Paper Daughter by Jeanette Ingold

Summary/Cover Image taken form Publisher's Website:

Maggie Chen was born with ink in her blood. Her journalist father has fired her imagination with the thrill of the newsroom, and when her father is killed, she is determined to keep his dreams alive by interning at the local newspaper.

While assisting on her first story, Maggie learns that her father is suspected of illegal activity, and she knows she must clear his name. Drawn to Seattle's Chinatown, she discovers things that are far from what she expected: secrets, lies, and a connection to the Chinese Exclusion Era. Using all of her newspaper instincts and resources, Maggie is forced to confront her ethnicity--and a family she never knew.

Review:

Paper Daughter is one of those books that not only has the reader thoroughly engaged and entertained throughout the story, but teaches about a different time in history as well; a combination I always adore!

Paper Daughter tells the story of Maggie Chen, a girl who's coming to terms with the death of her prolific journalist father while making her own breakthrough into the journalism world and investing a troubling part of her father's past, and Fai-yi Li, a young boy who came over to America as a paper son in the 1930s, having ties to Maggie that neither could have possibly imagined.

I really liked both the main characters of Paper Daughter, and I felt that even with the split narration, I still got a really great feel of who they were. It would be unfair to pick favorites because each had diverse parts to them that made Paper Daughter the fabulous book it was. You see, Fai-yi Li brought to life a story of the past that taught me a thing or two I didn't know before, while Maggie's gave me an inside look into the world of journalism. Also, both brought emotional and lesson portions to the story that I enjoyed and think other's will as well.

While short, Paper Daughter still had a rock-solid plot, filled with mystery and suspension. The mystery was always a little basic and predictable, but it still had me flipping through the pages, eager to find out more about what it was that brought Maggie and Fay-yi together and what happened that one night months ago that brought Maggie's father's life to an tragic end. Lastly, Jeanette's writing always moved swiftly.

In all, Paper Daughter is a well-done mixing of historical and current times that I highly suggest you pick up the next time you see it at the library or bookstore.

Grade: B

Paper Daughter is now out!

Source: Publisher. Thanks Harcourt!