Name: Lullabies for Little Criminals
ISBN: 9780060875077

Heather O'neill

A Novel (P.S.)

Lullabies for Little Criminals

marina

When you're young enough, you don't know that you live in a cheap lousy apartment. A cracked chair is nothing other than a chair. A dandelion growing out of a crack in the sidewalk outside your front door is a garden. You could believe that a song your parent was singing in the evening was the most tragic opera in the world. It never occurs to you when you are very young to need something other that what your parents have to offer to you.

I was very religious about other children, and I wanted so much to believe that they could save me. I had tried to be rescued by the most powerless group in the world. Children were neither real nor dependable.

if someone told me to point to my heart, a tiny finger will be stretched out towards this book. the authors way of writing, especially with baby’s realisation of her own loss of childhood just feels so oddly therapeutic and sharp. it’s everything to me.

Briar's Reviews

Quick Review:

For some reason, I just couldn't get into this book. It is well known and made by a Canadian author (which are the people I love promoting! Yay us! Go Canada) but it just wasn't my thing, and I can easily admit that. 

I would highly recommend picking up this book for the amazing writing style alone, let alone how great it reads! The story itself just wasn't for me.

Heather O'Neill

'Like Angela Carter, she is relentlessly inventive' Sunday Times 'Full of pathos, spirit and iridescent innocence' Independent on Sunday The first novel by the author of The Lonely Hearts Hotel 12-year-old Baby is used to turmoil in her life. Her mother is long dead, her father is a junkie and they shuttle between rotting apartments and decrepit downtown hotels. As her father's addiction and paranoia grow worse, she begins a journey that will lead her through chaos and hardship; but Baby's remarkable strength of spirit enables her to survive. Smart, funny and determined to lift herself off the city's dirty streets, she knows that the only person she can truly rely upon is herself.

Bee 

I so wanted to love this book, but in the end I was disappointed. An okay read.

Shawna Gavas

This was honestly one of the saddest, most disturbing, heartbreaking books I've ever read.

This is the story of Baby, a twelve year old who is being raised by her father who is a heroin addict. They move from one crappy apartment to another living in absolute poverty.

We follow Baby as she faces the challenges of street kids: drugs, prostitution, and homelessness all while trying to go to school and be a "normal" kid.

This book was an eye opener for me. It takes place in Montreal, and I guess I was somewhat ignorant to the fact that there are children dealing with these issues everyday. It makes you a little more thankful for those things that we take for granted.

Lullabies for Little Criminals A Novel (P.S.)

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