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Paper Things by Jennifer Richard Jacobson
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Paper Things (edition 2015)

by Jennifer Richard Jacobson (Author)

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2731896,459 (3.99)None
Ari is a fifth-grader who dreams to go to Carter Middle School just like her family did. But Ari’s situation isn’t exactly normal. Her mother died four years ago wishing that Ari and her older brother Gage stay together always. But now that Gage is nineteen, he decides he can no longer live with their guardian, Aunt Janna. Ari decides to leave with Gage, but after two months, Gage still hasn’t found an apartment for the two of them. Instead, they have been staying with whoever is willing to take them in. All of this “couch surfing” is taking its toll on Ari’s schoolwork, cleanliness, and friendships. Can this situation go on forever? Or will Ari be forced to make a tough decision and break her mother’s dying wish?

Ari is a strong character who does not even realize she is homeless at first. As Gage and Ari’s situation develops, Ari discovers a strength she never knew she had and opens up to the people around her. In the book PAPER THINGS, Author Jennifer Richard Jacobson reveals a whole new perspective on homelessness. It is not just what we see on the streets of big cities, homelessness is so much more. How many children in our schools are in situations like Ari? Books are mirrors, reflecting our own lives; and windows, showing us the lives of others. PAPER THINGS would be an excellent addition to any classroom/school library. ( )
  MrsDruffel | Jan 3, 2017 |
Showing 18 of 18
Excellent book on the topic of homelessness, on fostering, on finding ways to be a leader in your community even when you are having a really hard time. Also, great love expressed in a wide variety of ways, and friendship dynamics that model good and bad friendships. Contemporary large city, 5th grade protagonist, brother pulls her our of a stable foster home in order to maintain their family. Gage and Ari's situation is all too believable, and the storytelling is extremely effective at getting that across.

( )
  jennybeast | Apr 14, 2022 |
When Ari and her older brother Gage were left orphans upon the death of their mother, they came under the guardianship of Janna. But Gage and Janna butted head constantly. And when Gage turns 18 (and this is where the book starts) he lies to Janna and tells her he has an apartment lined up, and he's moving out - and taking Ari with him.
But he doesn't have an apartment, or a job. The two are homeless. At first it isn't too bad spending a few nights with one of Gage's friends here or there, but in time, they've worn out their welcome and become street people.
All the while, Ari, once a shining academic star at her elementary school, is struggling to keep up her grades, and losing hope that she will be accepted to a prestigious local middle school that she's been dreaming would be her next step. Her best friends at school begin to shun her, as she is often unclean and distracted. But a boy in her grade who she'd never paid any attention to seems eager to befriend her, in spite of her body odor and greasy hair. Ari, and sometimes her brother too, get support from some unexpected people. As this is a middle grade book - you know things will all work out in the end.
The middle of the book is slow moving. Although this does make getting through that middle stretch a little dull, it's important. The reader needs to see and feel how worn down, miserable and exhausting being homeless is, even for a short time. The tedium of that middle stretch gives that emotional impact.
Only real drawback - I found it hard to swallow that Gage would voluntarily go out to be homeless and drag his 11-year-old sister with him; and that Janna would have so willingly allowed Ari to go with Gage, even if she did think he had an apartment lined up. ( )
  fingerpost | Feb 27, 2022 |
Paper Things is a window into a world I hope my students do not have to experience in real life. Being homeless is a problem that does occur in our world so it is important that students have a way to understand the hardships that people go through. It is about so much more than just being homeless though, the characters in this book are so relatable and interesting. I was not able to put this book down, having to know what happened next to Ari(5th grade) and Gage(18). What really stood out is that the characters aren't perfect, but rather very human, making some great decisions and some bad ones that have repercussions. I'd recommend to 3rd-8th, but surely some high school students would still enjoy. ( )
  LectricLibrary | Feb 16, 2022 |
Ari and her nineteen year old brother, Gage, have been living with Janna since their mother died a few years ago. One of her mother’s final wishes was that Gage and Ari would always stay together. But, things are different with Janna and a lot of days are a struggle for Gage. One day he loses his temper and decides to leave. Ari knows she has to go with him, even though her life with Janna is stable. Plus, Janna helps her with her homework at the school for the gifted that she attends (her mother’s other final wish) and she takes care of her. They have to stick together, so she goes with him. Janna thinks they are living in an apartment, but Gage hasn’t been able to find anything. Instead they have been staying with different friends and sleeping on couches. Other days they sleep in the car and occasionally the shelter. Ari doesn’t have a lot with her and she has to try her best to clean her school uniform, so no one will know she isn’t living with Janna anymore. Her favorite thing to do is to lay out her paper families. She cuts them out of catalogs and makes up stories about them. She knows them and they comfort her. Keeping track of your belongings isn’t easy when you are coming and going all the time, sometimes in a hurry. Can Ari and Gage continue trying to make it on their own? How will Ari continue at school with her ever changing living arrangements? Will Janna find out what is happening? Your heart will go out to Ari as you navigate her new life with her.

Paper Things by Jennifer Richard Jacobson was a book a library assistant told me I had to read because it was her favorite book. I took a picture of it with my cell phone, so I wouldn’t forget. Imagine my surprise a month later when I am at the Connecticut Children’s Book Fair and I see the cover of the book that’s on my phone. It was a delight to meet Jennifer Richard Jacobson and her presentation was so interesting. I was excited to start reading Paper Things and I was not disappointed. Ari tugged at my heart strings, and I kept thinking about the challenges in her life. Kids who are going through a tough time will find a character that they can relate to and be inspired by. I can understand how Ari’s paper families comforted her. I would recommend this book to anybody in fifth grade and up who likes a book that makes your heart ache for the main character, and you can’t help but hope it will have a happy ending. ( )
  Robinsonstef | Jan 21, 2022 |
When Ari’s older brother, Gabe, doesn’t want to live with their guardian anymore, Ari chooses to leave with him and they become homeless. Gabe can’t find a steady enough job to get an apartment, so Ari and Gabe switch between staying with Gabe’s girlfriend and two roommates, Gabe’s friend in a tiny apartment, and sometimes a juvenile homeless shelter. All of this change makes it hard for Ari to keep up with school and her friends, particularly when she is trying to apply to Carter, the middle school for gifted students. The only constants in her life are Gabe and her paper things, the people from catalogs she cuts out to be her paper families. When things are getting too hard in her turbulent life, Ari manages to make new friendships and realize that she wasn’t alone through any of what she has been through, enabling her to get out of her homeless situation.

Paper Things is a beautiful book that will have the reader thinking more thoughtfully about homelessness. Ari is a strong, thoughtful character in spite of everything she goes through. She’s always positive and tough. Gabe is a great character too, willing to do whatever it takes to do what he thinks is best for Ari, even though he might not be right all of the time. The relationship between Gabe and Janna (their guardian) is never fully explained, so the reader is left wondering why Gabe is putting himself and his sister in such a difficult situation to get away from her. The ending is wrapped up a little too conveniently, but the lighthearted tone of the book makes it so the change from homelessness to not being homeless isn’t jarring. Paper Things shows that even though life can be difficult sometimes, there are still people around to help others get through hard times and have reason to hope for a brighter tomorrow. ( )
  vivirielle | Aug 4, 2021 |
This moving novel tells the story of adolescent siblings struggling with homelessness after the death of their parents.
  NCSS | Jul 23, 2021 |
Recommended Ages: Gr.

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  pigeonlover | May 21, 2019 |
This book is about what it's like to be a kid and not have a home. Gage and Arianna (Ari) lost both parents too early. Their dad died when Ari was a baby and their mom died when she was 7. Since then they have been raised by their mom's best friend, Janna. Now Gage is 19 and he's tired of following Janna's rules, but he promised his mom he and Ari would always stay together. When he decides to leave, he takes Ari with him. The problem is that he doesn't have an apartment, so they both end up having to couch surf. Sometimes they have to stay in a shelter.

Ari accepts this for awhile. She has faith that Gage will get a job and apartment. In the mean time, she doesn't tell her friends. She is successful for awhile, but her grades are slipping, she sometimes smells and her cloths are looking ragged. People are beginning to suspect.

Between this book and [b: As Small as an Elephant|9327053|Small as an Elephant|Jennifer Richard Jacobson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320556884s/9327053.jpg|14210299], I preferred the second, but there is still a lot to like about this book. As a former teacher, it saddens me to wonder how many of my students may have been in situations like this and I was too blind to realize it. The descriptions of homelessness ring true to me. There's a lot of detail. The only thing that bothered me was the brother. It didn't ring true for me that a 19-year-old would take his 11-year-old sister out of a perfectly good home to live this vagabond life. It also didn't ring true that Janna would allow this to happen. If the story had been set up a little differently I would have given it 5 stars. ( )
  valorrmac | Sep 21, 2018 |
A touching story that follows Ari and her brother Gage as they navigate homelessness after leaving their guardians home. Her struggles in continuing her success in school and staying in touch with friends, much less finding a place to sleep, shower & getting clean clothes, are made clear in the narrative. Ari is torn between taking care of herself and keeping promises to her deceased mom. The book is wrapped in a neat package with problems resolved. ( )
  ewyatt | Jan 7, 2018 |
Jennifer Richard Jacobson excels at creating young characters and then transporting you directly into their minds and hearts. Paper Thing's eleven year old main character, Ari, is brave, thoughtful and smart and I felt every minute of her difficult plight. Reading this in the doctor's waiting room I was almost in tears and had to take a minute to gather myself. But there's no melodrama in Paper Things, just truth in all its sunshine, darkness and shades in between. As an aside I have to mention that I found the paper game Ari plays with photos cut from catalogues to be such an insightful and realistic detail - one of many that you'll discover in this wonderfully nuanced book.
  chronic | Mar 23, 2017 |
Wonderfully written book on homelessness, sibling love and caring, 5th grade friendships, middle school nervousness, and so much more ! ( )
  mcorbink | Mar 12, 2017 |
Ari is a fifth-grader who dreams to go to Carter Middle School just like her family did. But Ari’s situation isn’t exactly normal. Her mother died four years ago wishing that Ari and her older brother Gage stay together always. But now that Gage is nineteen, he decides he can no longer live with their guardian, Aunt Janna. Ari decides to leave with Gage, but after two months, Gage still hasn’t found an apartment for the two of them. Instead, they have been staying with whoever is willing to take them in. All of this “couch surfing” is taking its toll on Ari’s schoolwork, cleanliness, and friendships. Can this situation go on forever? Or will Ari be forced to make a tough decision and break her mother’s dying wish?

Ari is a strong character who does not even realize she is homeless at first. As Gage and Ari’s situation develops, Ari discovers a strength she never knew she had and opens up to the people around her. In the book PAPER THINGS, Author Jennifer Richard Jacobson reveals a whole new perspective on homelessness. It is not just what we see on the streets of big cities, homelessness is so much more. How many children in our schools are in situations like Ari? Books are mirrors, reflecting our own lives; and windows, showing us the lives of others. PAPER THINGS would be an excellent addition to any classroom/school library. ( )
  MrsDruffel | Jan 3, 2017 |
Ari's mother wanted two things for her: that she get into Carter, the middle school for gifted students, and that she and her brother, Gage, stay together. But when Gage's run-ins with their guardian, Janna, get worse, he moves out - and Ari chooses to stay with him. The problem is that Gage doesn't actually have an apartment. Instead, they end up 'couch surfing' at various friends of Gage's, like his girlfriend Chloe (and her roommates), or at a shelter where neither of them are the right age. They even end up spending a night in a rented storage garage and in Chloe's car. But it's hard to get your homework done when you're moving back and forth every night and Ari's grades are slipping, and she's no longer at the top of her class. Worst of all is that she's too afraid to say anything to her friends, and she worries that her clothes aren't clean and that she sometimes smells bad. The dream of going to Carter seems to be slipping away from her.

This is a very well-written and heartfelt book, but I'll be honest: it made me very uncomfortable. So uncomfortable through the first half, that I didn't enjoy reading it. It's written for middle-grade kids (Ari is 11 and Gage is 19) and shows a side of life most will never see yet does it in a good way - I don't think parents need worry about anything inappropriate or the way it ends. But it really highlights some of the challenges of normal things like school under such hardships. It's not preachy, but it shows other homeless people in a very sympathetic light (without touching on causes of homelessness like mental illness and addiction). By the end I really liked the book a lot, but it was an uncomfortable read. (I rec'd an advance copy from Amazon Vine.) ( )
  J.Green | Nov 22, 2016 |
Ari, an eleven year old girl and her nineteen year old brother Gage are practically homeless ever since they left their guardian, Jenna. Their mom died 4 years ago, and Jenna was her best friend so she trusted Jenna to take care of them. Gage never liked Jenna because he thought that she would never replace his mom. Jenna would always yell at Gage and boss him around. Ari would go to school and hang out with her friends. Ari had a best friend who always went to Ari's house. Ari always played with her paper people she cut out of magazines. She also played it with her best friend, Sasha, they would also cut out furniture and toys for their paper things. Ari had named all her paper people and the most important one was, Miles, he was Ari's very first paper thing when her mom was still alive. One day Ari was in her room and she heard Gage and Jenna arguing. Gage had told Jenna he already had an apartment , he wanted to leave. Then Ari had to choose who she wanted to stay with. Ari had made a wish that they will stay together, so she chose Gage. When they started walking outside, Gage had told Ari that there isn't an apartment yet, but they are going to his girlfriends house, Chloe. Gage and Ari would stay at either Gage's friends house, the lighthouse, or Chloe's apartment. Ari's school had got a new principal and he wouldn't allow the traditions they had at the school, for example when the first snow hits the ground they would stop everything they were doing and make snowflakes and hang them everywhere. Since Ari's new principal wouldn't allow Ari wanted to try everything to get them back. Ari's friend, Miles, made a bucket list before they go to middle school with a lot of things to do before they go to middle school. Miles wanted Ari to help him with the list, so he asked her if she can fill in number 7 and 8 for the bucket list. At first Ari didn't wan to but she decided she wanted to fill one in saying to bring back the school traditions, and help her get into her dream middle school, Carter. Then Gage finds an apartment but for a good deal, but they need to have a certificate from their old house. One day Miles and Ari made snowflakes and hung them everywhere in the early morning. They didn't think they would get in trouble, but the speaker went on and it was the principal called Ari and Miles to his office. Ari was about to tell the principal something, but she got sick and hurled all over the floor. She had to go to the nurse and Jenna was called. Jenna came to pick Ari up from the nurse and went to take Ari to her house. Jenna told her she had to go to work so she got ready for work. Ari asked if she could watch TV, Jenna never really let them watch TV. Jenna turned it on for Ari and went to work. When Ari felt a little better to stand up she went into Jenna's room and she found a scrapbook of memories. It had pictures of her mom, her father, and Jenna when they were in high school. When Ari saw the pictures she mostly seen pictures with jus Jenna and her father. Ari wanted to know what happened, but if she asked Jenna, Jenna would know she was in there and would have got in trouble. When it got close to graduation Miles and Arid decided to do a crazy hats day to get the school traditions back, but the popular girl in the class blurted her idea out and people say she started it when Ari did. Ari wanted to put a table of decorations people can put on their hats or hats for people who didn't have one.When it was crazy hat day the news people came and talked to Ari and Miles said it was Ari's idea, so then Ari started saying why she started the traditions again, and the next day the principal brought back the traditions. On graduation day Miles still wanted to jump off the bleachers with Ari and at the end they did.

I thought this book was interesting because it talked about how Ari and her brother Gage had fought through their homelessness when they left their guardian Jenna. Ari would collect coins on the ground to put in her piggy bank too see if she can get anything out of it, which she did. At the end Gage and Jenna make up and they go back and live with their guardian again. Gage and Chloe still went out together even though its been though for Gage. I gave the rate a 3 because on some of the parts the book was boring because it wasn't really saying what was going on. In the end i finally understood what was happening in their lives. When Miles and Ari jump off the bleachers and the book just ends i didn't really understand what was happening. ( )
  hienh.b3 | Mar 15, 2016 |
This story was fine, but it felt a bit "after school special" to me. ( )
  EmilyRokicki | Feb 26, 2016 |
Narrated by Kate Rudd. Ari doesn't see herself as homeless as she and big brother Gage couch-surf for several weeks after they leave Janna their guardian. But they are homeless and the lack of structure and stability impacts her schoolwork, hygiene and her friendships. Young readers will see that homelessness isn't limited to panhandlers and people mumbling on the streets, that it can happen to regular kids like themselves. Rudd gives youthful voice to Ari who believes Gage can make things all right, and we feel Gage's frustration simmering under the surface when he can't. ( )
  Salsabrarian | Feb 2, 2016 |
Paper Things is a realist novel about how close homelessness is to each of us.

Ari is eleven and has a home with Janna and her brother Gage. Janna is their guardian, but Gage has never gotten along with her. When he's had enough, he tells Janna that he has an apartment and he's taking Ari with him. Ari wants to stay with her brother, yet she doesn't want to leave her home and Janna, whom she has grown to love. Janna agree to take Ari and Gage when their mother died because she had known their parents and would love their children. Gage lied; he doesn't have an apartment, so Ari and Gage float from shelters to friends each night.

The novel emphasizes the difficulty of finding a place. One needs references to get an apartment; to get references, one needs to stay in an apartment. It's a catch-22. Also, one must offer first and last months rent. Many people can't get that much money together. Life also complicates things--in this day and age, you need a phone. Ari wants to attend Carter, which is by invitation. She has to have leadership roles and good grades. She's always been a very good student. Things are falling apart, both literally and figuratively. Her shoes are no long sewn together but flop, keeping her toes cold all the time. She often can't get homework done because she moves every night and may not have a computer or room to do her homework in other people's apartments or homes. She's also tired because it's hard to sleep in a different place every night. Her best friend no longer seems interested in being friends and is heard talking about how Ari smells. Showers are no longer always available. One student seems to want to help Ari, Daniel. Daniel doesn't know what's going on, but he likes Ari. He makes a "bucket list" for elementary school and wants Ari help to fulfill it. They reach a compromise. His friendship and one teacher's help keep Ari from completely falling apart.

Ari has a great attitude and doesn't take her situation out on others. At some point, she has to analyze the situation and see if there are other choices. This realistic novel is one of those eye-openers as to what can really be going on in someone's life without anyone realizing it. We are all willing to judge with little information and without "putting on someone else's shoes." I do worry that some will find Ari a little childish because she likes to play with her cut-out paper dolls. The purpose of the dolls are to be a metaphor of what a perfect family is supposed to look like in ads and tv. This view is unrealistic and at some point needs to be reexamined for truth. ( )
  acargile | May 31, 2015 |
Thanks, Elana, for recommending this book! What a captivating and authentically captured book about how young teens plod through their lives with the same daily hopes and desires despite what their individual circumstances may be... in this case, being homeless. A must read! ( )
  amillion | Dec 31, 2014 |
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