Kay Weisman (Booklist, Oct. 1, 2005 (Vol. 102, No. 3))
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. Category: Books for Middle Readers--Fiction. 2005, Delacorte, $15.95, $17.99. Gr. 4-6.

Sharon Oliver (Children's Literature)
Nicholas Borelli II is all set to spend the summer at camp, but a septic system explosion has cancelled camp the day before his parents are leaving on a two-week cruise. In desperation, his parents decide to send him from their upper-class neighborhood in New Jersey to his father’s family home in Brooklyn, where for the first time he really gets to know his grandmother and her family. He begins the summer as a fish out of water, but soon he is rechristened Nicky Deuce by his Uncle Frankie and begins to discover that life in the neighborhood might not be anything like what he thought it was. Run-ins with a couple of small time hoods and the growing belief that Uncle Frankie is connected to the mob provide the basis for a story that is part mob story, part coming of age story and part hilarious comedy, with a dab of first romance thrown in for good measure. A rollicking good read with wide appeal, and a must for libraries serving middle-school kids. 2005, Delacorte Press, $15.95. Ages 11 to 14.

Kelly Grebinoski (Children's Literature)
An explosion in the septic tank turns twelve-year-old Nicolas Borelli II’s life upside down. His parents are going on a cruise, and he was supposed to attend his annual summer camp. Will Nicholas get to spend the two weeks alone? No way! He has to go to Brooklyn to hang out with his Grandma Tutti (who his father hardly ever saw or talked about). Once he tastes her meatball dish and gets a nickname, Goomba Nicky is sucked in. In fact, he is on the lookout because he thinks he has learned a little too much about his uncle. Could he be a hit-man? Nicky is about to find out this and many other interesting dark family secrets. This action-packed, full-adventure book will hook even a reluctant reader. The characters are likeable and the plot is filled with many surprises. What will Nicky learn when his parents get back from vacation? It may change Nicky forever. 2005, Steven Schirripa and Charles Felming, $15.95. Ages 12 up.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2005 (Vol. 73, No. 17))
When his summer camp is unexpectedly canceled, 12-year-old Nicholas Borelli II is sent by chauffeured SUV to Brooklyn to spend two weeks with his grandmother. A boy from the suburbs, Nicky knows nothing of his Italian heritage but his Uncle Frankie sets out to teach him, beginning with movies. And it's the movies, or television, that inspire the rest of the plot, involving Nicky's ignorance of his Uncle Frankie's mysterious job, his willingness to go along with a new friend in increasingly unsavory efforts to make money, a kidnapping and a rescue that includes a shoot-out. Stereotypes abound. Clothes make the characters, and Nicky and his friend Tommy bond over a shared fondness for a particular Game Boy game. Shoplifting, passing counterfeit money, breaking and entering, attempting to deliver stolen goods-all are part of Nicky's introduction to Italian-American life, and, the reader is told, the kinds of things all such boys do. Unlike his grandmother's delicious meals, this extended ethnic joke leaves a sour taste. 2005, Random, 176p, $15.95. Category: Fiction. Ages 10 to 12. © 2005 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Michelle Glatt (Library Media Connection, January 2006)
Prep school student Nicholas is sent to stay with his Italian grandmother in Brooklyn for the summer. Authors Charles Fleming and Steven Schirripa, an actor on the TV series The Sopranos, insert nearly every Italian-American stereotype into this novel, from the pictures of Frank Sinatra to grandma's constant cooking of tremendous amounts of food. The plot hinges on the fact that Nicky's Uncle Frankie is an undercover police officer, not a gangster as Nicky suspects. Nicky never figures it out himself but the reader can see it coming a mile away. Sopranos fans would be better off reading Gordon Korman's Son of the Mob series (Hyperion Books for Children/Disney Publishing Worldwide, 2001). Additional Selection. 2005, Delacorte Press (Random House), 176pp., $15.95 hc. Ages 12 to 16.

Karen Coates, Reviewer (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, January 2006 (Vol. 59, No. 5))
Gently bred Nicholas Borelli II is about as distanced from his Italian heritage as his parents can get him, but when an accident in his posh summer camp forces a relocation to his grandmother’s house in Brooklyn, he’s set for an education in Fugeddaboudit 101. His uncle Frankie teaches him the lingo, introduces him around the neighborhood, and rechristens him with a proper goomba name. He starts to hang with Tommy, a young goodfella in training, and they find themselves on the wrong side of some wiseguys, causing Nicky’s father to come out of his New Jersey no-goomba zone to the rescue. Schirripa, whom some readers will know as Bobby Baccalieri from The Sopranos, captures the flavor (or at least the stereotypes) of an intimate Italian community; he and his co-author Fleming write with relish about the colorful nicknames, the shady goings-on, and the amazing food that constitute everyday life in this particular Brooklyn neighborhood. We don’t get to know enough about pre-goomba Nicholas to really appreciate his transformation into Nicky Deuce, but since the characterization is based largely on stereotypes, maybe the fact that his mother is a vegetarian is all the backstory we need. Nicky’s initiation culminates in a life-threatening showdown between the goombas and the wiseguys, and the resolution features Italian-American heaven on earth: Grandma Tutti, making lunch for her loudly arguing sons, in a kitchen presided over by dual images of the Pope and Frank Sinatra. Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2005, Delacorte, 167p, $17.99 and $15.95. Grades 4-7.