A rag doll named Gingerbread is the one constant in the life of San Francisco teenager, Cyd Charisse. Her biological father purchased it for her in an airport gift shop when she was five years old on the occasion of their first and only meeting. Since then, Cyd Charisse has clung to her doll, as well as to the fantasy that her life would be better if she were part of Frank real-dad’s family in New York City. Instead, she is his dirty little secret, an unwanted love child being raised by her materialistic mom, Nancy, and her wealthy, loving stepfather, Sid. Cyd Charisse has some secrets of her own: she has just been kicked out of an exclusive New England boarding school, reportedly for drug use but in actuality to save the reputation of Justin, the wealthy boy who got her pregnant and then abandoned her after she made the decision to have an abortion. Finding love and acceptance with a surfer dude named Shrimp who attends the same alternative high school, and an elderly psychic named Sugar Pie who resides in the nursing home where she does community service, Cyd Charisse seems finally to be getting her act together. But her late-night hours and sassy attitude have Sid and Nancy at wit’s end. When grounding her doesn’t seem to work, they take drastic action by sending Cyd Charisse to spend some time with Frank real-dad. All is not perfect harmony in New York. Cyd’s older half-sister bristles at her presence, and she and Frank don’t quite know what to do with one another. It is her gay half-brother and his partner who give Cyd the family attention and acceptance she’s been craving,. Cyd’s trip ultimately affords her the opportunity to understand a bit more about her mother, who was perhaps not so very different from Cyd when she was young, and also herself in this animated first novel distinguished by memorable characters and lively dialogue. (Age 14 and older)

"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.