Mapmaker

February 23, 2015
Screenwriter Bomback and author Craze (The Last Princess) team up for a thriller that offers a frightening glimpse into how technology can be abused. Tanya Barrett’s father’s death during an alleged research trip in Cambodia leaves her an orphan, living in an uneasy relationship with her stepmother. Tanya intends to spend the summer before her senior year of high school interning at MapOut, a thriving digital mapmaking company founded by her father and his best friend, Harrison. But after Tanya and Harrison’s son, Connor, snoop on her father’s computer, Connor disappears, and Tanya is kidnapped. Tanya narrowly manages to escape with only her preternatural “gift” (“It was part knack for gauging distances, part photographic memory of geospatial imagery”), the clue “Alaska,” and the hope of tracking down her father’s friend Cleo. Cinematic action propels the plot but the authors also devote attention to Tanya’s bottled-up emotions. MapOut’s goals and their privacy implications are thought-provoking, while the inconclusive ending necessitates a sequel. Ages 14–up. Agent: (for Bomback) Dorian Karchmar, William Morris Endeavor; (for Craze) Kim Witherspoon, Inkwell Management.

February 15, 2015
Tanya's impeccable sense of direction can't keep her from feeling lost when her father dies.Just over six months ago, Tanya's father disappeared in a flash flood on a mapmaking trip through rural Cambodia. She's left with her kindergarten-teacher stepmother, Beth, and her godfather, Harrison Worth, her father's business partner in a tech mapping startup called MapOut. Harrison has bought Beth and Tanya out to protect them from losing everything should the company fail. Far from failing, the company has thrived, and Harrison still watches over Tanya and Beth. During a summer internship at MapOut, Tanya reunites with Harrison's son, Connor, a childhood friend. Searching for her dad's final emails, they crack his computer's triple password and discover that all is not as it seems. When Connor disappears the next day, leaving a confusing text, Tanya doesn't know what to do...and then she's drugged and kidnapped. Escaping her kidnappers lands her in deeper trouble. Can Tanya find her father's old friend Cleo? And will she be able to help? Craze and Bomback's character-driven thriller is a bit slow out of the gate, but teens who stick with it will enjoy the few twists and identify with Tanya's inability to hide in our high-tech world. Readers caught up in the plot should brace themselves for a total lack of closure and a wait for Book 2. (Thriller. 12-17)

April 1, 2015

Gr 8 Up-This dystopian novel touches upon the development of digital mapping as a way to track and control humans. Seventeen-year-old Tanya Barrett has always had a knack for cartography, a skill she shared with her father who died while on a work-related expedition. She takes an internship with her father's cofounded digital mapping company, MapOut, at the insistence of Harrison, her dad's former business partner. Upon her arrival at MapOut, she is greeted by Harrison and his son Connor. With Connor's help, Tanya uncovers clues to her father's death; the duo also stumbles upon some disturbing secrets about MapOut. Connor disappears after leaving a short, cryptic text message. Before she can comprehend the situation, Tanya is drugged and kidnapped. Although the novel starts out slowly, the action picks up with an intense bang. Plot twists will leave readers quickly turning the pages, wanting to find some kind of resolution for the protagonist. The end is left open for a second book. Fans of Michelle Gagnon's Don't Turn Around (HarperCollins, 2012) will enjoy this work for its exploration of the dangers of a technology-connected world. VERDICT Teens will be drawn to this action-packed, plot-centric thriller.-Lindsey Dawson, Saint John's Catholic Prep, Frederick, MD

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2015
Grades 8-11 What happens when a place is unmappable? Sixteen-year-old Tanya has felt unhinged since the death of her father, and taking an internship at his company, MapOut, only leaves her more unsettled. Though happy to be working alongside her childhood friend Connor, events quickly veer off course when the two hack into her dad's old e-mail account and catch sight of cryptic references to a black hole in Alaska. A boring summer of data entry suddenly becomes one of kidnap, danger, and mysterious underground operations, requiring Tanya to use her uncanny sense of direction to make it out alive. Bomback and Craze whip up a suspense-laden, modern mystery that pulls on the current obsession with technology, mapping, and tracking people's locationsand how innocently supplied data can be turned to a darker purpose. While readers may predict some of the narrative's twists, it holds plenty of surprises. The abrupt ending leaves almost all questions unanswered, implying a planned sequel that readers will definitely want on their radar.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2015
Tanya, mourning her brilliant scientist dad's death, takes an internship with his digital mapping company. She rekindles a friendship/romance with boss's son Connor, but when he disappears, she realizes that sinister forces are at work. As she investigates, readers may wish Tanya was a stronger heroine--her "gift" of mental mapping is underused--but this is a decent thriller with interesting sci-fi elements.

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)