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American Girl Mysteries
The Puzzle of the Paper Daughter: A Julie Mystery
When Julie discovers a mysterious note written in Chinese, she brings it to her friend Ivy to translate. The note speaks of a story from long ago, but doesn't quite make sense. Julie suspects it may be written in a secret code. That night, the girls' beloved dolls are stolen. As Julie and Ivy search Chinatown, they decipher clues in the note that seem to link the stolen dolls to a long-lost friendship, and maybe a long-lost treasure. Can they unravel the secrets of the past before the thief does? Includes an Inside Julie's World essay about Chinese immigration in the early 20th century.
214 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 1, 2010
31 people are currently reading
400 people want to read
About the author
Kathryn Reiss
25 books190 followersKathryn Reiss was born in Massachusetts, grew up in Ohio, and received B.A. degrees in English and German from Duke University, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. After college, she lived in Bonn, Germany as a Fulbright Scholar, and during this time wrote the first draft of her first novel, Time Windows.
Ms. Reiss is an award -winning author of 20 novels for kids and teens. She has been a Writer in Residence for the Princeton Arts Council, a recipient of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Grant for Writers, and has been a featured speaker with (among others) Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, The Northern California Library Association, The International Reading Association, Fresno County Office of Education, California Reading Association, The American Library Association, and the National Council of Teachers of English. She lives in Northern California with her husband and the last of her seven children still in the nest. She is a Full Professor of English at Mills College at Northeastern University, and also teaches in the low -residency MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Ms. Reiss is an award -winning author of 20 novels for kids and teens. She has been a Writer in Residence for the Princeton Arts Council, a recipient of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Grant for Writers, and has been a featured speaker with (among others) Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, The Northern California Library Association, The International Reading Association, Fresno County Office of Education, California Reading Association, The American Library Association, and the National Council of Teachers of English. She lives in Northern California with her husband and the last of her seven children still in the nest. She is a Full Professor of English at Mills College at Northeastern University, and also teaches in the low -residency MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults at the University of Nevada, Reno.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
September 9, 2020
The mystery in this book revolves around stolen and missing Chinese dolls. I predicted one of the core plot elements after the author set it up in an early chapter, and even though the reveal about the culprit technically surprised me, Julie's reasoning was so convoluted and circumstantial that if the thief had not said something incriminating in response, no adult would have believed her. However, even though this book's primary mystery is subpar, the entwined plot about Julie and Ivy trying to find an old friend of Ivy's grandmother's is interesting, appealing, and meaningful.
This book is very educational, and addresses tough realities surrounding Chinese immigration and exclusion throughout America's history. The girls' trip to Angel Island with Ivy's grandmother was vivid and moving, and I appreciate how the book drew in so many important messages about listening to elders' stories, learning from the past, and grieving over historical injustice while still appreciating and marveling over how much people were able to accomplish in the face of discrimination.
If someone was only going to read one of the Julie mysteries, it should be this one. Even though some of the others have better constructed mystery plots, this one is the most educational by far, covering information that I didn't learn until college. I wish that I had read this when it first released, but given my previous experience with the Julie books, I can understand why I never gave it a second glance. I am glad that my 2020 American Girl binge led me to read it as an adult, and would recommend this to the target age group and up.
This book is very educational, and addresses tough realities surrounding Chinese immigration and exclusion throughout America's history. The girls' trip to Angel Island with Ivy's grandmother was vivid and moving, and I appreciate how the book drew in so many important messages about listening to elders' stories, learning from the past, and grieving over historical injustice while still appreciating and marveling over how much people were able to accomplish in the face of discrimination.
If someone was only going to read one of the Julie mysteries, it should be this one. Even though some of the others have better constructed mystery plots, this one is the most educational by far, covering information that I didn't learn until college. I wish that I had read this when it first released, but given my previous experience with the Julie books, I can understand why I never gave it a second glance. I am glad that my 2020 American Girl binge led me to read it as an adult, and would recommend this to the target age group and up.
February 13, 2012
i read this a couple of weeks ago, & it was so ridiculously confusing even while i was reading it, i don't have a lot of confidence that i'll be able to recap it sufficiently with all the time that has passed.
i guess it starts when ivy's grandmother donates a bunch of old clothes to julie's mom for her shop. it seems like julie's mom's shop oscillates between being a high-end hippie couterie, a general store for plastic hippie junk that will be out of style in three years, & a curated thrift store. make up your mind, books. as usual, julie's mother presses her daughters into slave labor for the store, requesting that they go through the pockets of every garment & inspect everything for stains & tears, & set aside the red & pink items for a valentine's day window display. julie is inspecting a small red dress. she sticks her hand in the pocket & finds an old piece of paper covered in tiny chinese writing. she saves it to ask ivy about it later.
her chance comes swiftly, as it's her weekend to spend at her dad's, & he lets her have a sleepover at ivy's. julie & ivy's family go to the happy panda for dinner. the place is packed with pretty much every remotely chinese american person ever mentioned in any of these books--ivy's entire family, a bunch of kids from her chinese school, her chinese school teacher, plus some other chinese folks from the neighborhood. everyone hangs out in a big group. julie shows ivy the paper, which ivy attempts to translate. ivy's chinese teacher looks it over & praises ivy's translation skills. a boy from ivy's class also looks at it & laughs, saying it doesn't make any sense. he guesses it might be some kind of poem.
then ivy's grandmother sees it & explains that it was a crib sheet her mother wrote for her when she immigrated from china as a teenager. her father was living in san francisco, but there were strict laws about how many & which chinese people would be allowed into the country. new immigrants were held on an island in the bay & put through grueling interviews designed to prove who they really were & that they really were related to the people already living in the united states. ivy's grandmother really was who she said she was, but she made a friend on the boat who was immigrating as a paper daughter. she was given a sheet of paper full of facts to memorize, which would help her fool immigration officials into believing that she was really the daughter of a couple living in oakland. ivy's grandmother had a similar paper, which made no sense to her, because it included a line about how ivy's grandmother needed to keep her doll, which she couldn't sleep without. the doll was brand new gift from a neighbor & ivy's grandmother was not especially attached to it. ivy's grandmother helped drill her friend on her crib sheet, but misplaced her own. she assumed it had blown overboard at some point. she thanks julie for finding it, as her mother died shortly after ivy's grandmother left china & she had nothing to remember her by. even the doll she brought from china had been given to the paper daughter friend.
one weird thing is that the note said the doll would bring ivy's grandmother "treasure". & when ivy's grandmother was reunited with her father, he asked if she had anything from her mother. she said she didn't & her father seemed crestfallen. but they made their new life work & ivy's grandmother had forgotten all about it.
julie & ivy have their sleepover at ivy's grandparents' place that night, an apartment above the restaurant. when they enter, the place has been ransacked & ivy's & julie's matching chinese dolls are missing. the grandparents call the police, but obviously the police are not real worried about some missing dolls. the girls find ivy's doll in the trash the next day, with her head popped off. ivy can fix the doll, but the girls don't get why someone would steal the dolls & break them, just to throw them away.
a mystery begins to unspool. the girls go looking for julie's doll & eventually find it in the trash behind the chinese school. they start to wonder if maybe whoever stole the dolls took that bit in the note about ivy's grandmother's doll "bringing treasure" literally, & broke into the apartment to look for the doll. ivy's grandmother was holding the entire restaurant in thrall with her story, but whoever went looking for the doll might have missed the part about how she gave the doll away to her friend. they compile suspects: a little girl at the restaurant who had whined for a new toy & acted all wild. the chinese teacher, who always wears a green scarf. a young man who seemed to know an awful lot about the history of paper sons & daughter immigrating through angel island.
the girls start canvassing everyone they can think of in chinatown, looking for clues. they interview all the oldsters. the little girl is eliminated as a suspect because the girls don't think she would go to all the effort of stealing dolls just to throw them away. but they start to notice the chinese teacher & the young man everywhere they go. they even start to wonder if they are being followed.
they deduce that the key to solving the mystery is probably to find the doll, & therefore they have to find ivy's grandmother's friend from the boat. they pore over the grandmother's old papers, photos, & correspondence, & narrow the field down to three likely candidates. then they use the old newspaper records at the library to figure out which old lady they are looking for, & they just start making cold calls. they luck out pretty quickly & call the old lady's son, bill. he confirms that his mother came from china as a paper daughter & grew up in oakland. he says that she's in the hospital right now recovering from a fall, but that they are welcome to bring ivy's grandmother to come see her.
they organize a big expedition & everyone is all excited about seeing the old friends reunited & trying to solve the mystery of the doll. they swing by the old lady's house first...just in the nick of time to thwart an intruder. someone was ransacking the old lady's bedroom, which is full of dolls. whoever it is escapes out a window & into the forest, but before s/he disappears, julie sees a flash of green. she begins to suspect the chinese teacher in a major way.
at the hospital, everyone is all smiles. they tell the old lady that an intruder was in her house, which...i've gotta say, is not exactly news i'd want if i was stuck in a hospital bed. they lament that whoever it was probably made off with the doll, but the old lady explains that she always keeps that doll with her & it is in the hospital. she retrieves it & after they explain their suspicions that something may be hidden inside it, she slits it open & finds an expensive jade necklace. ivy's grandmother realizes that the doll was a hiding place for the necklace all along, & that she was supposed to give the doll to her father so that he could sell the necklace & ease their way in the united states with a little extra income. but she was never told that the necklace was there, so she gave the doll away. her friend also never realized the necklace was there. she offers it back so it can be sold now, but ivy's grandmother declines. her restaurant is doing fine & she doesn't need the money. i have no recollection of what, if anything, happens with the necklace, or if the doll is repaired.
& then somehow julie puts it all together: the kid from julie's chinese school is good at translations. he saw the original paper & must have seen the bit about the doll & the treasure. he was horsing around with his friends & missed the bit about ivy's grandmother giving the doll in question away. he guessed right away that the treasure was in the doll & snuck upstairs to look for it. he stole ivy's & julie's dolls because he didn't know what an old chinese doll would look like. he ripped off the heads but didn't find anything, so he threw them out. they kept seeing him everywhere they went while they interviewed old people & looked for ivy's grandmother's friend, but they didn't think anything of it because he lived in the neighborhood (which doesn't explain why they suspected the young guy & the teacher, who also lived in the neighborhood). somehow he was always two steps ahead of them & figured out the friend must have the doll, & then he figured out where the friend lived. he was the one who broke in to steal the doll. his favorite color is green & he often wore a green sweater. his family is hurting for cash & julie guesses he thought he could get the treasure & help his family with it. & somehow a green lantern action figure helps julie figure all of this out.
confusing enough for you? yeah, it made no damn sense to me either.
i guess it starts when ivy's grandmother donates a bunch of old clothes to julie's mom for her shop. it seems like julie's mom's shop oscillates between being a high-end hippie couterie, a general store for plastic hippie junk that will be out of style in three years, & a curated thrift store. make up your mind, books. as usual, julie's mother presses her daughters into slave labor for the store, requesting that they go through the pockets of every garment & inspect everything for stains & tears, & set aside the red & pink items for a valentine's day window display. julie is inspecting a small red dress. she sticks her hand in the pocket & finds an old piece of paper covered in tiny chinese writing. she saves it to ask ivy about it later.
her chance comes swiftly, as it's her weekend to spend at her dad's, & he lets her have a sleepover at ivy's. julie & ivy's family go to the happy panda for dinner. the place is packed with pretty much every remotely chinese american person ever mentioned in any of these books--ivy's entire family, a bunch of kids from her chinese school, her chinese school teacher, plus some other chinese folks from the neighborhood. everyone hangs out in a big group. julie shows ivy the paper, which ivy attempts to translate. ivy's chinese teacher looks it over & praises ivy's translation skills. a boy from ivy's class also looks at it & laughs, saying it doesn't make any sense. he guesses it might be some kind of poem.
then ivy's grandmother sees it & explains that it was a crib sheet her mother wrote for her when she immigrated from china as a teenager. her father was living in san francisco, but there were strict laws about how many & which chinese people would be allowed into the country. new immigrants were held on an island in the bay & put through grueling interviews designed to prove who they really were & that they really were related to the people already living in the united states. ivy's grandmother really was who she said she was, but she made a friend on the boat who was immigrating as a paper daughter. she was given a sheet of paper full of facts to memorize, which would help her fool immigration officials into believing that she was really the daughter of a couple living in oakland. ivy's grandmother had a similar paper, which made no sense to her, because it included a line about how ivy's grandmother needed to keep her doll, which she couldn't sleep without. the doll was brand new gift from a neighbor & ivy's grandmother was not especially attached to it. ivy's grandmother helped drill her friend on her crib sheet, but misplaced her own. she assumed it had blown overboard at some point. she thanks julie for finding it, as her mother died shortly after ivy's grandmother left china & she had nothing to remember her by. even the doll she brought from china had been given to the paper daughter friend.
one weird thing is that the note said the doll would bring ivy's grandmother "treasure". & when ivy's grandmother was reunited with her father, he asked if she had anything from her mother. she said she didn't & her father seemed crestfallen. but they made their new life work & ivy's grandmother had forgotten all about it.
julie & ivy have their sleepover at ivy's grandparents' place that night, an apartment above the restaurant. when they enter, the place has been ransacked & ivy's & julie's matching chinese dolls are missing. the grandparents call the police, but obviously the police are not real worried about some missing dolls. the girls find ivy's doll in the trash the next day, with her head popped off. ivy can fix the doll, but the girls don't get why someone would steal the dolls & break them, just to throw them away.
a mystery begins to unspool. the girls go looking for julie's doll & eventually find it in the trash behind the chinese school. they start to wonder if maybe whoever stole the dolls took that bit in the note about ivy's grandmother's doll "bringing treasure" literally, & broke into the apartment to look for the doll. ivy's grandmother was holding the entire restaurant in thrall with her story, but whoever went looking for the doll might have missed the part about how she gave the doll away to her friend. they compile suspects: a little girl at the restaurant who had whined for a new toy & acted all wild. the chinese teacher, who always wears a green scarf. a young man who seemed to know an awful lot about the history of paper sons & daughter immigrating through angel island.
the girls start canvassing everyone they can think of in chinatown, looking for clues. they interview all the oldsters. the little girl is eliminated as a suspect because the girls don't think she would go to all the effort of stealing dolls just to throw them away. but they start to notice the chinese teacher & the young man everywhere they go. they even start to wonder if they are being followed.
they deduce that the key to solving the mystery is probably to find the doll, & therefore they have to find ivy's grandmother's friend from the boat. they pore over the grandmother's old papers, photos, & correspondence, & narrow the field down to three likely candidates. then they use the old newspaper records at the library to figure out which old lady they are looking for, & they just start making cold calls. they luck out pretty quickly & call the old lady's son, bill. he confirms that his mother came from china as a paper daughter & grew up in oakland. he says that she's in the hospital right now recovering from a fall, but that they are welcome to bring ivy's grandmother to come see her.
they organize a big expedition & everyone is all excited about seeing the old friends reunited & trying to solve the mystery of the doll. they swing by the old lady's house first...just in the nick of time to thwart an intruder. someone was ransacking the old lady's bedroom, which is full of dolls. whoever it is escapes out a window & into the forest, but before s/he disappears, julie sees a flash of green. she begins to suspect the chinese teacher in a major way.
at the hospital, everyone is all smiles. they tell the old lady that an intruder was in her house, which...i've gotta say, is not exactly news i'd want if i was stuck in a hospital bed. they lament that whoever it was probably made off with the doll, but the old lady explains that she always keeps that doll with her & it is in the hospital. she retrieves it & after they explain their suspicions that something may be hidden inside it, she slits it open & finds an expensive jade necklace. ivy's grandmother realizes that the doll was a hiding place for the necklace all along, & that she was supposed to give the doll to her father so that he could sell the necklace & ease their way in the united states with a little extra income. but she was never told that the necklace was there, so she gave the doll away. her friend also never realized the necklace was there. she offers it back so it can be sold now, but ivy's grandmother declines. her restaurant is doing fine & she doesn't need the money. i have no recollection of what, if anything, happens with the necklace, or if the doll is repaired.
& then somehow julie puts it all together: the kid from julie's chinese school is good at translations. he saw the original paper & must have seen the bit about the doll & the treasure. he was horsing around with his friends & missed the bit about ivy's grandmother giving the doll in question away. he guessed right away that the treasure was in the doll & snuck upstairs to look for it. he stole ivy's & julie's dolls because he didn't know what an old chinese doll would look like. he ripped off the heads but didn't find anything, so he threw them out. they kept seeing him everywhere they went while they interviewed old people & looked for ivy's grandmother's friend, but they didn't think anything of it because he lived in the neighborhood (which doesn't explain why they suspected the young guy & the teacher, who also lived in the neighborhood). somehow he was always two steps ahead of them & figured out the friend must have the doll, & then he figured out where the friend lived. he was the one who broke in to steal the doll. his favorite color is green & he often wore a green sweater. his family is hurting for cash & julie guesses he thought he could get the treasure & help his family with it. & somehow a green lantern action figure helps julie figure all of this out.
confusing enough for you? yeah, it made no damn sense to me either.
November 1, 2024
this book is SO GOOD. I mean, the mystery itself is kind of eh. I predicted the major Plot Thing, and the culprit was cornered with circumstantial evidence. But the mystery isn't what actually matters here.
It's the vibes. It's the cast of characters. It's the really nuanced exploration of Chinese immigration at Angel Island. It's a look at cruel practices that immigrants were put through and the way people who went through historical atrocities look back at their own experience. This book is interesting because it's about history in the sense its in the 1970s, but it's also the characters within the book researching and looking back at the 1910s.
It's really well done. Also, it has some plotlines which are scarily relevant to my real life right now, so that probably made it hit even harder.
It's the vibes. It's the cast of characters. It's the really nuanced exploration of Chinese immigration at Angel Island. It's a look at cruel practices that immigrants were put through and the way people who went through historical atrocities look back at their own experience. This book is interesting because it's about history in the sense its in the 1970s, but it's also the characters within the book researching and looking back at the 1910s.
It's really well done. Also, it has some plotlines which are scarily relevant to my real life right now, so that probably made it hit even harder.
December 22, 2019
This book was nothing as I expected based on the title of this book. It was such an amazing read, filled with so much history and information I never knew a thing about prior to this book.
Julie finds a note hidden in donated clothing and soon finds that it had an amazing heartbreaking story behind it which leads to Julie and Ivy trying to find her PO PO’s best friend from many years ago all while solving who took their dolls and why.
It was such an amazing journey and trying to solve it was really fun as this wasn’t one of the overly predictable ones like some of the AG mysteries have been.
Julie finds a note hidden in donated clothing and soon finds that it had an amazing heartbreaking story behind it which leads to Julie and Ivy trying to find her PO PO’s best friend from many years ago all while solving who took their dolls and why.
It was such an amazing journey and trying to solve it was really fun as this wasn’t one of the overly predictable ones like some of the AG mysteries have been.
October 11, 2024
Sure hope Julie’s mystery series to turn into an arc of Julie’s mother falling in love with the childhood best friend coming to stay with them so that Julie can get her room back
Read
October 19, 2024I actually did not figure out the mystery until the very end because I am secretly a 9 year old
February 11, 2024
The great AG marathon continues. Again, reading for the first time as an adult.
Like many AG mysteries, this one isn’t really about Julie. She’s the point of view character and our protagonist, but the person at the center of the story, the one for whom the events have the most emotional impact is Ivy’s grandma, Po Po.
Prompted by a long-forgotten note, Po Po tells her immigration story during a dinner at their restaurant. The loose ends that become part of the mystery are pretty easy to put together for an adult reader - I was about 70 pages ahead of Julie in figuring out why Po Po’s mother lied about the doll - but this was a fun read regardless. And I didn’t spot the thief nearly so quickly.
Whenever dolls pop up in AG books, you know there’s an element of “buy our dolls” subtext. Usually it’s very sweet, but the dolls here are treated considerably rougher! Fortunately, adults are on hand to help fix them up again. We get a glimpse of Mrs. Liu’s extensive doll collection, but the doll everyone has actually been looking for is Kai, who
By telling Po Po’s story, we get to join Julie and Ivy in diving further into the past. Their research methods include interviews, phone books, and a whole lot of newspapers on microfilm at the library. (LOVE it.) And in the process, we reckon - for what I think is the first time in AG - with anti-Asian prejudice. Reiss focuses mainly on the idea that Chinese immigrants were treated as unwelcome outsiders, and sets up a parallel in which Julie is not happy about having an old friend of her mother’s - who is moving to San Fran for a new start - come to live with them. It’s not flattering to Julie at first, but it is extremely understandable. To her credit, after learning more about the experience of Chinese immigrants like Po Po and Mrs. Liu, Julie spots the similarity for herself and changes her approach
Overall? One of AG’s better mysteries. If you’re picking and choosing, pick this one.
More Julie babble:
Meet Julie | Julie Tells Her Story | Happy New Year, Julie | Julie and the Eagles | Julie's Journey | Changes for Julie
Good Luck, Ivy
The Tangled Web | The Puzzle of the Paper Daughter | The Silver Guitar | Lost in the City | Message in a Bottle
A Brighter Tomorrow
Like many AG mysteries, this one isn’t really about Julie. She’s the point of view character and our protagonist, but the person at the center of the story, the one for whom the events have the most emotional impact is Ivy’s grandma, Po Po.
Prompted by a long-forgotten note, Po Po tells her immigration story during a dinner at their restaurant. The loose ends that become part of the mystery are pretty easy to put together for an adult reader - I was about 70 pages ahead of Julie in figuring out why Po Po’s mother lied about the doll - but this was a fun read regardless. And I didn’t spot the thief nearly so quickly.
Whenever dolls pop up in AG books, you know there’s an element of “buy our dolls” subtext. Usually it’s very sweet, but the dolls here are treated considerably rougher! Fortunately, adults are on hand to help fix them up again. We get a glimpse of Mrs. Liu’s extensive doll collection, but the doll everyone has actually been looking for is Kai, who
By telling Po Po’s story, we get to join Julie and Ivy in diving further into the past. Their research methods include interviews, phone books, and a whole lot of newspapers on microfilm at the library. (LOVE it.) And in the process, we reckon - for what I think is the first time in AG - with anti-Asian prejudice. Reiss focuses mainly on the idea that Chinese immigrants were treated as unwelcome outsiders, and sets up a parallel in which Julie is not happy about having an old friend of her mother’s - who is moving to San Fran for a new start - come to live with them. It’s not flattering to Julie at first, but it is extremely understandable. To her credit, after learning more about the experience of Chinese immigrants like Po Po and Mrs. Liu, Julie spots the similarity for herself and changes her approach
Overall? One of AG’s better mysteries. If you’re picking and choosing, pick this one.
More Julie babble:
Meet Julie | Julie Tells Her Story | Happy New Year, Julie | Julie and the Eagles | Julie's Journey | Changes for Julie
Good Luck, Ivy
The Tangled Web | The Puzzle of the Paper Daughter | The Silver Guitar | Lost in the City | Message in a Bottle
A Brighter Tomorrow
May 31, 2014
Julie finds an old note written in Chinese hidden inside the lining of an old jacket Ivy's grandmother donates to Gladrags. The note unlocks a key to a mystery surrounding Ivy's grandmother's past. It also opens up a discussion about Ivy's family history and her grandmother's experience coming to California in 1915. Julie and Ivy are excited about the idea of trying to reunite Ivy's grandmother with someone from her past, but then Ivy and Julie's Chinese dolls are stolen. Julie and Ivy are determined to get their dolls back and find out who took them and why. Julie begins to suspect that the theft of the dolls and the mystery of Ivy's family's past are connected. Meanwhile, Julie also has to deal with changes to her own household and learn to be welcoming to newcomers.
Julie's subplot moves the story along and introduces her to another change in her family life that she's not happy about. She acts selfish and bratty at first until she learns to put herself in other people's shoes.
I liked this book a lot because I learned something new about Chinese immigration. Angel Island and the west coast immigration experience isn't something I knew much about. I was fascinated by the paper daughter mystery of the title more than who stole the dolls and why. I figured out the WHY pretty quickly and the WHO before Julie did. It was pretty obvious and the ending was kind of fairy tale corny but not terrible. The 70s references weren't just tossed in to make it seem historical like in her core series, but are an integral part of the scene. I especially liked the description of the phone on the wall ringing, because I think that's something that many kids today are not familiar with. I also liked how the book shared more about Ivy's family background and was populated by her friends and family.
Julie's subplot moves the story along and introduces her to another change in her family life that she's not happy about. She acts selfish and bratty at first until she learns to put herself in other people's shoes.
I liked this book a lot because I learned something new about Chinese immigration. Angel Island and the west coast immigration experience isn't something I knew much about. I was fascinated by the paper daughter mystery of the title more than who stole the dolls and why. I figured out the WHY pretty quickly and the WHO before Julie did. It was pretty obvious and the ending was kind of fairy tale corny but not terrible. The 70s references weren't just tossed in to make it seem historical like in her core series, but are an integral part of the scene. I especially liked the description of the phone on the wall ringing, because I think that's something that many kids today are not familiar with. I also liked how the book shared more about Ivy's family background and was populated by her friends and family.
December 9, 2015
"The Puzzle of the Paper Daughter" really showed what it was like to be a Chinese immigrant and having to live on Angle Island waiting to maybe accepted to a new place to start a new life. People like Mei had to travel alone at a very young age. Who knew one doll that brought so many horrible memories could mean so much to a women. Find out by reading this book.
March 16, 2010
This is definitely one of the best of the American Girl mysteries. I loved the story- it was so interesting to read about Chinese American history. Of the three mysteries that came out with the February 2010 release, this was by far the best.
March 25, 2019
Sorry but s very mediocre mystery and writing. But I always enjoy and appreciate the historical notes and photos in the back of the books in the American Girl series books.
October 10, 2019
One of the unintentional themes of my 2019 reading is a review of juvenile Asian American historical fiction that I've read or wish I could've read when I was younger, and this is the third book so far that's covered the Angel Island detainment experience (The Fire Horse Girl is decidedly YA; The Dragon's Child: A Story of Angel Island is biographical and I feel like the Jimmy Yep character might be a nod to Laurence here).
As with the other Julie books, I really wish Ivy had been the lead here- while I do respect Julie as a character, and she's the perfect proxy for most readers (who I assume are predominantly white and/or not aware of Asian American history) it's a little strange that she's putting forth all this effort and energy into solving the mystery behind what happened to Ivy's grandmother's friend. Maybe because it's a distraction from the kinda-on-the-nose parallel in her own home with a newcomer coming to stay with them for a few months? I haven't read the Marie Grace and Cecile books yet, but I do wonder if a co-lead series would've worked here. Ivy was/is the only Asian American historical character (something I desperately wanted as a kid in the '90s), but isn't currently available except via this and her own bonus book. It sometimes feels like there's an assumption that Asian Americans are recent immigrant waves with no discernible history, but we've had a presence in North America for over a century and a half despite the "best" efforts of xenophobic policy makers attempting to block immigration.
Still, this book is well-written and the Chinatown elders being reluctant to revisit painful parts of the past rings true to the tight lips encountered when asking my aunties questions about my own Gung-gung and Po-po who passed before I was born. Early on we get a good introduction to the kind of questions immigration officials asked detainees with Po Po's crib sheet from her mother- how many steps in the stairs of your house? How many houses on your street? Who was your teacher, and where did they live? I've read the transcripts for one of my great-grandfather's interview and they really WERE that intense. Introducing young readers to the first immigration restrictions in the United States is a crucial reminder as we repeat history of detaining some immigrants for unspecified amounts of time in an unnecessarily cruel and arbitrary system.
Probably should have some more words for Julie herself here too- unlike Good Luck, Ivy or Happy New Year, Julie 1974 it definitely has the period vibe (Julie's sister Tracy is on the school committee for the Valentine Disco, one of Andrew Ling's friends is really into the Green Hornet (but why not Kato? Though I'd guess that's probably Andrew's fave because he was played by Bruce Lee!), phone accessibility, etc.) How groovy. I didn't recognize two of Julie's school friends, and I wonder if they're from the other Julie mystery books? There wasn't a specific order so I kind of went specifically for the one that I knew I'd be interested in.
tl;dr I really liked this but I'm still frustrated that Ivy isn't the main character and that this also could've been an #ownvoices book (and sure, to answer an inevitable "why don't you write what you want to see" I could try but cribbing from family history would take some digging and I know that's not entirely mine to share, but! I know I'm far from the only 3+ gen ABC)
As with the other Julie books, I really wish Ivy had been the lead here- while I do respect Julie as a character, and she's the perfect proxy for most readers (who I assume are predominantly white and/or not aware of Asian American history) it's a little strange that she's putting forth all this effort and energy into solving the mystery behind what happened to Ivy's grandmother's friend. Maybe because it's a distraction from the kinda-on-the-nose parallel in her own home with a newcomer coming to stay with them for a few months? I haven't read the Marie Grace and Cecile books yet, but I do wonder if a co-lead series would've worked here. Ivy was/is the only Asian American historical character (something I desperately wanted as a kid in the '90s), but isn't currently available except via this and her own bonus book. It sometimes feels like there's an assumption that Asian Americans are recent immigrant waves with no discernible history, but we've had a presence in North America for over a century and a half despite the "best" efforts of xenophobic policy makers attempting to block immigration.
Still, this book is well-written and the Chinatown elders being reluctant to revisit painful parts of the past rings true to the tight lips encountered when asking my aunties questions about my own Gung-gung and Po-po who passed before I was born. Early on we get a good introduction to the kind of questions immigration officials asked detainees with Po Po's crib sheet from her mother- how many steps in the stairs of your house? How many houses on your street? Who was your teacher, and where did they live? I've read the transcripts for one of my great-grandfather's interview and they really WERE that intense. Introducing young readers to the first immigration restrictions in the United States is a crucial reminder as we repeat history of detaining some immigrants for unspecified amounts of time in an unnecessarily cruel and arbitrary system.
Probably should have some more words for Julie herself here too- unlike Good Luck, Ivy or Happy New Year, Julie 1974 it definitely has the period vibe (Julie's sister Tracy is on the school committee for the Valentine Disco, one of Andrew Ling's friends is really into the Green Hornet (but why not Kato? Though I'd guess that's probably Andrew's fave because he was played by Bruce Lee!), phone accessibility, etc.) How groovy. I didn't recognize two of Julie's school friends, and I wonder if they're from the other Julie mystery books? There wasn't a specific order so I kind of went specifically for the one that I knew I'd be interested in.
tl;dr I really liked this but I'm still frustrated that Ivy isn't the main character and that this also could've been an #ownvoices book (and sure, to answer an inevitable "why don't you write what you want to see" I could try but cribbing from family history would take some digging and I know that's not entirely mine to share, but! I know I'm far from the only 3+ gen ABC)
January 13, 2024
This was a great historical mystery because it really focused on the historical aspect, and I loved that it took a deep dive into Chinese-American history and taught me something I didn't know, about detaining Chinese immigrants at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay.
May 15, 2021
Good mystery, lots of suspects, and all of them are suspicious, so it's not super easy to guess the ending, but the clues are there.
The only complaint is that it's really easy to forget that this book is set in the 1970s. Asside from a mention of Disco here and there, I kept having to remind myself that this was a period piece. But it does have a lot of good Chinese immigration historical facts, and it ties them in with a subplot to connect it to Julie's life so it doesn't just feel like Julie is tagging along with Ivy's story.
The only complaint is that it's really easy to forget that this book is set in the 1970s. Asside from a mention of Disco here and there, I kept having to remind myself that this was a period piece. But it does have a lot of good Chinese immigration historical facts, and it ties them in with a subplot to connect it to Julie's life so it doesn't just feel like Julie is tagging along with Ivy's story.
September 7, 2023
I really enjoyed this! I don’t know if I’ve ever studied about Angel Island and the Chinese immigration detainment until now. Although an awful time in US history, it was fascinating to learn more.
The doll storyline and friendship between Jiao Jie and Mei Meng was really sweet. I figured out long before the story ended that that jade necklace was in the treasured rag doll.
Such a great AG mystery and certainly one of my favorites!
The doll storyline and friendship between Jiao Jie and Mei Meng was really sweet. I figured out long before the story ended that that jade necklace was in the treasured rag doll.
Such a great AG mystery and certainly one of my favorites!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 17, 2025
Julie finds a note written in Chinese hidden in a coat that was brought to the second-hand clothing store that her mother owns. She brings it to her friend, Ivy, to get translated. It turns out that the note belonged to Ivy's grandmother and was written in code. Together, the girls decipher the code, bring two long-lost friends together, and discover a hidden treasure.
May 27, 2023
I wish all the books in the original Julie series were this well written! The historical factor was interesting to me as well, and something that I didn't actually know tons about outside of snippets.
August 23, 2017
A fun read! This one was a stand-out for us both.
January 7, 2020
The mystery was a little too obvious, but in the book’s defense I’m 20 and not the target audience of around 11.
February 15, 2020
A different sort of book. Much higher reading level and a mystery to solve while learning about Chinese immigration.
August 20, 2020
This is very good for young kids to read since it teaches a little bit of history towards the end. (I definitely learned something!)
August 15, 2021
The mystery is pretty easy and not the most interesting part of the story. I quite enjoyed learning about Chinese immigration at the beginning of the 1900s.
June 25, 2022
I vaguely remember reading this back in 2017
September 3, 2022
Another great American Girl mystery
March 31, 2024
Such a fascinating topic and well-paced read!
January 18, 2025
This was more like my kind of mystery. It involved history of the Chinese and how they were not allowed into the US like other immigrants. Very good mystery as well. Good for younger readers.
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May 5, 2025easy and fun read
January 11, 2022
As a young reader I loved this book so much. I learned about the Chinese immigration to the United States through Angel Island,and also the mystery in this book made me want to read it every day.I liked that there was basically 2 mystery's in one. I read it in 6 days cause it was so good!!!
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