[B0Q]⇒ [PDF] Free Lullabies for Little Criminals Heather O'Neill 9780060875077 Books

Lullabies for Little Criminals Heather O'Neill 9780060875077 Books

Download As PDF : Lullabies for Little Criminals Heather O'Neill 9780060875077 Books

Lullabies for Little Criminals Heather O'Neill 9780060875077 Books

This book was beautifully written - the world it created was so vivid and colorful. Except when I say it was colorful, it was a million different shades of black, brown, and grey - kind of like a dirty, stained quilt. It was haunting and hard to read at times, because I immediately connected to Baby and wanted the best for her. By the end of the novel, I wanted to adopt her myself.

Baby is a 12 year old girl who's father, Jules, is a heroin addict. Her life is complete chaos and through out the book, she's thrown from run-down apartments to foster homes to detention centers. Surprisingly enough, Jules is actually an endearing character, who I found myself wanting the best for, as much as I did for his daughter.

Here's my favorite passage; I think it really sums up the feel of the entire book:

"Jules and I were tiny people. We were delicate. We were almost destroyed. We were vulnerable. Like nerds in a school yard of bullies, we could have traded our stamps and cards of extinct animals. That's the kind of people we would be if our situation were different."

As vastly different as Baby's childhood is from my own, I could still identify with so many of the themes in the book - losing your innocence (& clinging to it for dear life), the way adults felt so separate; in a world of their own that you were trying to make sense of somehow, and of course, the need for affection, to be told "everything will be okay".

O'Neill is an amazing writer. I don't know how anyone could feel differently. Sure, she uses a lot of similes and metaphors, but they were perfect. She didn't just paint pictures, she painted paintings - I could read the words and instantly feel something; it was like she breathed life into everything she'd written. It was clear that she's experienced some similar situations, because she wrote about all of the awful things that happened to Baby with such a raw honesty, so specific and real.

The characters were so diverse, with so many dimensions - each one entirely unique. By the end of the book I felt like I had memories of them all, because each one affected me that much.

I really enjoyed Xander's character and what he represented for Baby - an escape back into innocence and comfort. I felt heartbroken when their little relationship wasn't enough to save her, though I knew it wouldn't be... and the reason I knew is because I could expect that much from O'Neill - a realistic, yet incredibly moving account of a childhood tainted by drug use and poverty.

Though painful to read, I'm giving this book 5 stars, because it did exactly what it set out to do - it made me part of a world that while dark and scary, was also beautifully triumphant. Plus, the writing style is so emotional and unique - come to think of it, it read like a lullaby. Loved it.


Tags : Lullabies for Little Criminals [Heather O'Neill] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Heather O’Neill’s critically acclaimed debut novel, with a new introduction from the author to celebrate its ten-year anniversary Baby,Heather O'Neill,Lullabies for Little Criminals,Harper Perennial,0060875070,Coming Of Age,Literary,Fathers and daughters;Fiction.,Single parents;Fiction.,Teenage girls;Fiction.,Canada,Fathers and daughters,Fiction,Fiction Coming Of Age,Fiction Literary,Fiction-General,GENERAL,General Adult,NOVEL,Single parents,Teenage girls,United States

Lullabies for Little Criminals Heather O'Neill 9780060875077 Books Reviews

Written with a painful honesty that is nakedly intense, Baby's story is told using imagery that is so visceral it is difficult to believe this is a work of fiction. While too many children do grow up in such stark and horrible conditions (and worse) I was somewhat relieved to find that Baby's life
This book is awesome, and really challenging. Like A Complicated Kindness, it broke rules in my head that I didn't know I had, and it's an amazing, clear-eyed view on childhood poverty.

I love the blunt way the author approaches things--there's wonder, but not fuzzy romanticism here, and she's very honest about the characters' poor moral choices and strange personal habits. There's also some wonderfully subtle stuff with the writing style, and the prose is just gorgeous without being flowery.

I think people who faint at the thought of child prostitution will hate this, but hey, YA isn't all roses and daffodils and perfect boys.

It's an awesome book, and one that I have to recommend.
This book was so real it made my stomach clench at one point, and do something entirely foreign to me. Cheat and peak at the end to be sure I could stand to finish, no matter how fine the writing. It was entirely worth it! I look forward to reading more by this author.
Lullabies for Little Criminals, is an excellent read and a masterfully told story. Lullabies is about the troubled lives of young children under the aegis of their troubled parents. The story is sometimes told from inside the homes, sometimes from the streets, or sometimes within the system. Heather O’Neill really opens the reader’s eyes into the world of these troubled youth who might be considered “little criminals” by some. The story is more than entertaining, it is emotional, thoughtful, and well worth the time to read it. -- Sean Michael
"A poetic novel about a brutal childhood" in which people, places and things that horrify adults are filtered through the make-believe eyes of a disturbed child - Baby, the product of 15-year-old, drug addicted and possibly schizophrenic parents.

The imagery is non-stop and hugely imaginative. One feels the autobiographical nature not so much from the facts and setting - although they are certainly suggested by O'Neill's own life -- as by Baby's internal voice, which is the author's. While fully functional, she seems to inhabit a psyche that might veer into derangement at any moment.

How else could someone wonder if an unfamiliar word meant "a hole that changes places"?

This is not for everyone, and not for anyone under 16. Child drug abuse, physical abuse, and prostitution are presented without judgment, as parts of the natural world Baby inhabits. (The sex scenes are not graphic past "second base".). Even murder and suicide are matter of fact. A child might be terrified by a crocodile marionette but comforted by an abusive pimp.
This was sad. A very, very sad read. Heartbreaking. I cannot believe this narrator was 11 and then 12 years old. Child prostitution is an ugly, ugly thing and our narrator, Baby, made it like a commonplace event she was participating in. I was so angry at her Dad for allowing everything in the story to happen to her. I was angry at her for not being stronger. I was angry at the author for making me look so deeply into this story.

With that said, it was a very worthwhile book. The writing style got a bit tedious at times - way too many similes and metaphors - there's no way that this 12-year-old girl could put into words the "pictures" she saw in everyday life.

Like many other reviewers, I question the cover. It does not fit the sadness of the story - or the characters.

I'm glad I read this book; it just had some issues.
This book was beautifully written - the world it created was so vivid and colorful. Except when I say it was colorful, it was a million different shades of black, brown, and grey - kind of like a dirty, stained quilt. It was haunting and hard to read at times, because I immediately connected to Baby and wanted the best for her. By the end of the novel, I wanted to adopt her myself.

Baby is a 12 year old girl who's father, Jules, is a heroin addict. Her life is complete chaos and through out the book, she's thrown from run-down apartments to foster homes to detention centers. Surprisingly enough, Jules is actually an endearing character, who I found myself wanting the best for, as much as I did for his daughter.

Here's my favorite passage; I think it really sums up the feel of the entire book

"Jules and I were tiny people. We were delicate. We were almost destroyed. We were vulnerable. Like nerds in a school yard of bullies, we could have traded our stamps and cards of extinct animals. That's the kind of people we would be if our situation were different."

As vastly different as Baby's childhood is from my own, I could still identify with so many of the themes in the book - losing your innocence (& clinging to it for dear life), the way adults felt so separate; in a world of their own that you were trying to make sense of somehow, and of course, the need for affection, to be told "everything will be okay".

O'Neill is an amazing writer. I don't know how anyone could feel differently. Sure, she uses a lot of similes and metaphors, but they were perfect. She didn't just paint pictures, she painted paintings - I could read the words and instantly feel something; it was like she breathed life into everything she'd written. It was clear that she's experienced some similar situations, because she wrote about all of the awful things that happened to Baby with such a raw honesty, so specific and real.

The characters were so diverse, with so many dimensions - each one entirely unique. By the end of the book I felt like I had memories of them all, because each one affected me that much.

I really enjoyed Xander's character and what he represented for Baby - an escape back into innocence and comfort. I felt heartbroken when their little relationship wasn't enough to save her, though I knew it wouldn't be... and the reason I knew is because I could expect that much from O'Neill - a realistic, yet incredibly moving account of a childhood tainted by drug use and poverty.

Though painful to read, I'm giving this book 5 stars, because it did exactly what it set out to do - it made me part of a world that while dark and scary, was also beautifully triumphant. Plus, the writing style is so emotional and unique - come to think of it, it read like a lullaby. Loved it.