The Road to Paris By Nikki Grimes

1. About the author If you enjoyed this book, you may also like… The Road to Paris By Nikki Grimes Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata The Skin I’m In by Sharon Flake Heaven by Angela Johnson Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson Quick Notes http://www.thencbla.org/biopages/biogrimes.html Nikki Grimes has written many books, some of which have won awards, including, Bronx Masquerade and Jazmin’s Notebook. She lives in California and is a textile and multimedia artist. Like the main character in this book though, she too once lived in Ossining with a foster family. http://nicolepoliti.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/paris.jpg By: Jacquelyn LaFleur October 5, 2010 http://www.sharongflake.com/_uploads/images/cache/21a48325a3dda91fa61de820be825010-229x345.jpg, http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n61/n307828.jpg, http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173314937l/272334.jpg

2. Summary Questions to consider along the way Important quotes Paris and her brother Malcolm have spend most of their childhood in foster homes, away from their alcoholic mother who was also constantly on the move. After running away from an abusive foster home, Paris and her brother show up at their grandmother’s house who agrees to watch after them for a few days. One day, Paris is awoken early to Malcolm screaming when he is being taken away by social workers, and later, Paris is escorted to another unknown foster home. She is scared due to her previous negative experiences and expects the worse, but she is pleasantly surprised when she finds the family to be congenial. She misses her brother terribly and later must face a tough decision when her birth mother calls her up and wants her to live back with her once again. "Sometimes I wish I was like my name, thought Paris, somewhere far away, out of reach. Somewhere safe down south or on the other side of the ocean. Instead, she was neither Paris nor Richmond. She felt like a nobody caught in the dark spaces in between. A nobody on her way to nowhere.” "Ask Paris if a phone call can be deadly. She'll tell you. She learned the truth of it last night." Why do Paris and Malcolm decide to leave the Boone’s home. Where do they go? Why can’t their grandmother take care of them? What is the Lincolns' home like, both physically and emotionally? Where did Malcolm go and why? In the end, where do you suppose Paris will live? Why?