Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City by Kirsten Miller

Title: Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City

Author: Kirsten Miller

Genre: YA Fiction

Summary: A mysterious fifth grader has been recruiting from various Girl Scout troops for a secret club of her own.

The Take-Away: It's difficult to balance believeable situations with fictional teenagers. All too often, the author credits them with characteristics that aren't quite right, or blatently wrong. Miller gives her group great characteristics with the appropriate backstories so that their extraordinary levels of competency and intelligence don't seem unbelieveable.

The premise is discovering a third city below New York City. The girls investigate at night, with various excuses that keep their parents from discovering their true activities. Mapping the city isn't the only thing that Kiki Strike has in mind, but the others don't discover it until the middle of the novel. Again, this technique makes their extraordinary adventure seem plausible.

The best part of this book is the practical advice at the end of select chapters. Practical advice about changing your appearance, following someone and being invisible. Just the sort of thing a girl needs to know.

Recommendation: Great for anyone in need of some girl power.

Bonus Review: Unshelved -- A comic about libraries

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