Greetings from Witness Protection!

I'll be recommending this book highly to my 4th and 5th grade library students, but it's also a great read for adults. The tween voices are authentic. Nicki, narrator, is funny and quirky—and a kleptomaniac with incredible dexterity who has a phobia about anyone touching her hands. As a foster kid, she's tapped to help a family in the witness protection program. The bad guys are looking for a mom, dad, and son. They're not looking for a family with a daughter, too. We get glimpses of the bad guys getting closer and closer to finding them, but the focus is on the family dynamics, with Nicki (now Charlotte) and her new brother, Jackson (who is furious at having to leave everyone and everything he knew), trying to fit into a new school show more without attracting too much attention to themselves. Not to give anything away, but the end was both riveting and uplifting. show less

Picked it up by accident...Lucky me! A strong protagonist who could have easily slid into angry snark. Instead, she uses her own painful experiences to help her new fake family heal and become cohesive, makes a valuable friend and even gets her new angsty younger brother to get real. Plenty of action at the end, coupled with a surprise i didn't see coming. Altogether a very satisfying read.

Thanks to years in foster care making her tough and street smart, Nicki Demere is asked by the U.S. Marshals to join a family of three that needs to be protected from their criminal family, camouflaging them as a family of four. As Charlotte Trevor, she does what she can to help protect her new family while also being the most average student possible. But before long, all of the Trevors learn how difficult it can be to outrun one’s past.

I don’t know why it’s so much harder to figure out how to start a review when I like a book than it is when I dislike a book. I guess because it just doesn’t seem good enough to start out with, “This book is great!” But this one really is. I don’t know how plausible the premise is, but the show more author sure made it seem realistic, considering that Nicki isn’t the only kid tapped for “Project Family.” From the orphanage to training with the Marshals and finally to her new home, Nicki makes an impression with everyone along the way. I didn’t always feel like her voice was all that realistic to a 13-year-old, but on the other hand, her rough history makes her anything but average. And the way her past affects her in the present was written well and adds to her being quite the sympathetic protagonist.

There were some things about this book that were predictable (at least for me, reading it as an adult) but at least one thing that happened that I did not expect at all. Throw in few emotional moments, a style that’s easy to read, and suspense built in the form of brief mentions of the criminals trying to track down the hidden family, and it’s easy to see why this book hooked me. There were even several laugh-out-loud moments here and there. I read this at the same time that my 13-year-old daughter did, and she loved it too. She agrees that it was suspenseful and thrilling. High endorsement from the target audience! show less

This book took me by surprise. I honestly thought it would be a really cheesy middle grade book, and it is far from that.

Nicki Demere suffers from kleptomania and a long list of disappointments. She’s been in and out of foster homes ever since her thieving grandmother died and father stayed imprisoned. It isn't until the U.S. Marshals come to pick her up and take her into another world entirely, one where she can leave her old life behind and forge a new identity as Charlotte Trevor that she starts to find herself amidst a loving family. The family isn't perfect, but neither is she.

Here I learned the difference between foster care and being abused by the system; here I learned that Witness Protection is not just about hiding, it's show more about feeling safe in the process. Jake Burt did an incredible job at rounding out the character of Nicki Demere and her separation from Charlotte Trevor. Her closest friend, Brit, was a unique character and he even wrote her gaming status as normal - in a way - and differs himself from other authors who focus on gamers as these reclusive people incapable of human interaction or holding a conversation.

Something else I found interesting (and great) about this book is that he romanticized NOTHING. The thing about writing a disorder (or disease or mental illness, whatever it is) is that you have to make sure you aren't saying it’s fun or easy to have them. Burt went all in and delivered a flawless character - mind you, full of flaws - with a problem that isn't talked about much these days. Which is a lot to say when we live in a moment in time where others don’t take mental illnesses seriously.

Also, he wrote all of this in the point of view of A THIRTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL.

Plus, he managed to weave in an extensive Italian crime syndicate into the story. None of the whole... "Oh, we're in Witness Protection because we feel unsafe in our day to day lives. It's just how we are". No, they actually had a reason to hide. There are no actual ‘crime fighting’ scenes but Elena - or rather, Harriet – is mentioned as a hero because it was her decision to expose her criminal family that got them into the Witness Protection Program.
The interviews and court readings are well written as well and add a little mystery to this otherwise easy read. Which, by the way, I couldn’t put down until I was finished because it was that good.

Each character is memorable and I was left wanting more! There is a plot twist in the ending that rounded out any questions you might have had (I know I did) and it was just honestly one of those books you’ll come back to in a couple years wanting a movie, or something, on it.

I would definitely read this again if I was ever craving a book about family, forgiveness, and friendship. I trust this book with my youngest family members as much as I trust it with my oldest. show less

I wanted to read Greetings from Witness Protection! ever since I saw it featured in a webinar about upcoming middle grade titles and was thrilled when a box arrived at my library from School Library Journal with this book inside. I'm pleased to say the book did not disappoint.

I loved Nicki (or Charlotte) as a character, and I loved her story. Not only does she have a big role in keeping her adopted family safe, but she must navigate the ups and downs of middle school and all that comes with it, including friendship, mean girls, standardized tests, and a little brother. Her voice was funny and sarcastic, with a lot of heart hidden underneath. The main tension in the book comes from the question of whether or not the bad guys will find show more them, with just enough hints that their enemies are closing in to keep the stakes high and the story moving forward--but the best part of the book was the focus on Nicki's relationship with her new parents and brother, her absent father, and Nicki herself as she struggles to find where she belongs and who she really is beneath the lies and her circumstances. I would recommend this to all ages but I think it would especially appeal to younger readers, though the end scene is somewhat violent and the reality of Nicki and her family hiding from killers is serious. If you're looking for a fun middle grade book with humor and high stakes for yourself or your children/students, this is the book for you. show less

After the death of her grandmother and with her father in prison, Nicki has been shuffled from foster home to foster home looking for someone who will accept her for what she is, a thief, specifically a pick-pocket. When the US Marshals create Project Family, Nicki is trained and chosen to move with a family into the Witness Protection Program (WITSEC) as their daughter. Elena, the family's mother has testified against her brother and they are now all in danger. Nicki becomes Charlotte and joins the Trevor family in North Carolina. What follows are funny, touching events that find Nicki/Charlotte trying to settle into her new life where she must maintain a B- average and remain as unobtrusive as possible, but Nicki has never been good show more at being unobtrusive.

Greetings From Witness Protection! is a fun coming-of-age story with some mystery, adventure and school hijinks thrown in. Nicki's character is well developed as are the other members of the family along with Nicki's best friend, Brit. Someone like Nicki could not have survived what she has unscathed, so her kleptomania adds depth and reality to her character. Overall, Greetings From Witness Protection! has characters that are easy to identify with and is a wonderful middle grade story. show less

Well written story, taking a girl from foster care and placing her in a family of 3 in Witness Protection, to make a family of 4, in order to hide the family better. Deals with loss (giving everything up that you've known), paralleling the many losses Nicki has had in her life, with those of the family entering WITSEC, but also has triumph over the bad guys written in towards the end.