The Map from Here to There

October 15, 2019
An immersive senior year experience, beginnings and endings included. After an amazing summer with her screenwriting partner, Maeve, in New York City, Paige Hancock's life back home in Oakhurst, Indiana, is looking up--reminders of the drowning death two years earlier of her boyfriend, Aaron, and her reoccurring anxiety issues notwithstanding. But the start of her senior year heralds changes for relationships that give her life stability: with her tightknit friendship group; new boyfriend, Max; outgoing younger sister, Cameron; and divorced parents, whose relationship seems on the mend. She also works through wavering feelings about her college options--the safe in-state public university or private schools in New York and California? Enter Paige and friends' bucket list for a final year of bonding! The theme of separation runs throughout the book, from her friends' changing to Paige's own evolving views on life. Screenplay references that frame the narration of Paige's life and descriptions of how she deals with her anxiety make the story shine. The well-developed ensemble cast includes diverse family structures and shifting friendship dynamics that mirror Paige's own evolution in this satisfying story that ties up all the loose ends. Paige and most main characters are white; one of Paige's close friends is biracial (black and Polish), one is lesbian, and there is diversity in secondary characters. Engrossing and engaging. (Fiction. 14-18)

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November 1, 2019

Gr 7 Up-Endearing new couple Paige and Max from The Start of Me and You are back for their senior year in this sequel about friendship and finding life balance. Over the course of a school year, Paige struggles with what choices lay ahead for her after graduation. Despite being happy with Max, she wrestles with which colleges to apply to and saying goodbye to her close-knit group of friends. Her anxiety gets the best of her and her relationship with Max begins to disintegrate; she gets caught up in her head about choices to make in the future and loses sight of how to enjoy the moment she is in. An experienced YA author, Lord captures teenage struggles effectively and shows how senior year is a difficult time for many. Teens are almost at the end of their school career and thinking of the different paths they will soon be taking, yet they need to live in the here and now. Friendship is an important part of the narrative, and the author ably shows that one does not have to choose a relationship over friends, but that they can balance both. Paige's and Max's journey is realistic and readers will root for them to reconcile. VERDICT An appealing romance, at times heavy on the angst, that can stand alone but should be a definite buy where the first book was popular.-Nancy McKay, Byron Public Library, IL

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December 1, 2019
Grades 9-12 Paige Hancock has come a long way since her small Indiana town knew her only as the girl whose boyfriend drowned. Last year, Paige relied on a carefully structured list of goals to get through each day. Now, as she enters her senior year, things are more stable, and some things are even wonderful; she and bookish Max have figured out their feelings for each other, and after a summer spent at a screenwriting program, Paige even knows what she wants to do with her future. But as senior year progresses that future comes fast, and Paige hesitates to chase the life she wants when it means letting go of what she has. In this follow-up to The Start of Me and You (2015), Lord hits the agonizing and comforting beats of the end of high school, capturing the nostalgia of old friendships and hard choices. Readers who know Paige already will revel in this next phase of her journey, while those struggling with difficult choices of their own will find a kindred soul.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)