The Road to Paris

by Nikki Grimes

Book Overview

Inconsolable at being separated from her older brother, eight-year-old Paris is apprehensive about her new foster family but just as she learns to trust them, she faces a life-changing decision. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0142410829
• ISBN13: 9780142410820
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.1" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

Happily Ever After???

Well done! Paris is a strong girl that goes through some very serious trials and tribulations in the course of this book. She escapes the horrid conditions of a previous foster home only to have the one thing she cares about most ripped from her by her grandmother - her own brother. After Paris is separated from her brother, she moves in with a family who has had foster children before. Paris learns to trust, love and find true happiness. Coretta Scott does an incredible job of entering the realm of an unhappy topic and teaches Paris how to find god and happiness even through the rough times. She uses beautifully descriptive language in her writing. My favorite passage was when she described the first snowfall Paris encountered. Beautifully written. She leaves us with an idea of Paris' future and although it is unclear - the reader feels secure that Paris has gained confidence and understanding that will get her through whatever is to come. A true piece of literature!

A Great Book to Read

This is a story about an eight-year old girl, Paris and her ten-year old brother, Malcolm who grow up in foster homes because their mother is an unfit mother. The beginning of the story talks about how a home is a funny place because they go from foster home to foster home at a fast rate. Therefore when Paris and Malcolm are separated permanently to different foster homes, Paris begins to rethink her idea of home being a funny place. Paris learns that being in her new foster home with the Lincoln's is not as bad at she thought it would have been. She learns that singing in the church choir is very therapeutic, she also learns to keep God in her pocket when times get tough in her life. She learns that even her foster family can become her family when she realizes how much they love her and care for her. Later on in the book she is reunited with Malcolm and her mother. Paris and Malcolm must decide to leave their current situations to move in with their mother and new step-father or stay where they are.

Overcoming the stigma of being a biracial girl in a white town.

Nikki Grimes' THE ROAD TO PARIS tells of Paris, who has been moved from one mean foster family to another, never fitting. She expects no betters from her latest family the Lincolns - but they are different - perhaps even different enough to help her overcome the stigma of being a biracial girl in a white town.

The Road to Paris

Eight-year-old Paris Richmond barely remembers the white father who gave her blond hair; he left when she was four. The story goes that he hated owning up to a child with dark skin. Paris' ten-year-old brother, Malcolm, hadn't fared much better. His dad left when Malcolm was just a baby. But being father-less didn't mean that they ever accepted their mom's latest husband as any kind of substitute, so when he walks out, Paris and Malcolm are actually glad. Their mom, on the other hand, slips into depression and turns to alcohol for comfort. Things get so bad that their mom often abandons them to spend hours at the bar. That's when Child Services steps in, and Paris and Malcolm are shipped out to a foster home. But life is hardly pleasant at the Boone house, and Paris knows it will never be home. After getting locked in the closet for days on end, punished for crimes the Boone daughter did, and then beaten black and blue, Malcolm and Paris know they have to get out of there. They run to the only family they have left, their grandmother. Unfortunately, their grandmother is hardly glad to see them. According to her, she's raised her kids and now she's done. She contacts Child Services and new foster homes are considered---but this time they separate Paris and Malcolm. Malcolm is Paris' strength, hope, protection and only source of love, and it tears her to pieces when they send him to a boys' home. Paris ends up in the suburbs, with a family by the name of Lincoln. Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln have two boys of their own, plus a teenage girl fostering with them. She enters the old but comfortable house with trepidation; she holds no hope for her present or her future. But within a few weeks, she knows she's not with people like her mom or the Boones'. She has her own small, but cozy bedroom, and no one beats her or locks her in the closet. The Lincolns never coddle her, yet they make her feel welcome, accepted and safe with their acts of kindness. And when she goes to their church for the first time, she discovers amazing joy in the music, and happily joins the choir. She even uncovers faith in God that helps her through the anger she feels for her mom. Even though she constantly misses her brother, she begins to feel she can call this place a home. She even made a friend at school. But then she gets a phone call from her mom---and her mom wants her back. Ms. Nikki Grimes is an award-winning author, and her talent shows in her newest story, THE ROAD TO PARIS. Her life-like characters speak from the heart, and her expressive and colorful descriptions are perfectly presented through eight-year-old eyes. The story line moves smoothly and engagingly. Ms. Grimes is sure to see more writing awards in her future. --- Reviewed by Chris Shanley-Dillman, author of Finding My Light and The Black Pond --- Courtesy of www.kidsreads.com

The long and winding road

Here's a fun way to determine whether or not a book will make for a good discussion in either a classroom or a bookclub. First, read the book. Two possible choices now lay before you. If you finish the title and find yourself 100% perfectly clear on why every character performed as they did, that is not a good book for discussion. If, however, you do as I did with "The Road To Paris" and after finishing the book suddenly find yourself thinking and rethinking the book's ending in a vain attempt to determine whether it was happy or sad, then THAT, my friend, THAT book has incredible promise. All the great classic books, from "The Giver" to "Charlotte's Web" have that quality. Now "The Road To Paris" has it too, and I would not hesitate to thwap it soundly on the head with the CLASSIC stick. This is a good book. A good book that manages to talk about a serious, even depressing subject without dragging the reader down into the realms of misery. No small feat, to say the least. "Ask Paris if a phone call can be deadly. She'll tell you. She learned the truth of it last night." For years, Paris and her older brother Malcolm have only had one another to count on. Though they've been taken from foster home to foster home, Paris can still remember and be hurt by the memory of their alcoholic mother. So when Malcolm and Paris escape the latest abusive home to stay with their grandmother, she's unprepared for the horror of being separated from Malcolm after all these years. Paris has been sent to live with the Lincolns, a kind family who've dealt with foster kids before. It takes a great deal of love and understanding on their part to break through Paris's wary shell so as to convince her that she is finally safe. But when a phone call comes from her real mother telling her she can come live with her again, Paris must decide what "home" really is. Reviewers seldom comment on the length of a children's book, unless they happen to be dealing with a 700+ page fantasy tome (or, as the book industry calls them, "the norm"). I, however, would like to point out that "The Road To Paris" stands at a handsome 153 pages. From this length, we may understand that Nikki Grimes does not stand for overwrought flowery speech. Her language is remarkably beautiful, as much in what she doesn't say as in what she does. When, for example, you read right at the beginning that, "In the world of Paris Richmond, normal was rare, and rich", those words weigh heavy on the page. Descriptions abound and they aren't there to merely fill up space but to give the narrative itself a three-dimensional quality. There is a moment where Paris sees for the first time in her life her neighborhood buried until a thick covering of white powdery snow. "Paris thought it was a shame to disturb all that perfection, but she planted her bots into the snow, one step after another, creating a trail of fat footsteps even the man in the moon could see..." Ms. Grimes also has t