Gingerbread - Book Review

Bibliography: Cohn, Rachael Gingerbread New York: Simon & Shuster Children's Publishing Division, 2002

Gingerbread is a novel about a girl named Cyd Charisse. After Cyd Charisse is expelled from a fancy boarding school, she finds that her problems with her mother escalate after Cyd falls in love with a sensitive surfer named Shrimp. Her mom and her step-dad seem to think that she needs time to figure out who she really is and what she really wants, so she is subsequently sent from San Francisco to New York City to spend time with her biological father who she barely even knows.

The major characters in the book are Cyd Charisse, Gingerbread, Sugar, Shrimp, Sid-dad, Frank-dad, and Nancy. Cyd Charisse is a 16 yr. old rebellious girl. She was sent to boarding school after her ex-boyfriend, Justin, got her into a lot of trouble. Gingerbread is Cyd’s doll. Gingerbread talks to Cyd telepathically. Cyd’s biological father, Frank, gave her Gingerbread when Cyd was 5 years old. Sugar is Cyd’s best-friend that lives in a nursing home. She helps Cyd Charisse with a lot of crisis she has and gives her a lot of moral support. Shrimp is Cyd’s new boyfriend. He is always there for her and plays a big role helping her figure out what she wants and who she really is. Sid-dad is Cyd’s step-dad. He seems to care for her a lot as much as he hates to show it. He’s always looking out for her. Frank-dad, is Cyd’s biological father. He acts really awkward around her and doesn’t really know how to talk to her. He competes with Sid-dad when it comes to material objects. Nancy is Cyd’s mom. She is really self-absorbed and never pays any attention to Cyd because she’s always too busy looking at herself. She is an ex-dancer and she is pretty and thin.

For a tiny bit, Gingerbread takes place in the boarding school that Cyd used to go to. Then it goes to San Francisco, where Cyd lives. When she’s in San Francisco, she’s usually at a cafй called Java The Hut owned and run by her boyfriends brother, Wallace.

But when she gets in trouble for being over there to much, she is sent to New York. When she arrives in New York she spends time at her dads condo which is fairly big. If she’s not at her dads condo, she’s at her step-brother, Danny’s bakery.

Learning to maintain relationships and finding out who you really are in life, are two of the major themes. Gingerbread deals with a lot of typical teenage things that can actually help a person out. Learning how to have good human relation skills. Learning how to keep a healthy relationship with your family and your peers. Finding out who you really are is another thing. It talks about searching and wondering until you figure out who you are and what you want to do.

Gingerbread relates to many teenage issues. A target age for this book is about 15 to 18. I don’t think it would be appropriate for kids under 14. It has a lot of sexual references and some strong language.

The title, Gingerbread, is significant to the book because Gingerbread is the doll that the main character, Cyd Charisse, always seeks help from. She’s not a real person, but Cyd Charisse tells her everything. She’s her best friend. She talks about everything to her and claims she telepathically talks to her. Cyd Charisse takes the doll everywhere.

If I could choose to be a character in the book, I’d choose to be Frank-dad. I would choose to be Frank-dad because a lot of the things he does frustrate me. When I read his actions, I see that there are better alternatives and wish that I could make his choices for him. He usually makes bad choices. If I was him, I’d try to make what’s already a really awkward situation, a whole lot easier and better.

My alternate ending to Gingerbread would go like this….

It was my last day in New York. Man, I had a