About this title: Written with powerful understatement and suffused with the painful rapture of growing up, this harrowing debut novel from a contributor to the influential radio program "This American Life" is the story of a 13-year-old girl who must face choices she is not ready to make.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. 0060875070 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 2006-10-01
ISBN-13:9780060875077ISBN:0060875070
Description: Good. Binding is tight and square. Text is clean, bright and unmarked. Has some light edge and corner wear. We recommend EXPEDITED MAIL for even faster delivery! read more
Description: Good. 0060875070 This book is in Good Used Condition. The Book shows some signs of wear. There may be some markings inside the book. 100% Money Back Guarantee! ! ! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 10/17/2006
ISBN-13:9780060875077ISBN:0060875070
Description: New. 0060875070 Brand New Book With Remainder Mark. May Have Slight Shelf Wear. In-Stock Now For Immediate Secure Packaging & Delivery. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 10/17/2006
ISBN-13:9780060875077ISBN:0060875070
Description: Fine. 0060875070 Brand New Book With Remainder Mark. May Have Slight Shelf Wear. In-Stock Now For Immediate Secure Packaging & Delivery wear on DJ. read more
Edition: 1st Edition
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial/ A Division of Harper Collins Publishers, New York, London, et al.
Date Published: 2006
Description: Robin Billardello (Cover Design); Derek Erdman (Cover Painting); Michael Couser (Author Photograph); Jamie Kerner-Scott... Like New. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. 330 pp. Flawless copy. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: HarperCollins Books
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780060875077ISBN:0060875070
Description: Good + Cover has marks, bumping, chipping-Marks on edge-Bumped / dogeared pgs-Few marks on pgs-Dents & creases on few pgs-Edgewear to few pgs-Spine slant. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Canada, Limited, Scarborough, ON, Canada
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780060875077ISBN:0060875070
Description: Fair. Cover has edgewear, bumping, marks, chipping-Bumped / dogeared pgs-POS on FPD-Lots of water damage causing creased and rippled pgs-Dents-Few marks on pgs-Quite worn-Light dent gouges to first few pgs-Spine slant-Quite worn. read more
"First off I will admit that I did not finish this book and it had to go back to the library. Part of me was glad that i had an excuse to put it down and part of me realized that if I would have stuck with it I would have liked it more.
This was my in person book club choice and I was the only one who did not finish it and the only one who did not REALLY like it. I have been assured that I woudl have liked it much more having completed it and one other admited that if she had been given a good opportunity to put it down half way through she would have as well.
The first half of the book (as far as I got) is a series of vignettes as remembered by Baby the main character. The side characters are all transient, they appear and disappear in the book and in her life - just as you would expect from a life lived out in poverty bordering on homeless. The metaphors where interesting but sometimes piled up on each other. There was a fair amount of repitition and I was assured that this is because it is the voice of the 12/13 year old character. (I thought it was an older adult remembering her childhood). So, parts worked for me if it is a young narrator and parts worked for me if it is an adult narrator but it didn't work as a total fluent voice for me.
This is a sad and tender story that does have love and light moments and I am told that ends with rays of hope. (I am glad for that).
It is not a waste of time and if I did not have to return it to the library I would have finished it. So, my advice to anyone picking it up is to stick with it once you start."
"When I first began Lullabies for Little Criminals, I kept asking myself why I was reading this shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2008 novel. It's different, to say the least, because the story follows twelve-year-old Baby - yes, that's her real name - through foster homes, her drug addict, widowed father, Jules, reforming his ways and relapsing, her time in prostitution, and her first love, Xavier. Lullabies for Little Criminals is also - according to the author questionnaire in the back of my copy - based on O'Neill's own childhood experiences.
Baby, though, doesn't want your sympathy, doesn't need your sympathy. She tells her a story in a straight-foreword, removed manner that eventually made me stop caring about her, which the exact opposite of what O'Neill should have accomplished. The first hundred and forty pages I thought the novel was ingenious, but once Baby distances herself from her story, I distanced myself from her.
And I have to wonder how old Baby is. It's never really clear if she's recalling her experiences after the end of book or when she's forty-five, but she certainly doesn't sound like and rarely acts like the twelve-soon-to-be-thirteen-year-old she is supposed to be. She uses analogies and similes I don't think even a girl growing up the red-light district of Montreal would use, and it's quite distracting. She has a strong voice, but by the end it becomes nails on a chalkboard."
"I started reading this almost a year ago and put it down halfway through because I was too depressed by the child prostitution in it, but I braved it again recently. One of the things I like most about this is that even while terrible things are happening, there is a determination to represent lightness and whimsy in the midst of squalor. The character's father, Jules, is a sympathetic, idiosyncratic character despite being a recklessly negligent junkie, and there is a sweetness in their connection that rang true to me. I wanted to scoop up both the characters and put them at a tea table and serve them scones and let them live happily ever after in a blooming garden."
"Five stars is nowhere near enough for this book. It has to be one of my favorite reads in years. Between the druggy dad and pimp friend this girl stands little chance in life. She is smart yet naive. Even to the end there is always hope for her to succeed. You just want to wrap your arms around her and give her a great hug. She deserves someone to give her a warm home, hot meals and unconditional love - she earned it!!!"
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