• Age: 12 to 15
• Grade: 7 to 10
• Reading age: 12 to 15

Mac’s school trip to Paris turns into an adventure she never imagined.

Fourteen-year-old California girl Mackenzie, known as Mac, goes on a school trip to Paris where she meets up with an old musician friend of her dad’s, Rudee Daroo, who now makes a living as a cab driver. Rudee reveals that some of the greatest monuments in Paris are being either destroyed or stolen and that the city is slowly becoming darker.

Mac finds herself in league with a crew of crazy cabbies and their friends as she tries to right these wrongs. She encounters sinister, shadowy characters who live in the Paris underground, a philosopher gendarme, a gypsy who can dance people into dream states, and gargoyles come to life. From dodging her school group to a heart-stopping encounter atop Notre Dame Cathedral, Mac needs all the resources she can muster to help Paris remain the "City of Light."

Christopher Ward, Canada's original MuchMusic VJ, wrote the worldwide No. 1 hit Black Velvet. His songs have been recorded by Diana Ross, The Backstreet Boys, and many others, and he's been seen as a judge on YTV's The Next Star. Ward is also the author of Dead Brilliant and Mac in the City of Light. He lives in Toronto.

Christopher Ward's profile page

• Commended, Top Grade: CanLit for the Classroom selection

With its fast pace and abundance of laughs, Mac’s adventure is a great page-turner.

Quill & Quire

This slightly off-beat romp carries a whiff of steampunk, travelogue, and “Bridget does Paris” new-age style, all rolled into one.… The semi-fantastical events work to keep readers’ interest and give a coordinated alternate view of a city that has been marketed as “McParis” perhaps once too often.

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Mac in the City of Light is an action-packed tale that gives young readers an intriguing glimpse of Parisian life and culture. It features numerous colourful characters, including Rudee Daroo with his great passion for beets and his odd but amusing sayings, and villains who are satisfyingly malicious.

Canadian Materials magazine