Alexis has a secret about herー...er, himself.  Well, it’s not really a secret ー at least not outwardly ー but it hasn’t been expressed aloud to anyone else, except the therapist.  He hasn’t told anyone yet, but plans on telling Marie first, mostly because she lives thousands of miles away in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Alexis and Marie have been pen pals since the 6th grade, and since they have never actually met IRL (in real life), Alexis feels more comfortable telling her first.  
 
Marie, too, has just learned of a secret that her parents have been keeping from her, one that upends her life and changes the way she thinks about everything.  In a letter that Marie inadvertently finds in a desk drawer, she learns that her grand-parents ー her mother’s parents ー are not only not her biological grandparents, but who they are, and more importantly who they were, are in direct conflict with who Marie is and what she believes.  
 
While Alexis struggles with identity, so too does Marie.  In this story, two virtual friends work together to solve their own mysteries, one intensely personal and the other with how she now relates to her own family as the secrets of the past ー the family’s and the country’s ー become even more real. 
 
Level 4
Total words: 7800; unique: 510; cognates: 254.
 
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