Maggie Chen, 16-year-old summer intern at the Herald newspaper, follows in her journalist father's footsteps. She gets caught up in the fascinating flurry of activity in the newsroom, investigating a suspicious death with one of the reporters, which seems to be connected with her own father's demise.

Too many questions keep popping up about her father's past. Disturbing inconsistencies lead Maggie to NARA and genealogical research in a quest to find out who her father really was and why he lied to her.

Jillian, a fellow intern who sometimes appears to be on the ditzy side, is right with Maggie in her family research. Despite a rocky start, the two find some common ground.

Maggie is entranced with the newsroom, it's energy, going out into the field, the research, and the writing. Dad told her that she did not have to decide what to do with her life at age sixteen.

Paper Daughter by Jeanette Ingold, 2010

It was neat to learn more about the lives of journalists and the Exclusion Era, in which Chinese immigration was discouraged by the United States government.

• Books about China
• Books about Exclusion Era
• Jeanette Ingold's web site