Gingerbread - Rachel Cohn

When Cyd gets home to her family for the summer holidays she is in a very 'teenage' state of mind! Boyfriend troubles, parent troubles, little brother troubles. When she meets the lovely 'Shrimp' her mother finally decides she has had enough of her troublesome teenage daughter and sends her to holiday with her 'real' father in New York. The break does Cyd a lot of good - she meets a brother and a sister she didn't know she had, she finds a little romance and she comes to terms with some troubles of a different and deeper sort which have been hidden for some time.Cyd Charise has a secret buried and it is only through getting to know herself better is she finally able to tell those nearest to her what has really gone on in her life.Not for a long time has such a lovely and quirky girl been brought to life in a book. Her passion for life, her humour and her irrepressible energy will make this book required reading for every teenager.