A MAP OF THE KNOWN WORLD
Lisa Ann Sandell
Scholastic Press
Fiction
ISBN: 9780545069700
272 pages

Cora Bradley is about to start high school. Her brother, Nate, would be there with her, except he died last year in a car crash. So as if being a freshman isn’t hard enough, Cora is going to be walking the halls where her brother did, and encountering his old friends, ex-girlfriend and former teachers. She’s not quite sure how she’s going to do all of this, but she does have her best friend Rachel with her.

Cora also has art. A very talented artist, Cora is placed into an advanced class with upperclassmen and a new teacher who never knew Nate. It’s the one time of day when she truly feels free; she’s away from her overprotective parents, overexcited Rachel, and a difficult freshman year. She begins drawing a series of maps, both real and imagined, of the world she knows and would like to see.

Then there’s Damian. He was Nate’s best friend and survived the same accident that killed Cora’s brother. Cora hasn’t seen him since the funeral, and she feels drawn to him because she desperately wants to talk about Nate’s death. But her parents refuse to have anything do with Damian, blaming him for the accident. Cora can’t avoid him, since they’re in the same art class. So what’s a girl to do?

A MAP OF THE KNOWN WORLD is an incredibly sensitive and moving story. You can feel on every page that the author is an artist herself, because Cora’s narration just oozes authenticity, whether the reader is an accomplished artist or can barely draw a stick figure. Cora’s discovery of her own art abilities and her brother’s secret ones are given just enough detail, while giving the reader space to imagine for himself or herself what the pieces might look like.

Lisa Ann Sandell’s novel is a refreshing one, because it provides an emotional, rather than melodramatic, portrayal of high school. Yes, there is teen angst. Yes, first kisses are confusing. Yes, it can be hard to figure out the difference between rebelling against your parents and establishing your own independence. But this book tackles these issues in a way that is not usually seen in many high school novels lately. Cora isn’t a rich, perfect girl whose only problems are that she can’t find the right prom dress or that her best friend stole her boyfriend. A MAP OF THE KNOWN WORLD is the high school story of a non-popular Gossip Girl type. Cora feels real and close to home, because she frets both about grieving and how her classmates view her, just as most girls do.

Many readers will find themselves in Cora’s story whether or not they have anything in common with her. Though we may not all have incredible artistic talent or tragic backgrounds, we each have, like Cora, a variety of levels of problems, passions and relationships that inform who we are and how we map our world.

    --- Reviewed by Sarah Hannah Gómez (hannahgomez@gmail.com)

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