Greetings from Witness Protection! - by Jake Burt (Paperback)

About the Book

A funny and poignant debut 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.

Book Synopsis

Nicki Demere is an orphan and a pickpocket. She also happens to be the U.S. Marshals' best bet to keep a family alive. . . .

"Jake Burt is a storytelling magician. Partcoming of age tale and part spy thriller, Greetings from Witness Protection could be a collaboration between Judy Blume and Ian Fleming."--Ann M. Martin, New York Times-bestselling author of RainReign and the Baby-Sitters Club series

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.

Praise for Greetings from Witness Protection!:

"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." --Publishers Weekly, 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. . . . fans of Ally Carter's 'Gallagher Girls' spy novels and the 'Heist Society' art thief series 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

"A fun story showcasing a smart, bold girl who creates for herself a community of similarly good-hearted, high-achieving girlfriends--all while playing by the marshals' rules, building a family, dealing with middle school drama, and wrestling her own demons (kleptomania). For readers who enjoy ordinary-kid-turns-hero stories, Burt's debut novel will be an engaging treat." --VOYA

Review Quotes

Praise for Greetings from Witness Protection!:

"The biggest complaint that readers may have about Burt's debut novel is that it ends." --Publishers Weekly, 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. . . . fans of Ally Carter's "Gallagher Girls" spy novels and the "Heist Society" art thief series 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

"A fun story showcasing a smart, bold girl who creates for herself a community of similarly good-hearted, high-achieving girlfriends--all while playing by the marshals' rules, building a family, dealing with middle school drama, and wrestling her own demons (kleptomania). For readers who enjoy ordinary-kid-turns-hero stories, Burt's debut novel will be an engaging treat." --VOYA

"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

About the Author

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.