A Map to the Sun

A Map to the Sunby Sloane Leong follows five compelling teen girls, who bond when they join their school’s newly-formed girls’ basketball team. Ren, their reluctant leader, and Luna, a surfer girl from Hawaii, become fast friends one summer. But they have a falling out when Luna moves back to Hawaii without saying goodbye to Ren, opening old wounds. Two years later, Luna returns and lands in the same high school as Ren. Luna assumes they can start up where they left off, but Ren avoids her, even after they both join the basketball team. The tension is buffered by three other girls who also join the team: Nell, So-Young, and Jetta. The narrative wanders through each of these young women’s lives. Their issues range from cutting, body shaming, and abusive relationships, among other problems that teens are dealing with today. Basketball becomes the glue that creates a strong support network and true friendships among them—authentic, complex female relationships. The characters are ethnically diverse and the storytelling is raw. Each of the young women has problems that do not get completely resolved by the end of the story. Like real life. The artwork is gorgeous, especially the vibrant color palette, which adds to the mood and the emotions of each scene.