Still available in audio form, Giff has written a middle grade story about a girl who in 1944, living in upstate New York. Her brother, now serving in the WWII armed forces, tells her a family secret. They may have a grandmother living in Brooklyn. A ghost sends her on a quest to find the grandmother. While the plot may seem contrived, the story is beautifully written and will keep kids reading or listening. ( )

Jayna lived in foster homes for a while after her parents were killed in a car accident, but when her much older brother, Rob, was old enough, she went to live with him. But now, he is off to serve in the Navy during World War II, and Jayna will be living with a kind but persnickety elderly neighbor. But before Rob left, he told Jayna a few things about the parents she doesn't remember, that leave her wondering if she might have a grandmother in Brooklyn.
Through all of this, Jayna is visited by a mysterious ghost, who gives her advice. As the book moves along, Jayna finds the woman who may or may not be her grandmother, and befriends several other people in that neighborhood.
It's a sweet sort of story, which appeals to me. The lack of serious conflict might be a big detractor for some readers. Still, the ghost was an unnecessary distraction from the real story, didn't serve any real purpose, and pretty much vanished without explanation towards the end. Might have given it four stars, but the ghost knocked it back to three.
I've read a handful of Giff's books, and this is one of her weaker ones. Not terrible, but definitely not as good as her others. ( )

I would recommend Gingersnap by Patricia Reilly Giff to anyone who enjoys historical fiction in grades four and up. I was lucky enough to listen to the audio of this wonderful book narrated by Olivia Campbell. She did an excellent job capturing Jayna’s voice and personality. The variety of voices for the different characters helped the book come alive for me. It was so fun stepping back in time and hearing about radio shows and actors from so long ago. This book reminded me how hard it was for the people who were displaced during the war and how brave kids needed to be during that time. Jayna is pretty grown up for her age, and she knows that life isn’t easy. War makes people have to grow up sooner, and that is sad. I would have a difficult time if my brother was fighting in a war, and I didn’t know what would happen to me if he didn’t come back. I could easily connect to Jayna and enjoyed her personality and amusing comments. She is someone I would be friends with, and I would love to have some of the delicious soup she makes throughout the story (the recipes are a great addition). My mouth also watered at all the delicious cakes and cookies that Elise made, even with war rations. I have to admit that this story made me tear up at more than one part, but that just added to the realistic nature of the book. This was a heartwarming story with lessons that ring true for all of us. I only wish I could pop by Gingersnap Bakery and have some coffee and cake with Jayna and friends. ( )

This felt like reading a first copy. Sweet story, but very predictable and disjointed. I expected better. ( )

Jayna lives with her older brother, Rob, during the last years of WWII. After Rob is drafted to serve on the destroyer Muldoon, Jayna is sent to live with her landlady, Celine. However, a mysterious voice tells Jayna that she needs to go find a possible grandmother who runs a bakery in Brooklyn. Jayna runs away to Brooklyn with her turtle, Theresa, and finds that though the owner of the bakery may not be her grandmother, she can find her family after all. The text is interspersed with Jayna's soup recipes, with whimsical names like "Waiting" soup and "Hope" soup.

Gingersnap is an odd book; its primary problem is that there is really no conflict to drive the plot forward. There are many attempts at conflict: will her brother, Rob, return? Is Elise her actual grandmother? Who is the mysterious ghost girl giving her advice?

Unfortunately, none of these ever go anywhere. The reader is told almost immediately that Elise is not Jayna's grandmother, and the mysterious ghost is never really explained. Even the question of Rob returning never feels urgent or real. The comforting placidity of the plot assures readers that everything will work out happily, robbing the story of any real tension.

The characters feel two-dimensional - including one boy whose sole defining characteristic seems to be that he can mimic voices, which plays even less well in a novel - and though there is a lot of heart behind the novel, it just never coalesces into something real. Even within the characters themselves, there is no conflict. Rob is the perfect older brother, who adores his little sister and makes up fun in-jokes with her; Jayna feels as developed as film from a 1990s disposable camera; and the side characters exist solely to fill a niche in the story. The characters never fight or have serious issues they have to face. The children that Jayna befriends miss their father, but he returns safely and immediately becomes part of the jolly, happy family. The only spark of interest is when Andrew and Millie introduce Jayna to their mother, who has a few quips that are the only piece of life in a story that feels as alive as the paleontology wing of a museum. Jayna, the main character, has almost no characteristics other than a few half-hearted traits that are told to the reader, like that she is clumsy and likes school, but never shown or demonstrated in the story.

Even the ghost - arguably the most intriguing part of the plot - is underused and seemingly completely pointless. As New York Times reviewer Jerry Griswold points out, the ghost's sole purpose seems to be an external representation of Jayna's self-consciousness, though why Giff chose to do this instead of showing readers Jayna herself is never explained. The ghost simply stops coming at the end, to no apparent detriment to the story. The reader is forced wondering why the ghost was even included at all, other than as a convenient plot device for a trite, maudlin ending.

The constant references to how the war is going, radio serials, and food shortages do well to establish the period, but are either dramatically overwrought with paragraphs of Janyna constantly going back and forth with questions over whether Rob is alive or not, or oddly underwhelming, as when a character casually mentions the war in Germany is over. For such an important moment in the historical period in which the book is set, the feeling is oddly subdued and quickly passed over.

The interspersed recipes, which could have been a cute gimmick, are also under-realized. A few "joke" recipes, such as the stone soup, might have gone over better had the actual recipes been written so that readers could actually make them, but they lack measurements or realistic cooking times (no boiled potatoes are ready in twenty minutes). Even that gimmick feels as pointless as the ghost subplot.

The book in general feels rushed; conflict is quickly resolved, defining moments are half-hearted and overly restrained, and the characters never feel fully realized. Young adults, and even children, are able to handle much more than authors give them credit for: abused children, brothers who do not return home from war, characters who are tested and tried by real trials, and more can be drawn without offending children's sensibilities. Young adults can also handle a realistic, bittersweet ending. If the story had ended with Rob never returning home, but Jayna experiencing grief and making peace with her newfound family, Gingersnap may have risen beyond a mediocre, bland story about bland characters, but sadly, it never rises to that level.

Gingersnap is a rushed story with no real plot conflict, paper doll characters, and nothing to anchor it to a reader's memory once it ends. The author's lack of faith in the reader manifests in the happy endings for everybody with no moments of genuine uncertainty. The only thing to be said for it is the brushstrokes of the time period paint a convincing portrait, though they are often overdone and as rushed as the rest of the novel. Gingersnap is a miss in nearly every way. ( )