Author: Kirsten Miller

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2006

Pages: 387

For Ages: 9-14

Rating: ****

12-year old Annaka’s life changes the day she explores a sinkhole outside her family’s tiny Manhattan apartment.  There she discovers a hidden passage and a guidebook to an underground shadow city left by a strange dirty girl. When city workers seal up the sinkhole Annaka’s quest for a new entrance leads her to a mysterious white-haired girl at school, Kiki Strike, whose goal is to “be dangerous”. 

Kiki Stike is a fun action-adventure/ mystery for girls – full of complication, intrigue, and plenty of girl power. The daughterling loved this book and read it twice. I also reread it as soon as I finished.  Highly recommended.

I liked that the narrator, Annaka, is not your typical quirky-but-adorable girl.  She’s a bit off-putting and cranky. The group of girls doesn’t always get along. There are inter-group squabbles and alliances but they all work together because they all want to gain something from it.

Note: It takes about 50 pages before the story gets going and the reader is rewarded with an exciting adventure. By the end the reader will see the first 50 pages with new eyes. 

Kiki Strike: The Empress’s Tomb– I haven’t read the new Kiki Strike sequel.  The daughterling loved it.  It’s next on my list of must-reads.