Watermark's Cool Summer Read #11: Kiki Strike
Watch News & Notes each week this summer for a featured book recommendation
for young readers ages 7 to 17.
"Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City" and "Kiki Strike: The
Empress's Tomb" by Kirsten Miller (Bloomsbury USA Children's Books,
9781599900926 and 9781599900476, $7.95 and $16.95, for ages 9 and older)
The Kiki Strike books are a smart, exciting blend of Nancy Drew and Indiana
Jones, and they star a crack team of six fearless, talented girls with
expert skills in chemistry, kung-fu, computer-hacking, and disguise. The
girls call themselves the Bank Street Irregulars, and together they explore
secret sunken cities, seek out fabled lost treasures, and solve New York
City's most puzzling mysteries.
The stories begin when Ananka Fishbein sees a sinkhole open up near her
parents' New York City apartment. Ananka pokes inside and discovers that New
York rests atop a hidden shadow city of twisting passageways and forgotten
rooms. She also soon meets Kiki Strike, a pale, mysterious girl who seems to
know much, much more than Ananka does about this forgotten underworld.
Ananka and Kiki gather allies and set about investigating the shadow city
and the unknown enemies hiding there and planning to attack the city above.
Each chapter of thrilling adventure is capped with Ananka's training tips
for all aspiring sleuths: She instructs readers on how to detect a lie, on
what essential equipment one must always carry (duct tape and bubble gum for
starters), and most important, on how to disappear and always seem innocent
in public (after all, no one expects a girl to be knee-deep in mystery and
danger).
Kiki Strike is perfect for fans of the "Mysterious Benedict Society" or of
Ally Carter's spy-school stories "I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have
to Kill You" and "Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy." They offer adventure,
suspense, bravery and smarts, and their stand-out characters will become a
young reader's favorites.
Review by
Mark David Bradshaw, July 17, 2008
P.S. Check out the Kiki Strike Web Site. It's spooky and very cool:
http://www.kikistrike.com/
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