Gate of the Giant Scissors

An American girl far from home finds courage in the most unexpected place. Joyce arrives in France to study, sent away from everyone she knows, but what begins as a lonely adventure becomes something altogether magical when she discovers a curious house marked by an enormous pair of scissors wrought in iron. Through Jules, her little French playmate, she explores the wonders and dangers of a foreign land while navigating the cruelty of Brossard and the kindness of Sister Denis and her dear Aunt Kate. This is a story of a young girl learning to find her way through strange streets, strange tongues, and the complicated terrain of friendship and fear. Nearly a century and a quarter later, the book endures because it captures something universal: that moment when the foreign becomes familiar, and when the people we meet along the way become the family we choose. It is for anyone who has ever felt like a stranger in a strange land, and discovered they have more courage than they knew.