The Paper Girl of Paris

Taylor’s suspenseful debut tells the story of Adalyn Bonhomme, a teenage French Resistance worker in Paris during WWII, in her own words and as uncovered by her grandniece, 16-year-old American Alice Prewitt. Upon the death of Alice’s beloved grandmother, Chloe, she and her parents are stunned to learn of an abandoned family apartment in Paris that Chloe left to her. In Paris to “check out the apartment,” the Prewitts make another discovery: Chloe had a sister, Adalyn, with whom she was extremely close. Fortuitously finding her great-aunt’s diary and photos of her dining with Nazi officers, Alice—aided by handsome French teenager Paul—seeks to understand why her grandmother never spoke of Adalyn and their home. Relying on Adalyn’s journal—which never reveals her Resistance work—to solve this mystery, Alice finds Adalyn’s activities perplexing; readers, however, are privy to her firsthand account of posing as a Nazi sympathizer. Meanwhile, Adalyn’s romance with Paul grows, and she becomes desperate about her family’s silence regarding her mother’s depression, situations that parallel Adalyn’s experience. While the two voices can sound indistinct from each other, both absorbing narratives build momentum, posing thoughtful questions about secrets and loyalties. Ages 13–up. [em]Agent: Danielle Burby, Nelson Literary. (May) [/em]