Horn Book (Tue Jan 03 00:00:00 CST 2023)

During the course of five family gatherings, readers get to know Ingrid and her five cousins, who always sit together at the "Kid Table." These events are often humorously absurd (e.g., a New Year's brunch featuring a man dressed as a baby), though Ingrid's narration and her musings about the nature of relationships occasionally come across as too adult to be believable.

Kirkus Reviews (Tue Jan 03 00:00:00 CST 2023)

Ingrid Bell, one of six mostly teenage cousins in a charmingly dysfunctional family, is a psychopath, according to oldest cousin Brianne. Or perhaps it's just part of the jockeying for position that happens around the Kid Table. Ingrid's psychopathy (or calculated charm and a few dead pets?) provides the thread through a particularly tumultuous year as the family unravels. Ingrid's first-person narration, especially in those moments when her calm makes the reader wonder if she is a psychopath, is fantastic, and the trials and tribulations manage to be both funny and sad (adult cousin Tish drinks too much, teen cousin Cricket has anorexia, Ingrid's mother busily collects memories for her scrapbook but forgets to live and Ingrid's in love with Brianne's boyfriend). The episodic structure (a handful of chapters at major events throughout the year from not-Jewish Uncle Kurt's post-adultery Bar Mitzvah to a wedding) serves as a metaphor for the family: a whole made of several disparate parts with some unanswered questions. Weirdly whimsical, adult author Seigel's ( Like the Red Panda , 2004) YA debut delights. (Fiction. 14 & up)

School Library Journal (Tue Jan 03 00:00:00 CST 2023)

Gr 9 Up- The Kid Table chronicles the lives of 16-year-old Ingrid Bell, her five teenage cousins and kid-table companions, and their family. First, Ingrid's cousin Brianne, a sophomore psychology major at Pepperdine, knocks Ingrid out of her spot as "most charming" by making a convincing argument that Ingrid is a psychopath. Then, at her Uncle Kurt's bar mitzvah, Brianne successfully graduates from the kid table, leaving the five remaining cousins to ponder her new status while dealing with being left behind. While Ingrid rationalizes her nonemotional responses, Seigel does not do much to deter readers from questioning Brianne's diagnosis. Ingrid's lack of empathy and morality are showcased especially when she laughs at Uncle Kurt's heartfelt bar-mitzvah speech, steals Aunt Brit's cell phone, gets sober Aunt Tish drunk and off the wagon, and makes out with Brianne's boyfriend, Trevor. Her desire to be liked and her feelings for Trevor take precedence over her cousins' problems, which include Cricket's eating disorder, Dom's strong desire to have someone else out him to the family, and Micah's identity crisis. In spite of Ingrid's psychopathic tendencies, her voice is bold, biting, and incredibly insightful. Seigel lightens some dramatic events with well-played humor, and the plot evolves over the course of five family events. This first YA novel is worth purchasing. Adrienne L. Strock, Maricopa County Library District, AZ

Voice of Youth Advocates (Tue Jan 03 00:00:00 CST 2023)

This delightfully quirky novel explores family relationships, with all their dysfunctional turmoil and insanity, as observed (and participated in) by its youngest members, those still relegated to sitting at the kid table. The protagonist, seventeen-year-old Ingrid Bell, has a refreshingly direct outlook on life and the ability to charm her way out of most situations, even when her older cousin, studying psychology in college, has the adults in the family more than a little convinced that Ingrid is a psychopath, based on her lack of emotions, inappropriate responses to certain situations, and a few dead pets (clearly not her fault, but still). Ingrid and five almost-grown cousins—Cricket, the anorexic; Dom, trying to clue his family in that he's gay; Micah, the exhibitionist; Autumn, the mother figure; and Brianne, the pseudopsychologist—and four-year-old Katie get together for five celebrations at the kid table: Bar Mitzvah, Thanksgiving, New Year's Brunch, Independence Day Pool Party, and Wedding. To set the record straight, Ingrid, who spends the year hiding her love for Brianna’s boyfriend, is the most level-headed of all the cousins. Laugh-out-loud humor punctuates her clear-eyed musings about family and relationships, narrated in a perceptive, analytical, with-it voice, clearly not the voice of a psychopath but rather a perceptive teen with the gift of seeing things for what they are and coping with reality no matter how much those around her are off in their own worlds. Teen girls in particular will enjoy this unusual coming-of-age novel.—Bonnie Kunzel.