Greetings from Witness Protection! by Jake Burt
Nicki Demere is an orphan and a pickpocket. She also happens to be the U.S. Marshals’ best bet to keep a family alive. . . .
The marshals are looking for the perfect girl to join a mother, father, and son on the run from the nation’s most notorious criminals. After all, the bad guys are searching for a family with one kid, not two, and adding a streetwise girl who knows a little something about hiding things may be just what the marshals need.
Nicki swears she can keep the Trevor family safe, but to do so she’ll have to dodge hitmen, cyberbullies, and the specter of standardized testing, all while maintaining her marshal-mandated B-minus average. As she barely balances the responsibilities of her new identity, Nicki learns that the biggest threats to her family’s security might not lurk on the road from New York to North Carolina, but rather in her own past.
Jake Burt's debut middle-grade novel Greetings from Witness Protection! is as funny as it is poignant.
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Nicki's had a hard life. Her father went to prison when she was little, and she was placed into foster care after the death of her grandmother. She's used to a transient lifestyle, and deals with anxiety by pick-pocketing. So she might sound like an unlikely candidate for what the US Marshals call 'Project Family.' Or maybe she's exactly what they're looking for!
The Trevor family is in the Witness Protection after testifying against a powerful crime syndicate. Nicki's job is to blend in as part of their family, and help them survive as new people with new names and altered pasts, and life in a strange new Southern town. The biggest challenge is that everyone - Nicki included - now must aim to be unremarkably "mediocre."
Nicki really hits out of the ballpark as a plucky orphan. She throws herself into the Trevor's lives, and it's heartwarming to read how much her pluckiness (I know, I keep using that word) changes their circumstances for the better. There is a lot of resentment on the part of her new brother, but I felt that it played out well as sibling rivalry. I loved her relationship with her new parents, who step into their roles with grace and empathy. Equally as charming is Nicki's burgeoning friendship with the girl next door, who had long resigned herself the role of outcast.
Overall, I thought this was a really fun read, with adequate attention paid to the more serious issues of kleptomania and the big bads trying to track the Trevor family down.
The Trevor family is in the Witness Protection after testifying against a powerful crime syndicate. Nicki's job is to blend in as part of their family, and help them survive as new people with new names and altered pasts, and life in a strange new Southern town. The biggest challenge is that everyone - Nicki included - now must aim to be unremarkably "mediocre."
Nicki really hits out of the ballpark as a plucky orphan. She throws herself into the Trevor's lives, and it's heartwarming to read how much her pluckiness (I know, I keep using that word) changes their circumstances for the better. There is a lot of resentment on the part of her new brother, but I felt that it played out well as sibling rivalry. I loved her relationship with her new parents, who step into their roles with grace and empathy. Equally as charming is Nicki's burgeoning friendship with the girl next door, who had long resigned herself the role of outcast.
Overall, I thought this was a really fun read, with adequate attention paid to the more serious issues of kleptomania and the big bads trying to track the Trevor family down.
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