Gingersnap by Patricia Reilly Giff

Post date: Sep. 29, 2020

Eleven-year-old Jayna and her older brother become orphans after their parents die in a car accident. When her older brother Rob is able to legally take custody of Jayna, they move into a rented house. Jayna has always wondered why her mother always called her Gingersnap. She and Rob don't know much about their parents' past. When Rob must leave to become a cook on a submarine during World War II, Jayda must move in with their cranky landlord Celine. Right before he leaves, Rob tells Jayna that their grandmother may be alive and living in Brooklyn. When he was going through some of their parents' things he found a blue recipe book with a name and address. When Rob's submarine is attacked and presumed destroyed, Rob is listed as missing in action, and Jayna feels more than ever that she needs to find her grandmother. So she packs up her pet turtle, the blue recipe book, her suitcase and hops on a bus headed to Brooklyn. Will she find what she is looking for?