The Road to Paris

  In clear short chap­ters, Grimes tells a beau­ti­ful sto­ry of fam­i­ly, friend­ship, and faith from the view­point of a child in search of home in a harsh world. Nine-year-old Paris’ clos­est bond is with her old­er broth­er, Mal­colm, who pro­tects her when their alco­holic moth­er has no use for them and when they flee their abu­sive fos­ter home. Then Paris is placed in a lov­ing fos­ter fam­i­ly, but the price is sep­a­ra­tion from Mal­colm. What is more, as a bira­cial kid in a main­ly white neigh­bor­hood, it’s dif­fi­cult for her to find a friend, and the racism is ugly. Her fos­ter broth­er tells her to keep God in her pock­et, some­thing she nev­er for­gets, even when she must leave because her birth moth­er wants “to give this fam­i­ly thing anoth­er go.” The big upheavals are qui­et­ly told; and although God is Paris’ sup­port, the reli­gion is not didac­tic. The fos­ter fam­i­ly is kind but nev­er ide­al­ized, just as Paris’ birth moth­er is not demo­nized. In one hilar­i­ous scene, Paris tricks the self-impor­tant ther­a­pist, and it is the human sto­ry behind the case file that read­ers will remem­ber. (Hazel Rochman, Book­list, starred review)