The Last Mapmaker, by Christina Soontornvat

The Last Mapmaker, by Christina Soontornvat (middle grade, April 12, 2022, Candlewick), tells of a fascinating voyage of discovery, with pleasing twists, a great heroine, lots of lovely mapmaking for those of us who like to read about work being done, and even dragons!

In a Thai-inspired reimaging of South East Asia, twelve-year-old Sai is determined to escape the poverty and miserable living conditions of the Fens.  She only has a year to save up enough money to make a new life for herself the kingdom of Mangkon, because only those who are given golden lineal beads (that show off their ancestry) when they turn thirteen are respected members of society.  She's managed to get work as an assistant to Paivoon, a famous mapmaker, and allows herself to hope she can make a future for herself, despite her lack of ancestors..

Then the Queen of Mangkon and all of its conquered territories decides to launch expeditions in all directions seeking new lands to add to the empire's glory.  Paivoon is chosen to be the mapmaker on board the ship headed south under the command of the woman who is one of the most famous war heroes in the kingdom.  But Paivoon has started to suffer from tremors, and can no longer trust his hands to write and draw clearly, so he offers Sai a place on the voyage to serve as his scribe.

After miserable sea sickness, Sai takes a keen interest in the voyage that takes her past new islands that are new to her and then off into uncharted waters.  The crew hopes to find the fabled southern continent of Sunderland (there's a lucrative prize if they do),  and Sai certainly would like that too.  But she can't convince Paivoon to take Sunderland's existence seriously.

Her life on the ship is somewhat complicated by a stowaway, an island boy named Bo, who proves important to the story both plot-wise and addition of character interest-wise.  And then her life becomes truly complicated by treachery that leads to her and Bo being castaway on their own, and then finding Sunderland.  And meeting dragons....(although to those who want lots of DRAGON, it's not a great feast of dragon-ness; its more like a soupçon of  dragon, that adds welcome fantasy spice and contributes to the central tension of the book very nicely).

What I liked lots--

The mapmaking.  Paivoon doesn't rely on the corpus of official maps, but takes seriously scraps of knowledge from fishermen, conveyed in their tales and rough drawings on scraps of cloth.  

Related to mapmaking, Paivonn teaches Sai that "discovering unknown lands" is a somewhat meaningless concept, because official voyages of discovery are by no means the first time people have ever reached place.  I especially appreciated how he leads her to understand that official claims to "newly discovered" places often leads to their exploitation (though it's not stated nearly so baldly in the book, so no need to worry about heavy-handed Messaging), and how at the end of the story the final map we see Sai make uses names to try to keep the Sunderland, and its dragon family, safe (at least for a little while).  I love it when words have power!

I loved Sai and Paivoon's teacher/student relationship more generally, and how Sai ends the story by passing on the opportunity she was given to another poor kid. 

I liked the pacing of the story...the time taken to establish the context, the ocean voyage in which very little that's Exciting happens, but much is learned.  (I have reservations about this in terms of young readers liking the book though--it won't be for every kid. I think the cover does a great job conveying the feel of the story--any reader drawn to that image will probably enjoy the book.)

And being a sucker for survival stories, I like the bit where Sai and Bo are stranded on a miserable island, and struggle to survive and escape.

To summarize:  I liked the book lots!  

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher