The Kid Table

by Andrea Seigel

Overview

Ingrid Bell and her five teenage cousins are such a close-knit group that they don't really mind sitting at the kid table-even if they have to share it with a four-year-old. But then Brianne, the oldest cousin, lands a seat at the adult table and leaves her cousins shocked and confused. What does it take to graduate from the kid table?

Over the course of five family events, Ingrid chronicles the coming-of-age of her generation. Her cousins each grapple with growing pains, but it is Ingrid who truly struggles as she considers what it means to grow up. When first love comes in the form of first betrayal (he's Brianne's boyfriend), Ingrid is forced to question her own personality and how she fits into her family. The cousins each take their own path toward graduating into adulthood-only to realize that maybe the kid table was where they wanted to be all along.

Almost a reverse coming-of-age, this touching and hilariously funny novel will appeal to any reader who has sat at the kid table . . . or is still sitting there!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781599906195
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	09/14/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	854,971
Lexile:	950L (what's this?)
File size:	692 KB
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

ANDREA SEIGEL is the author of two acclaimed novels for adults, Like the Red Panda and To Feel Stuff. She decided to write her first young adult novel while sitting at the kid table at a cousin's wedding as she watched her preteen tablemates hit each other.
www.andreaseigel.com
ANDREA SEIGEL is the author of two acclaimed novels for adults, Like the Red Panda and To Feel Stuff. She decided to write her first young adult novel while sitting at the kid table at a cousin's wedding as she watched her preteen tablemates hit each other. www.andreaseigel.com

Editorial Reviews

Delightfully quirky....Laugh-out-loud punctuates her clear-eyed musings about family and relationships, narrated in a perceptive, analytical, with-it voice....Teen girls in particular will enjoy this unusual coming-of-age novel.” —VOYA

“Bold, biting, and incredibly insightful. Seigel lightens some dramatic events with well-played humor, and the plot evolves over the course of five family events. This first YA novel is worth purchasing.” —SLJ

“Weirdly whimsical, adult author Seigel's YA debut delights.” —Kirkus

“Quirky characters mixed up in sometimes all-too-real situations make THE KID TABLE a memorable and enjoyable read.” —teensreadtoo.com

From the Publisher

Gr 9 Up—The Kid Table chronicles the lives of 16-year-old Ingrid Bell, her five teenage cousins and kid-table companions, and their family. First, Ingrid's cousin Brianne, a sophomore psychology major at Pepperdine, knocks Ingrid out of her spot as "most charming" by making a convincing argument that Ingrid is a psychopath. Then, at her Uncle Kurt's bar mitzvah, Brianne successfully graduates from the kid table, leaving the five remaining cousins to ponder her new status while dealing with being left behind. While Ingrid rationalizes her nonemotional responses, Seigel does not do much to deter readers from questioning Brianne's diagnosis. Ingrid's lack of empathy and morality are showcased especially when she laughs at Uncle Kurt's heartfelt bar-mitzvah speech, steals Aunt Brit's cell phone, gets sober Aunt Tish drunk and off the wagon, and makes out with Brianne's boyfriend, Trevor. Her desire to be liked and her feelings for Trevor take precedence over her cousins' problems, which include Cricket's eating disorder, Dom's strong desire to have someone else out him to the family, and Micah's identity crisis. In spite of Ingrid's psychopathic tendencies, her voice is bold, biting, and incredibly insightful. Seigel lightens some dramatic events with well-played humor, and the plot evolves over the course of five family events. This first YA novel is worth purchasing.—Adrienne L. Strock, Maricopa County Library District, AZ

School Library Journal

Ingrid Bell, one of six mostly teenage cousins in a charmingly dysfunctional family, is a psychopath, according to oldest cousin Brianne. Or perhaps it's just part of the jockeying for position that happens around the Kid Table. Ingrid's psychopathy (or calculated charm and a few dead pets?) provides the thread through a particularly tumultuous year as the family unravels. Ingrid's first-person narration, especially in those moments when her calm makes the reader wonder if she is a psychopath, is fantastic, and the trials and tribulations manage to be both funny and sad (adult cousin Tish drinks too much, teen cousin Cricket has anorexia, Ingrid's mother busily collects memories for her scrapbook but forgets to live and Ingrid's in love with Brianne's boyfriend). The episodic structure (a handful of chapters at major events throughout the year from not-Jewish Uncle Kurt's post-adultery Bar Mitzvah to a wedding) serves as a metaphor for the family: a whole made of several disparate parts with some unanswered questions. Weirdly whimsical, adult author Seigel's (Like the Red Panda, 2004) YA debut delights. (Fiction. 14 & up)

Kirkus Reviews