Retired teacher pens historical novel for teen readers

Retired teacher Janet Simpson has written a young adult historical novel, the type of book Simpson said she was seeking for her students.

“The Joy of Stealing Paris” focuses on Krista Berger, a German teenager employed as a nanny for the Cole family, who are Americans living in newly Nazi-occupied Paris in September 1940. The family has stayed in France instead of returning to the U.S. because Norman Cole refuses to believe rumors about what the Nazis are doing to Jews.

His decision turns out to be potentially deadly for himself, his wife and two young children because they are living in France with a secret — their real last name is Cohen and they are Jewish. When their true identity is discovered, the family — with Krista’s help — must frantically try to escape Paris and reach southern France before they are arrested by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp where they are likely to die.

While Krista and the family she works for are fictional characters, the woman who tries to save them — famous American entertainer Josephine Baker — is a real person and her secret efforts with the French Resistance and espionage to help the Allies were the inspiration for the novel, Simpson said. She added that one of the plot twists early in the book’s opening was also inspired by a friend’s experience in post-World War II Europe.

Simpson — a Rancho Bernardo resident — said she taught middle school literature for 15 years in Philadelphia. “I was reading all the great novels, never tired of them and said I’d love to write a story,” she said.

Her goal was to write something that could affect pre-teens and teenagers the way she saw Lois Lowry’s novel “Number the Stars” — also about Jews in World War II — impact her students.

When Simpson learned about Baker’s heroic wartime efforts, which she said many do not know about, that became a crucial element to her novel because her students in Philadelphia were primarily African-American — as was Baker — but the literature for young adults featuring African-Americans is limited.

She said her book could be valuable to middle and high school teachers during their lessons about World War II or when seeking books for Black History Month, which is February. To facilitate classroom use, Simpson included 22 discussion questions and writing prompts in the novel.

While Simpson said it was not her goal to have the novel’s strong, heroic characters be female, she said it just developed that way.

“I really enjoyed the (writing) process,” Simpson said of her first literary attempt that required a lot of research.

Realizing the publishing industry is very difficult to break into, Simpson said she decided to go the self-publishing route, but utilized the editorial services offered by the publishing company plus she had the book edited by several friends, who provided suggestions on areas to cut or expand.

Simpson said she is open to speaking with groups. She recently spoke to an eighth grade class at Oak Valley Middle School in 4S Ranch about the writing process.

“It was fun to be back in the classroom,” she said.

“The Joy of Stealing Paris” is available on Amazon.com as a paperback for $9.99 and in electronic version for $2.99. To contact Simpson, email her at janetsimps@gmail.com or go to her website at www.janetsimpsonauthor.com.