The Good Girl's Guide to Getting Kidnapped
The pace never slows in this gripping novel that begins when 15-year-old Michelle blasts past her competition at a regional track meet. What even her best friend, Kiki, doesn’t know is that Mish is running just as hard from her past, when she was known as Princess P, the daughter of a leader in one of South L.A.’s toughest gangs. While her family is in jail, Michelle has turned her life around with the help of a great, if neurotic, foster dad. Then the gang resurfaces and kidnaps Kiki and Michelle. In her powerful narrative, Michelle slides into gangsta mode, explaining jargon and gang behaviors to Kiki, and uninitiated readers, without distracting from the story. The characters are all developed and memorable, especially Michelle and Kiki, who almost hurtle from the pages, and the sense of place is vivid. Even as the cinematic action and violence races along, readers will never lose track of the story’s driving question—can Michelle ever leave her past behind?—as they race to the ambiguous conclusion. Grades 9-12. --Lynn Rutan--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.