By Christina Soontornvat
Newbery Honor 2023
Ages 8+, grades 3+
Summary
By day, Sai does her best to present as 12-year-old with potential in the capital city of Mangkon. By night, she hides her meager earnings and proper uniform in a tree while dodging pickpockets and drunks– including her own father– in the lowliest part of town. “The Tail is the Teeth” is the saying there; the beginning is the end, the path behind and the path ahead are one and the same, and she is limited by her lack of lineage. Sai has a knack for handwriting and an eagerness to learn, which make her an excellent candidate when she falls into the position of assistant to the renowned master mapmaker Paiyoon.
When Paiyoon gains a seat on an expedition to map new southern territory, Sai jumps at the chance to join him and escape her dead-end life. During the months-long journey at sea, she perfects both her forgery and mapmaking skills and develops new relationships which she must navigate carefully, so that her true history and lineage is not brought to light, all while she yearns for stability and connection. The perils grow and Sai is faced with increasingly consequential choices that, in the end, lead her back to herself. The Tail may be the Teeth, but Sai determinedly gnaws through the social blockades to forge her own path to family and freedom.
Justification
The Last Mapmaker has been on my list since I saw it on the awards shelf at our local library branch, but I rarely make time to read YA, especially middle-grade literature as my reading time is precious and limited. However, I was happy to have the excuse of reviewing it to finally dive in to the world Christina Soontornvat creates in this novel. At its heart, this is a coming-of-age story of a girl desperate to forge a different path than the one made available to her. The novel also includes themes of complicated family dynamics, boundaries, and forgiveness; imperialism and the cultural and environmental costs of colonialization; and a responsibility to learn from past mistakes and do better for future generations. I love this novel for digging into such mature themes in ways that are appropriate and accessible to young readers and am impressed with Soontornvat’s ability to do so in a way that is not heavy handed and emphasizes the fantasy and adventure of the story while presenting important ethical dilemmas for the reader's consideration.
Response
Beyond the ethics, this is also just a good fantasy novel. It has high adventure, mythology, danger, betrayal, and even a dragon or two, all experienced by realistic characters who are both likeable and imperfect, and who learn and grow as the story goes. As a main character Sai is mature for her age, but one would have to become street-savvy in the life she has lived. She is determined and compelling, and grapples with her own morals through each decision she makes. I am glad that The Last Mapmaker lived up to my own long-awaited expectations for it, and that such authors like Soontornvat are setting such high standards in fiction for today’s youth.
Soontornvat, C. (2022). The last mapmaker. Candlewick Press.
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