Miriam Gottschalk (Children's Literature)
Michelle Jaffe really knows the mind of a teenage girl. Our heroine, Jasmine Callihan, is in Venice, Italy, at the worst possible time in a young girl’s life: at the beginning of her senior year in high school and at the beginning of a new romance, both of which are in California. This insightful young woman is refreshingly funny and creative, as evidenced in her emails and the life lessons she intones throughout the story. As she takes us on an entertaining romp through Venice, she endears herself to the local constabulary when she discovers her classmate, Arabella, dead and suspects foul play that the law misses. She meets a charming gondolier who is amazingly well connected, and manages to lure her loyal posse from California to come to her aid to unravel the mystery of Arabella’s demise. It is an enjoyable page-turner with an unexpected twist, and will satisfy mystery fans, young, and not-so, alike. 2008, HarperTeen/HarperCollins, $16.99 and $17.89. Ages 12 up.

Anita Barnes Lowen (Children's Literature)
Jasmine is in exile--4,000 long miles away from her friends, her hot new boyfriend, and all the fun of her senior year. To keep her out of trouble, Dadzilla has put his foot down and insisted she come to Venice, Italy, where he is researching the history of soap. Jas knows it probably has to do with the teensy adventure she previously had in Las Vegas. The one featuring that whole almost-getting-killed thing, but trouble has a way of finding Jas. Her classmate, Arabella, turns up dead in one of Venice’s famous canals. Suicide? Jasmine knows it is not. Now if she can only convince the police who are not in the habit of asking the opinion of a schoolgirl, especially one whom Officer Allegrini views as having squash for brains. Armed with the unwavering conviction that she is right, Jasmine sets off to prove that Arabella was murdered and to find the murderer. Just wait until her father finds out! There is a mystery here, although the action sometimes gets lost in Jasmine’s nonstop stream of consciousness and the footnoted communications (which appear to be text messages or emails) at the bottom of many pages. With a zany main character, lots of quirky friends, the exotic setting of Venice, a dreamy gondolier, an infamous house of death, and some unexpected twists and turns, girls of all ages should enjoy this newest tale of the act-first-think-later Jasmine. 2008, HarperTeen/HarperCollins, $16.99. Ages 13 up.

Larysa Bordner (Childrens Book and Play Review, September/October 2008 (Vol. 29, No. 1))
Trouble has a way of finding Jasmine Callihan (Jas) despite how hard she tries to be the model daughter that she knows her father expects her to be. Jas is living with her father and step-mother in Venice, Italy, and although she is bored and lonely without her best friends, she tries to be obedient and patient in hopes of being rewarded with a trip back home to California. Instead of a vacation, however, Jas finds a mystery. It begins when one day in Italian class when her friend Arabella comes to her terrified. Arabella is convinced that someone is trying to kill her. Jas rushes into action to find out what the story is behind Arabella's fear--and discovers more than she thought she was in for along the way: murder, weird gadgets, a squirrel suit, and more interrelated mysteries. Kitty Kitty is a hilarious novel with a Nancy Drew feel--a teenage girl working to solve a mystery with the help of a few seemingly random clues and her good friends. The funny and original personalities of the characters are enchanting, as is the story. The book has a unique feel to it because the characters thoughts and side-conversations are worked into the story to give more information about what is happening. An ideal book for anyone who enjoys clever humor and a fascinating mystery. Rating: Outstanding. Reading Level: Young adult. Category: Detective and mystery stories; Humorous stories. 2008, HarperTeen, 307 p., $16.99. © 2002, Brigham Young University.

Rebecca Gaxiola (Kutztown University Book Review, Spring 2009)
Jas is a typical teenage girl having dad issues, best friends, a boyfriend, and getting ready for senior year. Then Dad decides the Sunday before school starts that they’re moving to Venice, Italy in 24 hours. Six weeks pass by fairly okay for Jas (considering she’s 4,000 miles away from her best friends and boyfriend) and then …well, read the book and find out how she solves the mystery of her friends murder. Category: Mystery. 2008, HarperTeen, $16.99. Ages 13 to 16.

Karen Coats (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, September 2008 (Vol. 62, No. 1))
In a vain attempt to keep Jas from getting into the same kind of almost-getting-killed trouble that she got herself into in Las Vegas the previous year (see Bad Kitty, BCCB 4/06), Dadzilla has decided to move the family to Venice while he writes the definitive treatise on the history of soap. Ah, but Jas’ alterego, BadJas, will have something to say about that plan; cut off from her friends and her rock-star boyfriend, she has no choice but to don leather pants and rebel, and of course there’s the whole crimes-just-find-her-wherever-she-is superpower that she has. When her friend from Italian class dies under unusual circumstances, Jas launches into an investigation that gets more dangerous and fascinating with every twist and turn, causing her friends, complete with their everpresent and completely nutty footnotes, to come to her rescue (both from the criminals and the leather pants). The Evil Hench Twins are also back, this time affecting outrageous “Italian” fashions, insisting on being called by their faerie names (“Sapphyre with a ‘Y’ and Tiger’s*Eye with a star in the middle, but the star is silent”) and trying to channel mystical energies to help Jas with her investigation. However, it’s the water wings equipped with a stroke monitor and a pressure-sensitive Skittles dispenser in her boot, courtesy of her ingenious friends, that save the day for Jas as she solves yet another baffling mystery. Jaffe’s writing style puts the fun in funny, and if anything, this sequel amps up the screamingly hilarious prose that energized the first of Jas’s misadventures. Add in a smolderingly hot gondolier, sixty-six more Little Life Lessons, and a mysterious set of emails about a shady character named Smokey LeBraun that indicate a continuing mystery and a guaranteed next installment (yay!), and Jaffe has another heavy circulator on her hands Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2008, HarperTeen, 307p., $17.89 and $16.99. Grades 7-10.