Truthfully, I closed the book a little jealous at how cleverly Burt managed this trick. He reintroduced adults into Nicki’s life! And as the danger closed in all around this family Nicki went from protecting them to being guarded by them. This wasn’t enough to ruin the story for me but it could have been tweaked to make the characters more realistic.īut then the author did something that is so rare in a middle grade book that I found myself actually angry at how well he pulled it off. This book was published in 2017 which is far too late for a teenager to have a blog or post on Facebook. *I do think that going with the flow has limits and, certainly I was bothered by the ancient technological and social media used by the kids. I will never get enough of this kind of magical character. Quickly after moving into her new town she befriends a shy neighbor girl, Brittany, and she is a stalwart friend. Nicki is strong and smart but, most importantly, she is kind. I just loved Nicki / Charlotte who loves books and relies on her prior experiences to slide successfully into her new family, town, and school. When I did so I found myself carried away by this story. ![]() But, when reading middle grade, I think it is best to just go with the flow*. Two birds, one stone!Īt first, honestly, I had to work hard overcome my disbelief that any foster placement into this type of care would be possible. ![]() With two kids instead of one, the theory is that it will make it much harder for those the government is prosecuting to find the family and give Nicki a home. Marshall’s to become a part of Project Family, she is taken in by people who needs her help to successfully hide her in WITSEC. At 13, her mom is long gone, her Dad in prison, and her beloved Granny dead. In the beginning, author Jake Burt appears to take a standard path to this essential first step in every middle grade book: he gets rid of the parents by making the main character, Nicki, a ward of the state. I love to keep track of the different ways authors separate kids from parents and offer, again, my Where are the Parent’s Bingo? for your enjoyment. Or, the kids are having an adventure simply because no one is watching them. Typically, that suspension comes in the form of believing that a 10-14 year old is being asked to perform an adult job because of a lack of supervision. Only the teenage daughter is clear.Įvery middle grade book requires the reader to suspend a bit of reality. from Goodreads.įour members of a family are drawn on the cover with the Mom, Dad, and brother’s faces blurred and blocked. 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. 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. 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. 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. Marshals’ best bet to keep a family alive. Nicki Demere is an orphan and a pickpocket. ![]() The excitement, the characters, the drama was perfect and I was only disappointed when it was over.Ī funny and poignant debut middle-grade novel about a foster-care girl who is placed with a family in the witness protection program, and finds that hiding in plain sight is complicated and dangerous. ![]() I loved everything about this middle grade book.
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