Publishers Weekly praises Maxwell Eaton III’s A BOOK OF MAPS FOR YOU in starred review: “a meditation on what makes up both a home and a generous spirit”
A Book of Maps for You
Lourdes Heuer, illus. by Maxwell Eaton III. Holiday House/Porter, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-8234-5570-6
In an almost empty attic, a budding cartographer sits at a desk, creating an atlas for an unknown recipient. The resultant maps’ first-person annotations are reportorial in style, and it’s quickly apparent that the places and spaces, drawn by Eaton (Looking for Peppermint) in colored pencil, pen, and watercolor, portray a beloved personal geography. A bird’s-eye view of the mapmaker’s town envisions orange groves that “smell like fresh-squeezed juice and honey.” Another page depicts a bustling backyard farm, noting which hens lay what color eggs. Aisles are lovingly labeled in a view of the local art supply store, where “I used up my allowance for tape, paper, pencils, and pens in cobalt blue.” The painstaking accumulation of detail takes on a subtle poignancy: as pages turn, readers learn about the mapmaker’s friends and mentors, favorite foods, and sense of place. The final pages reveal that the young creator is relocating, and the “you” in the title refers to the attic’s next occupant, transforming the story by Heuer (the Teeny Tiendas series) into a meditation on what makes up both a home and a generous spirit. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones.
Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Kelly Sonnack, Andrea Brown Literary. Illustrator’s agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary. (Mar.)