The strongest feature of Rinaldi's work is the conversational tone of the dialogue. Because the story is told through the dialogue and narration of only one character, the teen-age protagonist, Nicki, the reader is placed in the interesting position of hearing the story through the perspective of a character who is known to be a liar. Can she be trusted to portray the events accurately, or should the reader be wary and read Nicki's interpretations of the events with care? To encourage the reader to believe Nicki's narration, Rinaldi has established a very matterof-fact tone to both the description and the dialogue, almost stating to the reader: this is what happened.

The plot is built around a group of characters who are very active. It is through the device of viewing the characters in action that the reader comes to know their attributes, as the amount...