This was an excellent book about a lot of young people who deserve our attention, and at an age that attention will pay off handsome benefits.

Reviewed for Shelf Awareness. Full review can be found via Shelf Awareness: https://www.shelf-awareness.com/readers/2020-06-09/troop_6000:_the_girl_scout_troop_that_began_in_a_shelter_and_inspired_the_world.html

A MUST READ! I adored this book and the stories of these inspiring young people. As a girl scout, this warmed my heart and made realize how much I value community. Truly, a must read.

My biggest worry when I picked this up was that it would be like poverty or trauma tourism, but I felt like it was handled very well. The subjects felt optimistic and empowered. The Girl Scout troop program is really amazing for the connections and opportunities it opens, and that is visible on virtually every page of this book. This is so uplifting, and a real reminder that we are all more alike in our humanity than different.

Thanks to the publisher for the eARC.

This was a lovely, heartwarming story. I really enjoyed learning about how Troop 6000 came to be. It was also eye-opening to get look into the shelter system in New York. There were some tears shed when reading this one.

I will say; the style of writing is very much like a report, but I attribute that to the author’s work as a reporter for the New York Times.

I would definitely recommend this one.

Troop 6000 is the story of the founding of a unique Girl Scout troop, but it’s also a story about a woman, her family, and life in a homeless shelter. The struggles the mother of five faces and her path of personal growth while starting a Girl Scout troop are shared. Being a former Brownie and Junior Scout, I was excited to read this! Giselle and her dream for a Scout troop in her homeless shelter made an interesting story and I really felt for her family during the triumphs and setbacks. The sobering stats of homelessness and the need for quality shelters will stick with me and putting a face on the problem really helps to bring it home. I also think current and former scouts and troop leaders will identify with the women and girls in the book and it will build a bridge with homeless families, which is the type of thing Girl Scouts is all about!!
Thanks to netgalley for my copy.

The story is one of determination and perseverance. How an organization gave this mom the structure and tools to help so many young people. Truly an inspiration and I would recommend this book.

Because of the current economic situation in the country driven by the COVID 19 pandemic, there will be more evictions in the US than in any time since the Great Depression. This fact should make us reevaluate the stigma of homelessness and how we deal with families in crisis. This book goes a long way to describing the problems faced by families who fall on hard times and must turn to the government for assistance.

Giselle Burgess is a woman who has made some bad choices in her life. She has also had hard times driven by health issues which have resulted in high absenteeism from work and subsequent lay offs. Giselle has five children from three fathers and fights to keep her family intact. It is not easy and, at times, her safety nets have massive holes.

When Giselle and her children find themselves in the New York shelter system, they are plunged into a massive bureaucracy that is not sympathetic to the families it serves. Without enough real shelter places, the system has contracted with hotels that have vacancies to place homeless families. Against this background of patchwork residences, strict rules, and the possibility that a mistake in paperwork will throw you out of your residence, Giselle fights to find a kind of normalcy for her children, especially for her daughters who have been uprooted, repeatedly.

Through a chance encounter, Giselle becomes the organizer of the first Girl Scout troop for girls in shelters, Troop 6000. Flying by the seat of her pants and largely dependent on her personal magnetism to attract girls and adult volunteers, Giselle manages to establish a model troop, work herself into a management job with the Scouts, and offer stability and consistency for many girls in shelters across the city.

This is a "there but for fortune" story. It is incredibly powerful as to the value of Scouts and how the organization continues to evolve to meet the needs of our changing society. However, it is clear that the primary engine of change is Giselle, herself, who has failed often but seems to have an unending supply of drive and, yes, optimism which propels her forward and sets a model for the girls whose lives she touches.

You can;t help but root for Giselle, her children, and the other families who have fallen on hard times but are looking for a way back into employment and a real home. The conditions of the shelters that Giselle's family rotates through are truly horrific in so many ways. The loss of privacy and agency would be daunting to anyone, but for people knocked down repeatedly by life and circumstances, it is easy to see how the default might be to give up. The saving grace are the individuals with actual good intentions who help Giselle to rise up again and again.

this is a marvelous book, a heart felt book, and a heartbreaking book. It forces the reader to look at the stereotypes of homelessness and reevaluate the people trapped in the cycle of poverty and misfortune.
You cannot read this book without confronting your own misconceptions about the working poor in our country.

There has to be a movie in this this book. It has everything a good film needs: despair, an unforgiving system, and an ending that offers possibilities and an unforgettable confrontation between a woman on her a tightrope and the people trying to tip her off.

Through our current national crisis, I must admit to having difficulty concentrating on most books. That was not the case with this enthralling story. I read every page rooting for Giselle and her "tribe" of family and friends bound together by a common desire to make positive change for young women. Highly recommended.

When I saw the description of TROOP 6000, a true story about a Girl Scout troop formed in a hotel being used as a homeless shelter in New York City, my interest was piqued. My first job out of college was a local newspaper reporter, and hotel homelessness was a hot button issue I covered a lot.

I wasn't aware this story was all over the news a few years back, but what started as a New York Times feature ended up getting nationwide coverage across media channels. The book - written by journalist Nikita Stewart, who originally broke the story in the Times - read like a newspaper article, and the former journalist in me appreciated how well executed it was. It includes a little bit fo Girl Scout history, some alarming stats about homelessness in NYC, but more than that, it's a story of hope, hard work, and dedication - and some amazing people who are changing the world for the better, despite their own hard cirumstances.

If you're looking for an uplifting story, TROOP 6000 is definitely one to check out. Thanks Random House and Netgalley for the complimentary copy.

This is an inspiring story of a woman, her daughters, and a movement to give meaning and direction in difficult circumstances. From an almost anti-scouter, to an unwilling leader, to devotee, to crusader, Giselle Burgess has affected the lives of hundreds of young women, much of the time being homeless herself and battling illness, red-tape, and prejudice. We need more Giselles.

Put this in the column of things I didn't know about homelessness, eviction, Girl Scouts. An informative and inspirational book!

Giselle is a mother of 5 that was living in a homeless shelter when she realized that the children there needed to be a part of something. Since she had worked with the Girl Scouts previously, she started a Girl Scout Troop in the shelter. The author of this book followed the journey of this unique troop and all of the challenges and triumphs along the way. I found this book to be such an inspiration, as these girls could have gotten lost in the system without the bond of being in Girl Scouts. This troop may have literally saved some lives. I highly recommend this book!

Thank you to Netgalley, Random House, and Nikita Stewart for sharing the story of Girl Scout Troop 6000. This is an honest review of a tremendous book. Up front, I confess a devotion to the Girl Scout organization. I was a Girl Scout, was blessed with an energetic and selfless leader, and am convinced the Girl Scout organization impacted my development in only positive ways. As an adult, I have served on our local council’s Board, and remain a steadfast fan.
Troop 6000 is as much a story about homelessness as it is about the Girl Scout Troop that began in a homeless shelter. It is as much a tribute to the tenacity, ingenuity, and courage of Giselle Burgess, Troop 6000’s fearless first leader, as it is an expose of the New York City shelter system. Troop 6000 puts a face on the homeless—the sweet, innocent face of a Girl Scout—and depicts the hurdles a homeless parent must overcome to provide healthy life experiences for her children.
Last but not least, Stewart’s book spotlights the attributes of the Girl Scouts. The Girl Scout Promise includes a pledge to help people “at all times.” Troop 6000 testifies to the goodness of the Girl Scouts, who despite their need in this instance to be helped themselves, fulfilled the promise of service to their community.
Again, thank you Random House and Nikita Stewart for telling us about Troop 6000. You earned five stars. There are not enough stars in the heavens for the Girl Scouts. They earned all the stars in the sky.

This book is great. It is an amazing story of resilience, community, and an amazing organization.

Thank you to Ballantine Books via Netgalley for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ostensibly about the launch of Troop 6000 in NYC’s shelter system, this book chronicles the journey of Giselle Burgess, the mom-turned-Girl-Scout-leader who dreamed up the idea. I was expecting a light-ish read, similar to a 𝘛𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘸 segment — interesting but not too substantive. ⁣
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Wrong. Ultimately, this book is about how challenging life is as a homeless family in New York. The Girl Scouts provide the backdrop and an ultimate source of comfort/empowerment, but I found the cohesive thread to be the repeated injustices and indignities faced by Giselle and her family. So many of her set backs were due to the shelter system; in fact, I got the impression that her homelessness was exacerbated rather than helped by the hoops and bureaucracy presented by social services. At times it was hard to read because you just knew something else would go wrong right at momentum was building. ⁣
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Giselle’s drive and resilience is beyond admirable and the story of Troop 6000 is worth reading. It gave me a new understanding of homelessness experience in my city and the importance of empowering our girls. ⁣
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Read this one if you:⁣
- enjoy human interest stories about overcoming hardship⁣
- are interested in homelessness and/or girls’ empowerment as topics ⁣
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Skip it if you:⁣
- are looking for something purely uplifting⁣
- prefer complex, lyrical writing ⁣

Troop 6000 is a fact based history of a Girl Scout troop which began in a homeless/crisis shelter in NYC and the woman behind its genesis. Released 19th May 2020 by Penguin/Random House on their Ballantine imprint, it's 288 pages and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a gripping and well told story about homelessness in the larger metropolitan areas of the USA (NYC specifically), interwoven with information about the Girl Scouts, and presented with an unflinching look at poverty, self-worth, and childhood. It's a potent cocktail and I wound up reading way past my bedtime on this one.

In addition to the biographical details about troop leader Giselle (who is mom to 3 of the girl scouts in the book) and the girls themselves, there is a fair bit of indepth information about generational poverty in the USA and ways the system is heavily weighted against success and escape. We're seeing even more clearly, with the current economic and pandemic crisis how metropolitan areas are being hit harder and more severely than the suburban and rural areas.

I was rooting for these girls and adults all the way through the book. Parts were heartwrenchingly sad to read. I also felt a lot of anger and bewilderment over a system which has the capacity to care humanely for its most vulnerable and chooses not to do so (although New York does a better job than most).

The writing is simple and direct. It's written in third person narrative as stories arranged roughly chronologically. I read it straight through, as a novel, but it would also be a superlative support text for a classroom setting for related subjects: sociology, childhood development, race and gender studies, etc.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

When I saw that there was a girl scout Troup formed in a shelter, I was very interested to learn how it came about and how it stayed long enough to show just how special it was.

This book discusses the family, especially the mom. It discusses homeless at great length. It gives numbers and it explains the very faulty system. It continues to circle back to the family. Usually when I read even just an article, I feel the need to skim through parts, if not most of the article. This was a full book and I didn't find myself skimming through any of it. It's written in such a way that you just want to keep on reading. And it's not a slow read as many factual books can be.

I'm not sure which is the more important thing that the author wants to tech the reader. The Girl Scouts is a great organization. Or the system that NYS has to help the homeless and the working poor is incredibly flawed.

As a Girl Scout alumna, I was touched to pick up this nonfiction book about how this troop was started and the leaders’ and girls’ commitment to the core values of Girl Scouts made my heart swell. It also provided an in-depth look at the homelessness crisis in New York, amongst other cities, and shines a light on these kids and their lives and hopes. It shows that despite all our differences, at the end of the day, everyone is an equal Girl Scout sister and it’s such an inspiring story that makes you as a reader want to do more to help. The book depicts the growth and eventual popularity of this new troop as readers get an inside look at troop leader and founder Giselle, her family, and other Scouts and their families from the troop. It’s a remarkable story and I’m glad it was told and shared with the world.

Troop 6000 is about a homeless woman, Giselle, and her family, living in NYC, and the hardships that they faced living in an area where the minimum wage doesn't cover the cost of living.

Giselle's two older daughters were at one point heavily involved with the Girl Scouts, and when the family is forced to move to the Sleep Inn, a temporary housing facility, Giselle strikes up an idea of starting their own Girl Scout Troop in the hotel. This thought doesn't come with setbacks--rules for living at the Sleep Inn were numerous, and there was a lot of red tape to cut through.

Giselle never gave up though, and what started out as a small gathering of girls, turned into a full-fledged troop that gained such notoriety, that they even appeared on talk shows such as The View and Jimmy Fallon.

This nonfiction book was an eye-opening read for me. It truly signifies that you can't tell who is homeless and who isn't, and that most of the time, homeless people are just trying to earn a living and provide for their family. It was hard reading about the homeless situation in NYC, a city known for its glitz and glammer. Not everyone lives similar lives, and Giselle was able to find a bright spot out of an otherwise tough situation.

Troop 6000 also made me nostalgic for my childhood. I was never a Girl Scout, but after reading this book, feel like I missed out on something special. I usually turn a blind eye to the Girl Scout troops when I see them selling cookies, but having read a little bit more of the great things that they do (not that I ever doubted this), I will certainly be purchasing tons of cookies when I see them back out!

Read if you: Want a heartfelt, occasionally heartbreaking, moving, and eye-opening look at a Girl Scout troop made entirely of girls living in NYC homeless shelters. This is a story that will stay with you long after you finish the final page.

Librarians and booksellers: Your patrons/customers will want this book. They might not know it now, but looking at that beautiful cover and reading the description, they will definitely want to read it. It's a socially-conscious read that has immediate appeal and recognition (due to the Girl Scout factor).

Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review. (They should consider a young reader's edition, if one is not already in progress, although this is definitely accessible to middle and high school students as it is.. This would be a great choice for a community-wide read.)