The Paper Museum

An inquisitive 12-year-old moves into a house of antiquities after her parents disappear in this speculative middle grade fantasy debut by Simpson. Three months after her data analyst father and laboratory officer mother vanish, narrator Lydia remains with her uncle Lem at the Paper Museum, which her family has run for generations. The gated institution houses paper and paper artifacts, considered outmoded in a world where few objects are shared, magic based on interpersonal connections has been banned, and people rely on holographic aer readers to accomplish most tasks. Under the guise of a bookmark-cataloging project, Lydia attempts to locate a clue to her parents’ whereabouts in the emblem-embossed volume she last saw her mother holding. When Uncle Lem abruptly departs, her cheerless uncle Renald takes his place just as three interns—one more than expected—arrive, along with a representative from the mayor’s office, searching for a foreign object of magical importance. If hazy worldbuilding undercuts the mystery as Lydia stumbles into tensions around technology reliance and surveillance, emotional drive confers depth in this clue-riddled novel. Characters default to white. Ages 8–12. Agent: Tracy Marchini, BookEnds Literary. (Sept.)

Correction: A previous work by the author cited in this review was misattributed.