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Lullabies for Little Criminals (P.S.)
by Heather Oneill

Lullabies for Little Criminals (P.S.) Cover

About This Book

ISBN13: 9780060875077
ISBN10: 0060875070
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Powells.com Staff Pick

Baby (her given name) is thirteen with no mother and a heroin-addicted father — not a feel-good kind of storyline. Lullabies for Little Criminals is a humorous and nerve-racking story. I disliked every character in the novel at some point, but O'Neill made me care about these sad people, and want to find out if they could create decent lives. This is O'Neill's first novel, and to her credit, she wrote about unpleasant themes without pity; Baby is fragile, but with the will and smarts to survive.
Recommended by Brodie, Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

LULLABIES FOR LITTLE CRIMINALS is the heartbreaking and wholly original debut novel by This American Life contributor Heather O'Neill, about a young girl fighting to preserve her bruised innocence on the feral streets of a big city.

Baby, all of thirteen years old, is lost in the gangly, coltish moment between childhood and the strange pulls and temptations of the adult world. Her mother is dead; her father, Jules, is scarcely more than a child himself, and always on the lookout for his next score. Baby knows that 'chocolate milk' is Jules' slang for heroin, and sees a lot more of that in her house than the real article. But she takes vivid delight in the scrappy bits of happiness and beauty that find their way to her, and moves through the threat of the streets as if she's been choreographed in a dance.

Soon, though, a hazard emerges that is bigger than even her hard–won survival skills can handle. Alphonse, the local pimp, has his eye on her for his new girl; and he wants her body and soul –– what the johns don't take he covets for himself. At the same time, a tender and naively passionate friendship unfolds with a boy from her class at school, who has no notion of the dark claims on her –– which even her father, lost on the nod, cannot totally ignore. Jules consigns her to a stint in juvie hall, and for the moment this perceived betrayal preserves Baby from terrible harm –– but after that, her salvation has to be her own invention.

Review:

"In her debut novel, This American Life contributor O'Neill offers a narrator, Baby, coming of age in Montreal just before her 12th birthday. Her mother is long dead. Her father, Jules, is a junkie who shuttles her from crumbling hotels to rotting apartments, his short-term work or moneymaking schemes always undermined by his rage and paranoia. Baby tries to screen out the bad parts by hanging out at the community center and in other kids' apartments, by focusing on school when she can and by taking mushrooms and the like. (She finds sex mostly painful.) Stints in foster care, family services and juvenile detention ('nostalgia could kill you there') usually end in Jules's return and his increasingly erratic behavior. Baby's intelligence and self-awareness can't protect her from parental and kid-on-kid violence, or from the seductive power of being desired by Alphonse, a charismatic predator, on the one hand, and by Xavier, an idealistic classmate, on the other. When her lives collide, Baby faces choices she is not equipped to make. O'Neill's vivid prose owes a debt to Donna Tartt's The Little Friend; the plot has a staccato feel that's appropriate but that doesn't coalesce. Baby's precocious introspection, however, feels pitch perfect, and the book's final pages are tear-jerkingly effective." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"O'Neill somehow infuses her troubling story with a kind of heartbreaking innocence... O'Neill is a wonderful stylist... and the voice she has created for Baby is original and altogether captivating." Michael Cart, Booklist

Synopsis:

Heather O'Neill dazzles with a first novel of extraordinary prescience and power, a subtly understated yet searingly effective story of a young life on the streets—and the strength, wits, and luck necessary for survival.

At thirteen, Baby vacillates between childhood comforts and adult temptation: still young enough to drag her dolls around in a vinyl suitcase yet old enough to know more than she should about urban cruelties. Motherless, she lives with her father, Jules, who takes better care of his heroin habit than he does of his daughter. Baby's gift is a genius for spinning stories and for cherishing the small crumbs of happiness that fall into her lap. But her blossoming beauty has captured the attention of a charismatic and dangerous local pimp who runs an army of sad, slavishly devoted girls—a volatile situation even the normally oblivious Jules cannot ignore. And when an escape disguised as betrayal threatens to crush Baby's spirit, she will ultimately realize that the power of salvation rests in her hands alone.

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About the Author

Heather O'Neill is a contributor to This American Life, and her work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine. She lives in Montreal, Canada.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 4 comments:
julieb43, February 24, 2008 (view all comments by julieb43)
I loved this book from beginning to end--it whole-heartedly deserved to win the annual Canada Reads Contest. Baby, the novel's young female protagonist, was so captivating. It was one of the most original and touching stories I've read in a long time. It will make you laugh and cry, and you won't want to put it down.

I had the good fortune to meet the author at my local library and she was delightful. I look forward to many more great books from her.
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Jumpee57, January 20, 2007 (view all comments by Jumpee57)
One of the best books I have read in a long time. O'Neill shares some insights that are powerful and thought-provoking. I am a teacher in a juvenile detention center and am now reading it to the resident's at the center. Their reactions say it all..that it makes them laugh and cry and feel not so alone in this world. Anyone who works with kids, especially those kids in dire needs, should read this, digest it, and take a new look at the kids they help.
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rachel baby, January 15, 2007 (view all comments by rachel baby)
i fell in love with this book but it took awhile. There are moments when you hate every character in this book but keep going and you'll find a book with a twisting plot and dynamic characters. You'll alternately want to slap and hug the lead, Baby, as you travel through her childhood and early adolescense.

Heather's humor is dry but i enjoyed it. This is the kind of book you love and love to believe its completely unrealstic that people would live this way, even though you must know while the story isnt true the circumstances are all too plausible.


great read
depending on your cup of tea this book could appeal to both men and women but im just one perspective and there's no way i could accurately do this book justice in a brief synopsis.

READ IT!
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780060875077
Author:
Oneill, Heather
Publisher:
Harper Perennial
Author:
by Heather ONeill
Author:
O'Neill, Heather
Subject:
General
Subject:
Fathers and daughters
Subject:
Teenage girls
Subject:
General Fiction
Copyright:
2006
Edition Description:
Paperback
Series:
P.S.
Publication Date:
October 2006
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
330
Dimensions:
7.80x5.72x.85 in. .60 lbs.
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