Paris and her brother are victims of their mother’s alcoholism, cruel men and the foster care system. Beaten by her first Foster mother, Paris and Malcolm run away. Finally forced to separate by Child Services, Paris goes to live with the Lincoln’s, where she finds a family to love and a friend at school. When her mother calls, asking for Paris to return home, Paris must first define home.
I immediately drew association between The Road to Paris and Han Nolen’s Born Blue. Both: follow children after being abandoned by their mother, deal with racial tensions, deal with children being separated and with the concept of returning home to a mother, no matter how unworthy she may be. Of course, Paris is a juvenile book while Born Blue is for an older teen.
Both are excellent. Both drew me in to stories that couldn’t be further from my own experiences as a child, and yet made me feel as if I knew what is was like for these kids.
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