Finding Paris

January 15, 2015
Paranormal author Preble (The A-Word, 2014, etc.) crosses over to straight teen fiction with this drama wrapped in a mystery. Studious Leo and artistic older sister Paris live in Las Vegas with their mother and stepfather ("Tommy Davis, who shouldn't be anybody's idea of permanent, only our mother married him anyway"). Leo studies for the SAT and dreams of her escape; "eventually I will be something...maybe even a surgeon. Surgeons don't hesitate once they've decided what they need to do." For now, the sisters watch out for each other-at least they do until Paris sets Leo up with Max and then drops out of sight, leaving behind a scavenger hunt of worrisome clues that draws Leo and Max together. A road trip (complete with analysis of the metaphorical content of country songs and the sharing of life-altering secrets) ensues as messages from Paris increase in urgency. With her lodestar AWOL, Leo is forced to consider whom to trust and who is really protecting whom. Adults are somewhat cliched (waitress-with-a-heart-of-gold, creepy stepdad, distracted mom), but the teens have character and complexity to spare. Leo's heart may pound, hop, race, skip, skitter and thud, but her straight-A, Stanford-bound personality has depth, and the more mercurial-and mostly absent-Paris remains engaging and believable. Fast-paced with intriguing teen characters, a budding relationship and a bit of mystery-curiosity will keep those pages turning. (Fiction. 13-17)

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January 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-Leo and Paris are sisters; very different personalities, fathered by different men, but bound together by their need for stability and support. Their mother, who has dragged them from town to town and man to man, now has them living with her latest acquisition, who seemed cool enough at first, but since moving to Las Vegas, has begun showing his true colors. Leo is fed up with their lifestyle, and is working hard to get into Stanford to study medicine. Paris, the artist, has no clearly defined plan beyond escaping her present circumstances. Late one night, Paris awakens Leo claiming that she's in need of pie and sympathy. At the diner, she dares Leo to talk to an attractive young man seated at a nearby table. Shortly after Leo accepts the dare, Paris disappears along with the car and Leo's cell phone. Max, amazingly accommodating for a stranger she's just met, offers Leo his help, and together they locate a cryptic, hastily written note from Paris containing an obscure clue and a plea for Leo to find her. What follows is a scavenger hunt in which notes bearing clues to various locations lead to more notes. In a dramatic climax, the steady, step-by-step progression of the plot takes a surprising turn and suddenly barrels forward, blindsiding readers with unexpected twists. An intricate guessing game of sisterly devotion, romance, and quiet desperation.-Cary Frostick, formerly at Mary Riley Styles Public Library, Falls Church, VA

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2015
Grades 9-12 Paris Hollings is missing, but she has left behind scavenger huntstyle clues in silver Sharpie, affixed to surfaces with Hello Kitty Band-Aids, to help her younger sister, Leo, find her. The teens recently moved to Vegas from L.A. with their casino-dealer mom and gambling stepfather. Paris has graduated high school, but it is Leo who has pinned her dreams on Stanford and a medical career. While mired in a constant state of SAT retake prep, Leo follows Paris' scribbled notes all the way to L.A. and back again. Preble skillfully paces the quest as her character development gently unfolds along the desert highway. Readers are privy to deep, dark secrets and, like Preble's characters, are left to reconcile them with the unexpected owner of this painful past. As the hunt draws to an end, the motive behind the quest is devastatingly revealed. Still, resounding truths remain: the heartbreaking bond of these devoted sisters, the sadness of their family reality, and their shared gratitude that they will always be there for each other.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)