MapMaker
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
From Lisa Moore Ramée, author of the Walter Honor Award–winning A Good Kind of Trouble, comes her debut middle grade fantasy—an absorbing, imaginative adventure about a Black boy who has the magical ability to bring maps to life. Perfect for fans of Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky and A Tale of Magic.
When Walt and his family relocate to Blackbird Bay, Walt thinks it’s the most boring place on earth. While his twin sister, Van, likes to spend her time skateboarding, Walt prefers to hide out in his room and work on his beloved map world, Djaruba. But shortly after their arrival, Walt discovers something extraordinary: He has the ability to make maps come to life.
Suddenly his new hometown doesn’t seem so boring after all. And when a magical heirloom leaves Walt, his new friend Dylan, and Van stranded in the fantastical world that Walt created, he’ll need to harness his new power to get them home.
But things are changing. People have gone missing, and it’s clear that a malevolent rival to the kingdom—a fellow mapmaker—has nefarious plans for Walt. If he’s not stopped soon, Djaruba could become nothing but a shadow of itself or, worse, gone forever. And if a mapmaker can destroy one world, could Earth be next?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In an ambitious fantasy from Moore Ramée (Something to Say), a Black seventh grader obsessed with maps navigates his family's move from Los Angeles to Northern California. Walt's former athlete father, an accountant for a video game company, wants Walt to "toughen up" and is set on sending him to football camp. It doesn't help that Walt's twin sister, Van, is taller than he is and wants to attend the camp herself. Walt—a creative soul like the twins' costume designer mother—would rather spend time working on his map of Djaruba, the imaginary world he's been drawing for years. Inspired by his Creole maternal grandmother's stories, Djaruba is filled with volcanic activity, immense deserts, futuristic cities, and flying dragons. When Walt starts drawing on an online printout of the family's new neighborhood, Blackbird Bay, creating an alternate history for the locale, it becomes clear that he has the ability to imagine real worlds—and that an evil mapmaker called Statica wants Walt to help him destroy them, instead. Exploring themes of gender norms and racism through a fantasy adventure with friendship elements, Moore Ramée offers a creative story of embracing one's prowess. Ages 8–12.
