- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Scholastic Press; 1 edition (April 1 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 054506970X
- ISBN-13: 978-0545069700
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14.6 x 2.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 431 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #430,928 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
Ever since her reckless older brother, Nate, died in a car crash, Cora has felt suffocated by her small town and even smaller high school. She seeks solace in drawing beautiful, elaborate maps, envisioning herself in exotic locales. When Cora begins to fall for Damian, the handsome, brooding boy who was in the car with Nate the night he died, she uncovers her brother's secret artistic life and realizes she had more in common with him than she ever imagined. This is the lyrical tale of one girl's journey through the redemptive powers of art, friendship, and love—and a reminder that sometimes, the most thrilling worlds can be found within ourselves.
About the Author
LISA ANN SANDELL is the author of Song of the Sparrow, a Book Sense Summer 2007 Pick, and The Weight of the Sky, which was named one of the New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Age. Music and art have always been an important part of Lisa's life; she is a prize-winning sculptor and also studies drawing. Lisa is a children's book editor in New York City, where she lives with her husband and their puppy. Visit her at www.lisaannsandell.com.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
A beautiful book,
By
This review is from: A Map of the Known World (Hardcover)
This book was stunning, I found myself crying and laughing while reading it. It was a beautiful book to read and it taught an important lesson in life. This book weaves a tale of one girl's journey through the redemptive powers of art, friendship, and love. It's a wonderful quick read for anyone.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too,
By TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Map of the Known World (Hardcover)
Anger and pain consume Cora; they have since last year when her brother died.
Now her family's broken, barely speaking to each other and barely surviving. Nate's the one who died, but Cora feels the brunt of her parent's disappointment, sadness, and anger. She's not allowed out after dark, she must come straight home from school, and she can't get into a car without a parent's approval. . All summer long, she's spent the days inside her room imagining the places in the world she'd rather be, while drawing maps and pictures of her travels. Now she must face reality and start high school. She doesn't enter as an unknown, but as the sister of her dead brother. Everyone knew Nate, but not everyone liked him. Cora's just trying to survive, but along the way her heart opens. She talks to her brother's best friend, who was in the car that night, and things change. He shows her a side of her brother she didn't know. Lisa Ann Sandell writes a breathtakingly beautiful and heart-wrenching novel that will haunt you long after you're finished. Reviewed by: Jennifer Rummel
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (48 customer reviews) 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A look at the grieving process through a young girl's eyes,
By M. McQueen - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: A Map of the Known World (Hardcover)
Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
This book tells the story of a young girl entering her freshman year of highschool, as the little sister of a troublemaker who died in a car accident a few months earlier. The story involves this girl's observations of the changes she sees in the people around her, mainly her parents' inability to cope with the grief losing a son brought upon them, as well as the change in the relationship beween her and her longtime best friend. She uses drawing as an escape. During the book, she also develops a friendship with her dead brother's best friend, who is also into art. Through this forbidden friendship, she finds out things she never knew about her brother and gets in touch with the changes she has gone through as well.
The story is touching, although I found the writing to be a little choppy. Occasionally it feels like we are reading diary entries, and sometimes it feels as though we are being told the story directly. As a parent of tweens, I am always concerned about what they may read in young adult fiction. I feel that this book would be suitable for them to read as there is no foul language, drug or alcohol usage, and no sexual scenes in the book. There are just a couple references to wondering what it would be like to kiss someone, and the kissing that does take place seems to be relatively low-key lip brushing. All in all I would feel comfortable letting my kids read this book, and I feel the story is a good one. 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Book For Teenagers,
By S. Atman - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: A Map of the Known World (Hardcover)
Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
This is a book for young people. Please don't order this for an adult!
Despite the fact that I found myself reading a book meant for young girls, I had trouble getting and staying interested in the main character. It seems like she has overly-complex thoughts and feelings the author cannot express, which in my opinion means the book should not have been written. The story is fine -- not remarkable, but a decent teenage story -- and holds interest for the length of this short book. But the strength of the story just does not make up for the fact that an obviously-older person failed to successfully let us inside the mind of the young main character. This book had potential, but I wouldn't buy it for my grand-niece. 5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Less trashy than most novels about high school,
By Delamaine "Formerly Belacane" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: A Map of the Known World (Hardcover)
Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
It seems like these days the "high school novel" (which is in general a genre I avoid) is full of junky clique garbage, sex, drugs, the usual. Loud, showy kids trying to make it seem like they're the center of the world. This book, by contrast, is a somber look at the life of a very well-balanced and introspective girl. The main character and her life and thoughts remind me a great deal of Genevieve Pasquier in Judith Merkle Riley's "The Oracle Glass"; Genevieve is also a well-balanced, introspective girl in a somber lifestyle (although that book is a period piece from the time of Louis XIV in France).
"A Map of the Known World" is a short book, but it took me a while to get started...about three or four days of picking it up and struggling through a few pages a day, and I almost gave up. But I ran out of other books to read, so I sat down and forced my way through, and finished it in about an hour. If it weren't so somber in tone I'd call it a beach read, but it's more like something you'd want to read after studying Poe late at night. The tone of the book is that the main character has deep and complex feelings but does not have the verbal capability to make those feelings known through the narration. At several points in the story I had a very strong sensation that the girl was holding back her thoughts from the reader, or that her thoughts and emotions were so complex that she couldn't figure out how to articulate them. This is, in fact, the way real life is, but it made reading the book a bit awkward. In short, I'd say it's a good library book; not a book for purchase. I probably won't reread it. |
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