Gingersnap

With her older brother and only family member, Rob, missing in action in the Pacific theatre of WWII, Jayna, aka Gingersnap, leaves her guardian and heads to Brooklyn with her pet turtle and a bakery address in hand. She's been told she may have a grandmother there. Olivia Campbell's narration enriches the character of Jayna. Her tender, raw voice mirrors Jayna's uncertainties and desperation. Campbell's voice weakens and trails off at just the moments when Jayna feels most vulnerable. And as Jayna lets herself take in the welcoming bakery "family," Campbell picks up the pace, and her voice gains conviction. As guardian Celine, Campbell's quavering voice creates a remarkably unsuitable parent surrogate. Bakery owner Elise's voice is filled with uncertainty and skepticism, followed by growing warmth. A.R. (c) AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

November 19, 2012
Giff smoothly intertwines threads of loss, displacement, hope, family, and the soothing power of food (especially soup) in a quiet but emotionally charged novel set during WWII. Jayna—nicknamed Gingersnap by her mother, who died in a car accident along with the girl’s father—feels understandably alone after her only relative, her older brother Rob, goes missing while serving in the Navy. Inspired by items from her mother’s past that she finds, and urged on by the voice of a ghost, Jayna packs up the turtle she’s adopted and runs away from upstate New York to Brooklyn. The ghost (who Jayna believes to be her mother) promises to help her find a family, and Giff’s deft plotting leads the girl to find just that, in surprising and satisfying ways. The pacing falters occasionally—it takes Jayna a while to share information that she knows links her to the kindly bakery owner who takes her in—but Jayna’s yearning to belong and desperate longing for her brother’s safe return give this story its soulful core. Ages 9–12. Agent: George Nicholson, Sterling Lord Literistic.