31st out of 166 books
—
180 voters
The Kid Table
by
Andrea Seigel (Goodreads Author)
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,...more
Over the course of five family events,...more
Hardcover, 320 pages
Published
September 14th 2010
by Bloomsbury USA Childrens
(first published August 2nd 2010)
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I saved it for the plane to DC. Can't wait to devour it today!
.... later, after finishing: Hooray! Andrea has done it again. Smart, funny characters who take you along for their ride without worrying you aren't keeping up. Pop culture fun with a teenaged cast of family members who know each other so well they have no choice but to almost destroy each other's lives. I can't wait to send a copy to my favorite 15-year old.
.... later, after finishing: Hooray! Andrea has done it again. Smart, funny characters who take you along for their ride without worrying you aren't keeping up. Pop culture fun with a teenaged cast of family members who know each other so well they have no choice but to almost destroy each other's lives. I can't wait to send a copy to my favorite 15-year old.
In her first book for young adults, Andrea Siegel takes a fresh approach to exploring the loving, dysfunctional/ functional family and our protagonist's role within it. All the action takes place at 5 family events throughout the year, a Bar Mitzvah, Thanksgiving, New Year's Brunch, a pool Party and a Wedding, making it seem, as often feels the case at large family events, as though all the time and activity outside of family events is irrelevant.. Ingrid is the second oldest of the 7 cousins wh...more
Ingrid, a teenager meets an older guy, Trevor at her family party. She wonders why he is there because her family tends to get a little crazy at times, and because he seems like a good, regular guy. Ingrid really likes him, until she finds out that Trevor is her oldest cousin, Brianne’s boyfriend. What makes it worse is that Ingrid doesn’t really like Brianne. Besides Ingrid liking Trevor and not knowing what to do while he is around at her family gatherings, this book is about Ingrid and her co...more
This is a very unusual and quirky coming of age novel. Ingrid Bell and her 5 teenage cousins are always stuck at the kid table during family events. Framing this story are 5 family events that bring Ingrid and her cousins together. Ingrid tells the story in first person narrative and she is quite a unique character, to say the least. Ingrid tends to see things from a very detached perspective, not wearing her emotions on her sleeve. She also is quite good at manipulating others to get what she w...more
I liked this book a lot. A LOT! I read it in two sittings...about 2/3 of it in one night, and the rest the next. Normally, I don't write a lot of reviews, but I feel like I have something to say about this one.
First off, the whole time I was reading it, it seemed like an adult book to me, not young adult, so I wasn't too surprised to find out at the end that the author writes for adults and this was her first YA. I actually think maybe it was mis-marketed as a YA. Using that tried and true conve...more
First off, the whole time I was reading it, it seemed like an adult book to me, not young adult, so I wasn't too surprised to find out at the end that the author writes for adults and this was her first YA. I actually think maybe it was mis-marketed as a YA. Using that tried and true conve...more
This book was wonderful and crazy! In the beginning I was a little confused because I didn't know how old Ingrid was and there were so many characters. I later learned by reading the acknowledgments that Andrea put a family tree of her characters in the beginning of the book because her dad disliked how many characters her books have. It was actually a big help and referred to it multiple times.
This book made me think of my family and always being at "The Kid Table" when we were all younger. I...more
This book made me think of my family and always being at "The Kid Table" when we were all younger. I...more
How did the table originate, when are you old enough for the adult table, and how does the table get to one house to the next? These are all questions asked by “kids” stuck at The Kid Table. This book tells the story of Iagrid, a seventeen year old stuck at the kid table with her cousins. She begins to question the kid table when her cousin who is only a few years older get to move to the adult table. She begins to examine the family dynamics, secrets, and the one man that could be her true fir...more
2.5 stars
For Ingrid and her five teenage cousins, the kid table, which is somehow present at every family gathering, is a constant reminder that the rest of their family still considers them children. When Ingrid’s cousin Brianne gets upgraded to the adult table, the rest of the cousins wonder if it’s because of her status as a college student or the fact that she now has a serious boyfriend. The upgrade occurs at Uncle Kurt’s bar mitzvah, where Ingrid and her cousins (except for Brianne) are se...more
For Ingrid and her five teenage cousins, the kid table, which is somehow present at every family gathering, is a constant reminder that the rest of their family still considers them children. When Ingrid’s cousin Brianne gets upgraded to the adult table, the rest of the cousins wonder if it’s because of her status as a college student or the fact that she now has a serious boyfriend. The upgrade occurs at Uncle Kurt’s bar mitzvah, where Ingrid and her cousins (except for Brianne) are se...more
So, in Ingrid's family, there's this table. Travelling seemingly unnoticed to the various family events that take place each year, it's been dubbed The Kid Table, and Ingrid and five of her closest cousins have gathered that table for years.
There's Brianne, the oldest of the group who's studying Psychology at Pepperdine University and spends every spare second psychoanalyzing every person she comes in contact with.
There's Dom, who's gay, only he's never come out to anyone other than the members...more
There's Brianne, the oldest of the group who's studying Psychology at Pepperdine University and spends every spare second psychoanalyzing every person she comes in contact with.
There's Dom, who's gay, only he's never come out to anyone other than the members...more
I'm not sure what qualifies as "young adult" these days, since some of my favorite traditionally adult writers can now be found embracing this genre (e.g. Sherman Alexie), and forty-year-olds now await the release of the next Harry Potter or Twilight book as eagerly as their very own children. Whatever the case, Seigel's third novel is her best yet. You won't find any vampires or Quidditch rulebooks here, just Ingrid, a wise-beyond-her-years teenager who is grappling with the usual growing pains...more
Tbe narrator (Ingrid) of this book spent the entire time trying to convince her family she wasn't a psychopath and trying to navigate the waters between teenager and adult - while at the same time trying not to scam on her cousin's boyfriend who she rarely sees. I think this book lacked emotional quality. While Ingrid spends most of the book analyzing her cousins and herself, she seems to only see the surface. She spends a lot of time discussing how she manipulates peoples emotions and perceptio...more
I really wanted to like this book. The premise was great, just read the synopsis, it will interest you. Unfortunately, the promise of that story is swallowed up by too many characters and with too little emotional depth to keep you interested. Ingrid was someone I could not identify with nor even like. She did nothing in the story to make me overcome that feeling. The story was too full of other characters for me to get to know her enough to care about her. There were too many people with too m...more
The whimsical cover art is what first drew this book to my attention, but the story and characters are what eventually held it.
Ingrid Bell is one of 7 cousins in a large extended family that are forced to sit at the "kids table" at family gatherings despite the fact that most of them are nearly out of high school. Since none of her cousins have other siblings they have developed very close relationships with each other and often relate to each other as if they were brothers and sisters. Each co...more
Ingrid Bell is one of 7 cousins in a large extended family that are forced to sit at the "kids table" at family gatherings despite the fact that most of them are nearly out of high school. Since none of her cousins have other siblings they have developed very close relationships with each other and often relate to each other as if they were brothers and sisters. Each co...more
I liked this book until the ending. It kind of fell off-not really a cliff hanger-it just stopped. It is the story of 5 cousins each the only child of his/her family. They don't live in the same city but their families get together about five times a year and somehow the kid table that they are forced to sit at together appears at each event. Suddenly the oldest kid is not longer force to sit at the kid table as she brings her boyfriend from college to their uncle's "coming of age" party. The bo...more
Ingrid and her other teenage cousins are stuck at the same kids table during every family event, and they have a lot of them. At one of these parties she meets Trevor and begins to form a crush. This is until she finds out that he is dating her cousin Brianne. It doesn't help that Ingrid does not like Brianne or that Brianne was just promoted to the adult table.
With the main problem being a family feud or boy problems you would expect to find more drama than in this book. I feel like there coul...more
With the main problem being a family feud or boy problems you would expect to find more drama than in this book. I feel like there coul...more
Andrea Seigel has a way of writing from the perspective of young women that is refreshingly real and like no one else I've read before. Her characters are flawed, but oh-so-likable. I relate to them in ways that actually make me feel a little uncomfortable. More uncomfortable still, her characters are far wittier than I am, quick on their feet, , wry, intelligent, and uniquely themselves. Ingrid Bell, the protagonist of The Kid Table, is no exception. Her relationship with her cousins and the re...more
The Kid Table is about a girl named Ingrid and her huge family. Ingrid is faced with tons of drama everytime she gos to a family get together. The drama starts when Brianne, Ingrids cousin, bring her boyfriend Trevor to Ingrids uncles barmizfa. Trevor, knowing that Ingrid is Briannes cousin, flirts with Ingrid, causeing up comeing dramam for the rest of the book. In the end of the book, on Briannes and Trevors wedding day, Brianne admits to cheating on Trevor which comes as a huge shock. This bo...more
I wanted to get one more book in before my summer class starts and I am forced to read a bunch of stuff that I never wanted to. This was a really good choice and it bums me out that this book isn't more popular.
The family in this book is highly dysfunctional and yet so easy to love. They are everyone's family and at the same time, no one's family. It is told from the perspective of Ingrid Bell, one of six cousins. The story focuses on major events within the year, celebrated by the family as a...more
The family in this book is highly dysfunctional and yet so easy to love. They are everyone's family and at the same time, no one's family. It is told from the perspective of Ingrid Bell, one of six cousins. The story focuses on major events within the year, celebrated by the family as a...more
Ingrid has a close relationship with all her cousins and at every family gathering the cousins are placed out of sight at "The Kid Table" even though most of them are in high school and one is in college. The oldest cousin Brianne finally joins the adults at a bar mitzvah which of course, makes all the other cousins jealous. Ingrid finds herself torn between her cousin Brianne's boyfriend and concern over her cousin Cricket who appears to have an eating disorder.
This books takes place in a year...more
This books takes place in a year...more
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Real Rating 3 1/2.
I'm still kind of working out this rating system. I really did like this book, I thought it was pretty good. The only thing that bothered me was that I felt like I didn't really get to know the main character, Ingrid, enough. Most of what I knew about her was that she was in love with her cousin's boyfriend and had a huge internal struggle trying to figure out what to do about it. I was hoping that it would talk a little more about the Kid Table dynamic. I did feel bad that Do...more
I'm still kind of working out this rating system. I really did like this book, I thought it was pretty good. The only thing that bothered me was that I felt like I didn't really get to know the main character, Ingrid, enough. Most of what I knew about her was that she was in love with her cousin's boyfriend and had a huge internal struggle trying to figure out what to do about it. I was hoping that it would talk a little more about the Kid Table dynamic. I did feel bad that Do...more
The Kid Table is told over five family events where Ingrid and her cousins are sent to sit at the kid table. However, the only appropriate "kid" is Katie who is 4. The rest of the cousins are 15 or older. For some reason I was reminded of my husband's family because the majority of "cousins" in his family are the same age.
All the cousins are still forced to sit at a kiddie table to which they've resigned themselves too. Until the balance is shifted when Brianne, the eldest of the cousins brings...more
All the cousins are still forced to sit at a kiddie table to which they've resigned themselves too. Until the balance is shifted when Brianne, the eldest of the cousins brings...more
I thought this was a great premise for a novel about extended family. How does it feel to be stuck at the kid's table year after year? Will there ever be a time when you become a grown-up as far as seating arrangements go? How does the table itself magically appear at every family celebration? Just because you're related, do you have to want to celebrate with these people? What happens to everyone in between the communal rituals?
Even though I had to keep referring to the family tree at the fron...more
Even though I had to keep referring to the family tree at the fron...more
What I liked most about this book is that it's not your typical high school read. It's about the complicated relationships of 6 cousins and told only through the events of family holiday dinners through the course of about a year. I think kids who are astute enough to see enough of their own family issues will really like this story. The main character is highly flawed, which I think will appeal to many girls. I was struggling towards the end to see if she was going to be just as horrible as I t...more
this book was ok. there was something weird about this family; they seemed like they weren't really close. it seemed like when they were drunk and partying, they were fine. but other than that they only tolerated each other. i thought Brianne was a bitch and felt no sympathy for her. I also felt that Ingrid was misunderstood. it seemed she was in a lot of 'wrong place wrong time" situations.
There were too many characters to keep up with, and relationships between them were hard to understand.
o...more
There were too many characters to keep up with, and relationships between them were hard to understand.
o...more
I read this book on a whim and my first thoughts were, yeah, it's OK and would be good to add to books I can recommend when trying to find something on the shelf. Thinking about it now, I'm appreciating it more because of the flawed main character. Ingrid is an outsider and manipulator in the way many high school kids are. They know they don't quite fit in and react in ways that may not put them in jail or rehab, but in ways that aren't good. Hopefully, at some point, they come to terms with the...more
First of all, my sympathies to the author for the loss of her father, but he gave her good feedback in that her books have too many characters.
When you need a family tree to keep characters straight, you'd better be writing something epic. And this ain't it.
The sort of teens who think that "Gossip Girls" and "Pretty Little Liars" are great literature may eat this one up with a spoon. But I found it trite. And Seigel may find herself witty and her characters wacky/touching/whatever, but I found t...more
When you need a family tree to keep characters straight, you'd better be writing something epic. And this ain't it.
The sort of teens who think that "Gossip Girls" and "Pretty Little Liars" are great literature may eat this one up with a spoon. But I found it trite. And Seigel may find herself witty and her characters wacky/touching/whatever, but I found t...more
Meh-- great premise, haphazard execution.
7 only children, cousins & 2nd cousins to one another, are followed over the course of a year at various family events. It read like she was checking items off a list: anorexia introduced, anorexia solved; alcoholism introduced, alcoholism solved; coming out issues introduced, coming out issues solved.
Reading other reviews, folks seem to be quite fond of this author. Perhaps if I had started with something else, I would have felt differently about t...more
7 only children, cousins & 2nd cousins to one another, are followed over the course of a year at various family events. It read like she was checking items off a list: anorexia introduced, anorexia solved; alcoholism introduced, alcoholism solved; coming out issues introduced, coming out issues solved.
Reading other reviews, folks seem to be quite fond of this author. Perhaps if I had started with something else, I would have felt differently about t...more
The Kid Table is about Ingrid and her cousins coming to terms with theirselves and getting their families to realize how different and grown up they are and how they don't need criticizing on their beliefs. They try to grow up and show their families what they're made of so that they can leave the "kid table". Ingird has to deal with these new feelings for her cousins fiance and get her family to get that she isn't a crazy ____ (rhymes with nut) who's a psychopath. This story is amazing and woul...more
Ingrid Bell and her cousins have marked their lives through family events at which they are sat at the kid table. This table appears at all family functions, and the six cousins are so close-knit and get along so well that they’ve never really minded being segregated from the adult table. But when Brianne gets seated at the adult table at a family function, the rest of the cousins are left to wonder what it was that suddenly distinguished her from the rest of them. As Ingrid deals with the pains...more
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ANDREA SEIGEL is the author of two novels for adults, Like the Red Panda and To Feel Stuff, as well as the forthcoming (Sept. 2010) YA novel, The Kid Table. She lives in the Los Angeles foothills and has a massive amount of love for her stunning French Bulldog, Christmas.
More about Andrea Seigel...
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Jun 17, 2010 10:11am
Jun 21, 2010 01:13am