Nicky Deuce: Welcome to the Family [Library Binding]

Steven R. Schirripa (Author), Charles Fleming (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

It’s July, and Nicholas Borelli II’s parents are scheduled to spend two weeks on a cruise. Nicholas will spend those two weeks, as he does every summer, at Camp Wannameka. The night before he’s to leave, however, there’s a phone call: thanks to an explosion in the septic system, camp is canceled. The only place for Nicholas to go instead is to his grandmother’s house in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York.
Nicholas’s father grew up in Brooklyn, but you’d hardly know it. An Italian dinner at Nicholas’s house in the suburbs is whole wheat pasta, organic tomato sauce, and, if he’s lucky, a tofu meatball. And Brooklyn? Well, Brooklyn is the place his father left and never talks about. Nicholas has never been there, and he doesn’t want to go now.
But when Nicholas tastes his grandma Tutti’s meatballs for the first time, gets a nickname from his uncle Frankie, and makes a friend in the neighborhood, his feelings about Brooklyn–and family–begin to change.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6–What happens when 12-year-old Nicholas Borelli II leaves the posh suburbs to live with his Grandma Tutti in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, one summer? Fugheddaboudit. Nicky's father hasn't been back to his boyhood home in years; the big-time lawyer left his Italian roots behind without a backward glance. Now Uncle Frankie wants to turn his preppy nephew into a goomba…an Italian…from the neighborhood…who's been around…knows a few things. After meeting Sallie the Butcher, Jimmy the Iceman, and Oscar the Undertaker, and discovering Frankie's gym-bag arsenal, Nicky is convinced that his uncle is a hit man. In a few short weeks, the boy is sneaking into movies and running counterfeit bills with his new friend, Tommy Caporelli. He also meets a girl, learns to play stickball, saves his grandmother's life, and discovers the joy of Italian meatballs. When Tommy and Nicky agree to deliver bootlegged master copies of the computer chips for a hot new game, they are held hostage at gunpoint by some real gangsters. Nicky's dad and uncle, who turns out to be an undercover detective, save the day. The authors capture the flavor of an Italian household and neighborhood, sparing no stereotype. Though Nicky's foray into the world of petty crime has serious consequences, there is an underlying, boys will be boys attitude that could give impressionable readers the wrong idea. Still, the characters are well drawn, there's lots of action, and the protagonist is a likable hero. Even reluctant readers will enjoy this exciting summer-in-the-city adventure.–Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public Schools
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 4-6. When his summer camp closes unexpectedly, suburban teen Nicholas Borelli is shipped off to stay with his Brooklyn grandmother so that his parents can take a cruise. Grandma Tutti attempts to fatten him up with her Italian cooking (a big improvement over his mother's organic vegetarian cuisine), while Uncle Frankie tutors him in the ways of the "goomba"--Italian American males living in New York and New Jersey. Nicky makes friends with a neighborhood boy, Tommy (who seems to know a million ways to make easy cash), and tries to reconcile his growing affection for his uncle with his fear that he works for the Mob. Schirripa (who portrayed Bobby Baccalieri on the TV series The Sopranos) and Fleming have created a warm, funny story with memorable characters and enough shady intrigue to keep readers turning the pages. The closing scenes, in which Tommy and Nicky are locked inside a warehouse, hoping to be rescued, are particularly well done. Readers will be hoping for an encore. Kay Weisman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Library Binding: 176 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (September 13, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385902751
• ISBN-13: 978-0385902755
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,862,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Goomba's Guide for Kids, September 29, 2005

By 

Barbara Monroe "Barbara Monroe" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nicky Deuce: Welcome to the Family (Hardcover)

Being second generation Italian I was, believe it or not, a little hesitant to read this book. I had seen the movie "The Godfather" and "Good Fellows." And I thought, this is great, now they are hitting the kid market with the stereotypes.

But I was wrong.

This book is all about growing up, making mistakes; it's about family, and also about stereotypes.

Nicholas lives in an upscale, vegitarian home. When he has to stay with his Grandma Tutti for a few weeks his new environment, lower middle class, meat eating neighborhood where everyone knows your name, is a bit of a culture shock.

Nicholas becomes Nicky Deuce (renamed by his Uncle Frankie) and his transformation and life lessons are very believable and endearing.

The writing is deceptively easy, sucking you in. Before you know it, you're halfway through the book.

Would I want my kid to hang around with Tommy Caporelli? No! But from the safety of the printed page a kid can get in trouble and learn that doing these things can have dire consequences.

And what would an Italian story be without food! Great idea to include a few of Grandma Tutti's recipes at the end of the story.

Long live the Goomba!

5.0 out of 5 stars Bobby Bacala Baccalieri goes to Bensonhurst, November 12, 2006

By 

Gwynne C. Spencer (Mancos, Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nicky Deuce: Welcome to the Family (Hardcover)

Whitebread Nicholas has to spend a couple of weeks with his grandma in Brooklyn, and gets to know his Uncle Frankie, whose existence was a deep dark family secret. In the process he learns to be a "goomba" and learns to cook alongside his grandma (great incentive for boys to try the recipes for various traditional dishes), how to NOT make friends, and how to get in serious trouble with the law AND the mob. One of the good things is Nicky learn to make chicken with too much oregano and it's a hit. See recipe on www.cookingupreading.com for details.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Shameless Ethnic Slurs for Children, August 14, 2008

By 

A. Buttitta "database student" (Des Plaines, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nicky Deuce: Welcome to the Family (Paperback)

I'm appalled at the idea of these books for children.
What other ethnic group is treated this way in this day and age?
Why is it acceptable to denigrate people based on their origins,
the vast majority of whom came to America as hard-working citizens
ready to help build this country?

Yes the Mafia exists, even today. But every ethnic group has a criminal element. If people bothered to check their facts, they'd know that
Italians have struggled in solidarity and at great sacrifice to fight the gangs.

What these books teach to children is a despicable form of prejudice, presented as lighthearted fare. What a way to educate.