Nicky Deuce

Welcome to the Family

By: Steven R. Schirripa, Charles Fleming

Narrated by: Joe Grifasi

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.

©2005 Steven R. Schirripa and Charles Fleming (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group

Just Great ~ Enjoyable for all Ages !

I wish this book was also offered in the adult section, as it is fun for all ages! Kudos to the narrator who absolutely brings this to life: you can smell the marinara sauce cooking! The storyline is great; the authors bring you all the color and character of the neighborhood and those who live there --again, you feel like you know them and might bump into them on the street.
Whether you are more like Nicky and his father, or like Uncle Frankie or the goombas, you can relate to this warm, quickly-paced narrative that is also thought-provoking and nostalgic....and no, you don't have to be Italian to enjoy ~ I'm a grown woman from Missouri via Hawaii. Loved it!