A Map of the Known World

Starred review from April 20, 2009
Family life comes to an abrupt halt for 14-year-old Cora after the death of her older brother, Nate, in a car accident. Dreading her entrance to high school seven months after the event (“If he had still been alive, I might have had a fighting chance at being able to distance myself from him.... Now I'll be the girl whose brother died”) and with her parents lost to their numbing grief, Cora finds sustenance in her passion for maps and mapmaking. A new friend, the encouragement of an art teacher and growing interest in her brother's best friend, Damian, who was in the car when he was killed, all slowly revive her emotional life and self-confidence. Sandell creates a satisfying tension by juxtaposing Cora's grief and anger at her parents with her developing attraction to Damian and her growing sense of possibility about her own future. Sandell's two previous novels were written in verse and, despite occasional emotional editorializing, her fluid phrasing and choice of metaphors give her prose a quiet poetic ambience. Ages 12–up.

June 1, 2009
Gr 9 Up-In this contemporary coming-of-age story, 14-year-old Cora is emotionally isolated from her parents following the death of her older brother, Nate. As she begins high school, his absence looms large. His "bad boy" reputation makes mention of him off-limits. Only his best friend and accident survivor, Damian, knows who Nate really was. As Cora becomes his friend in art class, Damian slowly reveals Nate's true passion, character, and plans. But her parents blame Damian for the accident and Cora is forced to keep her newfound understanding a secret. Resolution eventually unfolds in a somewhat predictable but satisfying chain of events. Cora is multifaceted, well developed and appropriately contradictory. Her epiphanies about art being the answer to life's problems are overly dramatic but they do obviate the despair and longing for inner peace that she feels. Unfortunately Damian, the one readers are perhaps most curious about, remains more of an enigma. Sandell's story is richly textured with day-to-day complications including the loss of a best friend to a popular clique, budding romance, a father who is drowning his grief in gin, a suddenly overprotective mother, and Cora's own creative potential. But these complications sometimes distract and slow the pace. This book will appeal to students who have experienced the death of someone close, although the depth of that grief is more keenly presented in Brent Runyon's "Maybe" (Knopf, 2006) or Katherine Spencer's "Saving Grace" (Harcourt, 2006)."Sue Lloyd, Franklin High School, Livonia, MI"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2009
Grades 7-10 Cora nervouslybegins ninth grade in the shadow of her older brother, Nate, who died six months earlier after crashing his car. Her BFF, Rachel, is more concerned with boys and popularity than with helping her troubled friend, and her parents, lost in their own grief, offer nothing but severe restrictions on her life outside of school. Comfort comes in art class and, surprisingly to Cora (if not to readers), in the friendship of her brothers best friend, Damian, who survived the crash that killed Nate.After Damian showsCora a secret cache of art that he and Nate were creating, she confronts family secrets and vows to be closer to thepeople she loves. Coras artistic talent is evident in her lush descriptions of settings, but the fairly stock secondary characters and the lapses in strong dialogue dull the storys overall palette. Even so, teens will enjoy the tension that builds to Cora and Damians first kisses and the tidy resolution that has Cora and her family back on track.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)