her newfound family expects, either. With Gingerbread, debut author Rachel Cohn creates a spirited world of in-your-face characters who are going to stay with readers for a long time. Grade 9&Up--According to stepdad, Sid, Cyd Charisse is a "recovering hellion." Kicked out of boarding school, the teen returns home to San Francisco. True to her wild nature and obsession with boys, she does anything to get a rise from her parents. She is grounded in her "puke-princess bedroom" after being caught out overnight again with surfer-boyfriend, Shrimp. Finally, Sid and Nancy send her to bio-dad in NYC. Meeting her real father and family has long been Cyd's dream. Since he was married with children when her mom had an affair with him, he is virtually a stranger to her. When Cyd got in trouble at boarding school and needed money for an abortion though, she called him. He didn't remember Gingerbread, the rag doll he gave her when she was five, but he helped her out. Cyd Charisse sees herself when she meets him 11 years later. She finds excitement working in her gay half-brother's caf‚ as a barista and exploring New York. Confrontations with her older half-sister and brief talks with her father bring Cyd more knowledge about her families on both coasts. Her strong, independent, and kinky personality; realistic take on life; and quick mind make her a memorable character. Cohn works wonders with snappy dialogue, up-to-the-minute language, and funny repartee. Her contemporary voice is tempered with humor and deals with problems across two generations. Funny and irreverent reading with teen appeal that's right on target. Gail Richmond, San Diego Unified Schools, CA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Gr. 9-12. Sixteen-year-old Cyd Charisse's parents call her "Little Hellion." When she's kicked out of an exclusive boarding school, she returns to her privileged home in San Francisco, where she fights constantly with her mother and stepfather, who don't know about her recent abortion. She finds her place with new friends: a boyfriend Shrimp, a sexy surfer, and Honey Pie, an elderly woman who understands her secrets. After a broken curfew escalates into bitterness, Cyd is sent to her biological father in New York City. "Frank real-dad" isn't what Cyd had imagined: nor are his two grown kids. Cyd's New York experience helps her confront her most painful questions. Written in Cyd's hilarious, contemporary voice, Cohn's first novel is a fast, uncomfortable read. Bratty, spoiled, and prone to tantrums, Cyd is often unlikable and is all the more realistic for it. Some characters, particularly Cyd's parents, and details about the world of wealth occasionally collapse into stereotype, and Cyd spikes her honest, revealing speech with such aggressively hip words as crazysexy , which may date quickly. But teens will recognize themselves in Cyd's complex, believable mix of the arch and the vulnerable, the self-aware and the self-destructive, and also in her struggle between freedom and the protective safety of family. Gillian Engberg Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Twist Magazine Why You'll Dig it: Likeable Cyd will seem like one of your buds. ELLEGIRL Rachel Cohn's first book, Gingerbread, takes the reader on a journey through the mind of Cyd Charisse, a troubled teenager who's trying to find herself. But this is not just Another Teen Novel: It's pretty edgy... Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market Cohn's character was inspired by the front of a greeting card given to her by a close friend. "The figure on the card was wearing monster-sized black boots and toting a doll," says Cohn. "She was nothing like other characters I created, but I became a vehicle for who she was instantly." Kirkus Reviews Cyd Charisse embodies the child/woman nature of adolescence as she tows her doll, Gingerbread, through life. VOYA