Greetings from Witness Protection!

Description

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.

Jake Burt teaches the fifth grade in Connecticut. He lives with his wife and their daughter in Hamden, CT. Greetings from Witness Protection! is his fiction debut.

An Autumn 2017 Kids' Indie Next List Selection Jake Burt is a storytelling magician. Part coming of age tale and part spy thriller, Greetings from Witness Protection could be a collaboration between Judy Blume and Ian Fleming. Nicki relates her unusual experiences with humor and with a commitment that melted my heart and made me wish I'd known her when I was in seventh grade. -- Ann M. Martin, New York Times-bestselling author of Rain Reign and the Baby-Sitters Club series This inventive, clever story has a lot of heart at its center. Jake Burt's debut is utterly rewarding."--Wendy Mass, New York Times-bestselling author of The Candymakers and Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life The biggest complaint that readers may have about Burt's debut novel is that it ends. . . . Nicki/Charlotte is caustically charming ... and despite her propensity to pick people's pockets when she's nervous, her eagerness to love (and be loved) and her unabashed bluntness make her endearing from page one.--Publishers Weekly, starred review A delightful, sometimes touching balance of action, humor, and heart.--Booklist, starred review What do you get when you mix a snarky city girl with a shady past and lightning reflexes with a seemingly typical suburban family she's just met? A funny, action-packed novel about the trials of school, parental arguments, and sibling rivalry--all with a dash of high-stakes thrills and dramatic showdowns... [Readers] will relish the action and fast-paced plot as well as the engaging and competent Nicki, whose emotional strength and quick wits carry her through much of the narrative.--School Library Journal An engaging treat. --Voices of Youth Advocates