Busted

Gr 3-7–Twelve-year-old Oscar Aberdeen lives with his grandpa at Sunny Days, an assisted living facility for seniors. He is the apple of the elderly residents’ eyes, and he considers all of them family. Oscar has seen his share of funerals and given the eulogy on several occasions. When Sunny Days changes hands, the new owner drastically increases the monthly rents. Unless Oscar and his grandpa can find money somewhere, they will be homeless at the end of the month. A mysterious new resident named Jimmy DeLuca moves in, setting the gossip mills churning; he’s “connected,” the gossips whisper, a mobster! Oscar steers clear until one day, Jimmy DeLuca makes him an offer he can’t refuse: help him break out of the facility and Jimmy will pay him in stacks of cash, enough to pay the rent forever. “Operation Jimmy Shimmy” is afoot; the old man and Oscar sneak out the front and almost make a clean break, but they are ambushed by pesky girl Natasha who insists on coming along. The unlikely trio: the wheezing octogenarian mobster, good kid “Boy Scout” Oscar, and nosy Natasha set off in Jimmy’s 1953 Kaiser Dragon. They make several stops and run into bad guys, car thieves, floozies, mobsters, gamblers, nogoodniks, cops, and overall sketchy people. Nonstop action and fast pacing keep the story rollicking along. Gemeinhart crafts a delightful story of unlikely friendships and breaking out of one’s comfort zone. Tweens will enjoy the funny vocabulary and speech patterns Oscar has picked up from being around adults who are 60+ years his senior. Main characters are cued white.