Paper Things is a young adult novel in the realist style written by Jennifer Richard Jacobson and published in 2015. Jacobson wrote Paper Things as a demonstration of empathy for children and youth who become lost in the chaos of life and are forgotten by the world, particularly those who lose their homes and social connections. Paper Things was a Hudson Bookseller’s Best of Summer 2015, an ILA Social Justice Literature Award for Fiction winner, and a Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of the Year in 2015. It is a story about The Power of Hope, The Necessity of Community, and The Connection Between Homelessness and Shame. It explores The Weight of Decisions as they pertain to family and quality of life.

This guide refers to the 2017 Candlewick Press edition.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide contain descriptions of homelessness, stigma, and discrimination against people without a home, including violence and verbal abuse. They also contain content related to childhood bullying, bereavement, and miscarriage.

Plot Summary

Arianna “Ari” Hazard is 11 years old and sitting in class, distracted and exhausted. Two months ago, she followed her 19-year-old brother, Gage, out onto the streets, leaving their home and their guardian, Janna, behind. Gage had promised Ari that he had an apartment, but this was untrue: They have been drifting between friends’ places and shelters since then. All Ari has is her uniforms and her “paper things,” a folder of paper people and furniture that she has cut out of catalogs over the years. She collects coins she finds in the street.

Ari and Gage’s father was killed while in the army when they were young, and their mother died of an illness four years ago. Ari thinks about her best friend, Sasha, who recently got offered a patrol position at school. Ari hopes to get into Carter, a prestigious school that both her parents and brother attended, and worries that without any leadership experience, she will be denied. Ari volunteers at a Head Start preschool, where she is always warmly welcomed by the staff and kids, particularly one named Omar. After her shift, Ari is picked up by Gage, who takes her to the library to check out some books for an upcoming history project on Louisa May Alcott. Ashamed of having lost her library card, Ari is relieved when Gage lends her his. Ari and her brother take the bus to Gage’s girlfriend Chloe’s apartment. Chloe is hosting a party. Ari spends the evening playing with her paper things until she is interrupted by two people who mock her for it. Gage doesn’t like the idea of Ari being around adult parties and takes her to his friend Briggs’s instead. Briggs gives Ari a hat for “Crazy Hat Day,” but Ari laments that the school traditions have all been banned.

At school, Ari tries to finish part of her project during computer class, and a classmate named Daniel helps her evade being caught. Ari notices that Sasha seems less eager to have her spend the night, but she doesn’t want to tell Sasha about being without a home. On the way to Head Start, she meets a man without a home named Reggie, who has a friendly dog. Ari gives Reggie some coins she found to help Reggie buy dog food.

Gage looks for jobs, and Briggs gets an idea to ask his friend about a job at Jiffy Lube. On the same night, Briggs accidentally rips one of Ari’s favorite paper dolls, which makes her feel horrible. Ari goes over to Sasha’s, whose mother asks about her Carter application. Sasha wants to study, but when Ari helps her learn decimals and fractions using a clever method, Sasha criticizes her for being too complicated. Ari mentions a shared memory of playing with paper dolls together, and Sasha laughs it off, calling it dorky.

Ari gets picked up by Gage and Chloe the next day and runs into Reggie again, who gives her an intricately folded paper plane. At Briggs’s place, Janna is waiting for them, and Gage manages to convince her that the home belongs to him and Ari. At lunch the next day, Ari discovers that Janna is no longer paying for her school lunches. That night, Gage and Ari stay with a friend named Perry. Perry’s wife, Kristen, lets Ari sleep in the cupola. Ari looks at the paper plane from Reggie and sees that it has a Jiffy Lube ad on it. She sends the plane out of the window, making a wish for Gage to get a job there. The next day at school, Sasha and some other girls tease Ari about her greasy hair and disheveled appearance. Ari avoids them for the rest of the day. Daniel invites her to do something exciting before the school year ends, and she agrees as long as he helps her get into Carter. Gage comes to Head Start later and tells Ari that he got the job at Jiffy Lube. That night, they celebrate at Chloe’s place. They hope that Gage’s job means they will be able to find a home.

Their initial excitement wanes as they discover how complicated it is to get a place to live, especially when they never have before. At the same time, Janna cuts off Gage’s phone. Ari wants to tell Sasha the truth about her situation, but Sasha is angry at Ari and refuses to talk to her. Daniel agrees to help Ari with getting into Carter. Soon after, he suggests that Ari create her own leadership position, and Ari thinks about finding a way to bring back the school traditions. She goes to pick up an application for Carter and then goes to Head Start, where she shows the kids how to make paper snowflakes. One of the staff, a woman named Fran, laments the expense of buying a bike, and Ari offers to ask Reggie for a paper plane to wish on. At the end of the day, Gage doesn’t come to pick Ari up, and Ari ends up going to Chloe’s apartment alone. Nobody is there, so she goes to Briggs’s, eventually finding Gage asleep on a bench at the bus stop. In a panic, Gage takes Ari to an apartment viewing that they nearly missed. There, they find out that they need an income voucher to prove they qualify for low-income housing. Ari feels that her dreams of starting a new life have been dashed. That night, the man who usually helps them get into the shelter isn’t there, so they end up staying in Reggie’s storage unit while he spends the night at the shelter. Ari enjoys the coziness of the space and the opportunity to sleep next to Reggie’s dog.

Daniel calls Gage’s phone early the next morning, telling Ari to come to the school to put up snowflakes. Ari and Daniel decorate the hallways and Mr. O’s classroom and then await the reactions of the students. Ari is disappointed to find that many are unimpressed while others would have preferred to be included. The principal lectures Daniel and Ari, giving them both detentions. Ari hasn’t eaten all day, and this combined with the stress she feels causes her to vomit in the hallway and over the principal’s pants. Janna is called in.

Ari half-wakes in her old bed. She drifts in and out of consciousness and then wakes to Janna spoon-feeding her. When Janna leaves for work, Ari spends the day looking through her things. She comes across Janna’s scrapbooks and finds a photo of Janna and her father together, implying they must have dated. Ari wonders if the breakup is the reason Janna and Gage don’t get along. When Ari plays with her paper things later on, Janna tells Ari she might be getting too old for that and to get back to sleep. Ari wakes up later to Gage and Janna arguing and immediately packs her things to leave with Gage. Janna wants to protest but says nothing. Gage takes Ari to Briggs’s apartment, and Ari is warned to stay silent to avoid being caught by the landlord. When Ari is left alone, she sees Fran on the street and runs down to give her a paper plane, forgetting a key. Ari locks herself out and sits in the cold and in front of Briggs’s door, waiting for someone to show up. When Gage arrives, he reacts with anger and then with regret for putting Ari in that situation. Ari assures him that he takes good care of her.

While in detention, Ari works on her history project and looks for quotes by Alcott. Daniel interrupts and suggests reviving Crazy Hat Day, and Ari agrees to the idea. Daniel convinces her to apply to Carter despite her lack of confidence, and Ari wonders what address she is supposed to put on the form. Ari tries to be proactive and find some forms to get the income voucher Gage needs, but Gage takes it as an insult toward his own competence and stops her. When he asks Ari to spend the night at Sasha’s, Sasha declines and tells Ari she’s been acting strange lately. Ari and Gage head to the soup kitchen for dinner, where Ari sees Sasha’s friend handing out food. She dashes outside to avoid being seen and runs into Reggie again. With nowhere else to go, Gage and Ari sneak into the shelter, where Ari is put in a room with girls much older than her. The girls take her paper things and draw on them, mortifying Ari. Ari is woken in the middle of the night by Gage’s voice. Gage wants her to stay in the shelter, but she insists on leaving with him. They break into Chloe’s car and sleep there, and together they realize that they are just like all the other people without homes that they meet on the street.

In Mr. O’s class, civil disobedience is discussed, and the students decide that they should bring back Crazy Hat Day. After computer class, Ari's teacher gives her a new pair of shoes. Ari and Gage go to Chloe’s that night. Ari pretends to go to Sasha’s so that Gage and Chloe can go out. Instead, she stays at Chloe’s and feels utterly alone. She decides to call Janna and go home. Ari admits that she and Gage never had a home. Janna apologizes for letting her anger get in the way of stepping in, and three days later, Gage appears. He and Ari share a moment in which Ari apologizes but explains that she has to stay with Janna, and Gage decides that he still wants to live on his own. They realize that they must live apart but will always be together. Janna tells Gage how much she cares about him, and they hug.

Crazy Hat Day is planned for Friday, and Sasha’s new best friend is spearheading the event. Mr. O compliments Ari on her Alcott project, and Ari gets permission from Mr. O to set up a craft table on Crazy Hat Day for all the kids who couldn’t afford a crazy hat. Ari uses all her savings from collecting coins on the street to buy the supplies. She tells Daniel the truth about her experiences of being without a home and feels less embarrassed the more that she reveals. She also realizes that she and Gage were lucky to have so much help and support. Daniel agrees to help Ari with the craft table.

Crazy Hat Day arrives. Ari runs into Reggie one more time, who tells her that his wish planes have caught on across the city. Ari and Daniel set up their craft table, and kids start coming over to make their own hats. When the principal appears, so does a newspaper reporter, and Ari is interviewed about her craft table idea. She expresses a desire to keep traditions at the school to maintain a sense of community and to help those who are less fortunate. Ari tells of her experiences of being without a home and how that changed her perception. The principal reinstates the traditions, including the year-end sleepover. The next morning, Janna finds an article in the newspaper featuring Ari’s craft table and experience of homelessness. Ari decides to include the article in her school application. That night, Ari shows Janna her Alcott presentation and asks about her father. Ari and the other fifth graders attend the year-end sleepover, where Daniel gives Ari a snowflake necklace. Over the coming days, Ari notices paper plane wishes all over the place and is glad to know that she no longer has to rely on wishes. She gets accepted into Carter, and Gage gives her a catalog with her two favorite paper dolls featured inside. Janna gives Ari her scrapbook.

Ari graduates from elementary school. She and Daniel jump off the bleachers in the gymnasium together, ready for whatever might come next.