THE ROAD TO PARIS

Eight-year-old Paris Richmond has never had it easy.

Her white father walked out on the family; her black mother tends to drink when she’s lonely. Only Paris’s older brother Malcolm is a constant, even when they are sent to live with an awful foster mother. When the children run away, Family Services separates them and Paris must face a strange new foster family and a new school on her own. The Lincolns turn out to be a good foster family, and Paris spends a year learning to trust others, God and herself. She finds not being entirely forthcoming can be as painful as being false, and she finds in her new strength forgiveness for her birth mother. Grimes has created a real little girl whose growth is perfectly paced and believable. The characters around her are not all perfectly realized, but Paris’s story is touching and worth a place in most collections.

Given the dearth of success stories featuring foster children and bi-racial characters, this is all the more important.