Busted
by Dan Gemeinhart
read by Mark Sanderlin
Macmillan Audio, 2025. 8 hours, 44 minutes.
Review written July 31, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review
Busted is one of those intergenerational caper novels that are fabulous when done well, and this one is exquisitely pulled off, with plenty of adventure and crazy situations for middle school students to enjoy, while simultaneously giving adult readers like me all the feels.
Oscar has grown up in a retirement community. Three days after his birth, he went to live with his grandpa at Sunny Days retirement community, and he’s got a huge set of unofficial grandparents who look after him. The book opens when Oscar is twelve years old and attending his forty-ninth funeral, for Mr. Howell, the kind man who owned the place.
When Mr. Howell’s son takes over, it isn’t long before Oscar and his Pops learn their rent is going to be quadrupled. So when a shady character down the hall offers Oscar money to do something for him, Oscar goes against his instincts and against everything he learned from the kind folks he lives with.
What Jimmy Deluca wants is for Oscar to bust him out of the nursing home. Mr. Deluca uses oxygen, wears a monitor, and is checked on every four hours. At first, Oscar thinks it’s enough to get Mr. Deluca out the door without the alarm going off, but next thing he knows, if he wants the money, Oscar has to come along.
And it’s not just Oscar and Mr. Deluca, whose mafia name turns out to have been Jimmy the Wrench. Jimmy the Wrench brought along his hairless cat, Mr. Buttercup. And then Natasha, Mr. Howell’s twelve-year-old granddaughter, inserts herself into the caper, someone much less uptight than Oscar about breaking rules.
They set off in Mr. Deluca’s classic car on what turns out to be a bucket list journey to some sketchy places, but starting with a mall, where Oscar has to buy clothes for Natasha to wear in place of the bathing suit she was wearing when she broke out of the retirement community with them. Including underthings.
Oscar figures they won’t get busted if they get back to the retirement community before a nurse checks on Mr. Deluca in four hours, but he didn’t account for Mr. Deluca’s plans.
The whole adventure is a wild ride from one thing to another. We learn that Oscar has some unusual talents as he gets to wrestle with when to worry about the right thing to do and when to worry about the good thing to do. The foursome (including the hairless cat) make an unlikely group, and this story is entertaining every step of the way – but comes to a conclusion so poignant, you might shed a tear or two.
I clearly haven’t read enough books by Dan Gemeinhart, because every one I have read has packed a punch.
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/busted.html
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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.
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