In a world where paper is obsolete and magic is all but forgotten, Lydia has moved into the Paper Museum with her Uncle Lem following the disappearance of her parents. Convinced the key to finding them lies in the museum’s book collection, Lydia spends her days digitally scanning her way through the museum’s library. But when Uncle Lem is called away and her Uncle Renald is put in charge of the museum, Lydia’s scanning project comes to an abrupt halt. Uncle Renald takes her aer reader—the personal device that everybody uses for reading, shopping, messaging, and more—but not before Lydia makes a desperate attempt at filing a missing persons report for her parents. The report activates a countdown, and now with nothing but a secret typewriter in her dogwood fort and a cryptic message, Lydia has thirty days to find her parents and stop the mayor from commandeering the museum. Otherwise, both her family home and the Paper Museum itself will be reassigned to someone else. With aer readers on the fritz and the town descending into chaos, Lydia needs to find her parents before the Paper Museum—and her parents—are lost for good. The Paper Museum is a story of family and friendship with a hint of magic.

“Lydia’s suspenseful first-person narration effectively conveys her distrust, confusion, and amazement as well as her determination to find answers while creating a rich subtext focusing on the old world of books and paper and raising timely questions about the technology replacing them.… An absorbing, complex debut.” — Kirkus Reviews

“[E]motional drive confers depth in this clue-riddled novel.” — Publishers Weekly
 
“The Paper Museum is a wonderfully engaging story that is equal parts mystery and magic in a setting that contains both the inventively futuristic and the seemingly archaic. Beautifully told, with sympathetic characters and a compelling narrative that will pull readers through and keep them guessing until the very end.” —Wade Albert White, author of The Adventurer’s Guide series

Kate S. Simpson is a librarian at a small public library. A fan of books, hot chocolate, and rainy days, she loves visiting museums of all kinds. She lives with her husband and two children in New England, along with two cats and five typewriters. The Paper Museum is her debut novel.