Greetings From Witness Protection, by Jake Burt

This is a fantastic middle-grade novel with an immensely relatable heroine, kindly kleptomaniac Nicki Demere.  This is the sort of book that begs for a sequel, although as of yet the author has not expressed any plans to write one.  It is also the film that one would think would make for a very entertaining movie and/or television series, provided one cast the characters well enough.  A great deal of the power of this particular book comes from the compelling mix of elements and characters within it.  Nicki Demere is an early teen about to enter the seventh grade, and though she is immensely appealing to the reader, she has a hard time sticking anywhere, having a father in jail and having been raised by her similarly kleptomaniacal grandmother before her demise, and having a bit of a criminal record herself due to her light-fingered tendencies, but she is also a person with a high degree of moral and physical courage and the right amount of sass and spunk to make her appealing to the readers as well.  There are a wide variety of other supporting characters, from the North Carolina neighbors in this fish-out-of-water-tale to the family in witness protection that Nicki is placed with in order to help them change their optics while some angry and very bad mob people are chasing after them to federal agents that are similarly appealing.

And the plot is quite vivid as well.  Nicki is taken out of a group home in New York City and recruited as a youngish federal agent and placed with a husband and wife who have a mopey sixth grade son who immediately resents getting a bossy older sister (as most people would, I think), while also resenting the loss of friends he had when his mom turned snitch on her mob relatives.  The mother turns out to be one intensely tough customer, someone who is well aware of the difficulties she is dealing with and one who appreciates the work that Nicki/Charlotte has done to help keep her safe.  Also making the novel quite intriguing is the way that Nicki has to keep exactly a B- average and avoid standing out in any way as a way of helping her family stay safe, something she fails to do when in one disastrous experience she is encouraged to show off her stealing ability in a student vs. faculty game which leads to her and her family being photographed and targeted by some very angry mob hitmen.  I won’t spoil the ending, as it is quite a powerful one, but it is an ending that does leave room for a sequel if the author intends it.

To me, the poignancy of the novel springs from the combination of the understandable desire of the Cercatore to blend in as much as an Italian-American family can blend in in North Carolina’s research triangle and the desire of Nicki to find a place to belong even as she struggles to deal with her kleptomania and be a good friend for her somewhat isolated and geeky next door neighbor and budding best friend.  The combination of longings and goals on the part of various characters makes for a compelling story that not only entertains the reader but also provides a lot to relate to.  And the fact that this is the author’s first novel (he has since written at least one more) is an immense achievement, the sort of achievement that could easily lead to a compelling film adaptation aimed at an audience capable of relating to Nicki’s desire to belong, to a Cercatore family growing more appreciative of her loyalty to them and feeling the same to her, and an angry mob that wants to make an example of what happens to snitches, all taking place in a catty environment of social and academic competition.