Vibrant art and rich storytelling combine in Sloane Leong's deeply emotional graphic novel about five girls on a basketball team shouldering different burdens and learning to carry them together.
The summer before ninth grade, Ren and Luna meet. They spend the season together, sharing their stories and secrets, and then Luna moves away. She never calls. Ren "stop[s] thinking about everything [Luna] told her." Then, in 10th grade, Luna transfers back, optimistic about reuniting with Ren. Except Ren's world didn't pause: her parents are separated, her dad struggles financially yet supports Ren's "jobless psycho" sister, and her friends face repeating sophomore year. Their best chance at extra credit is joining the new girls' basketball team.
Invested in a future playing basketball, Ren wants her ragtag team to succeed. Yet they don't always check their emotions at the sidelines. Jetta self-harms as a release from her mom's alcoholic husband; So-Young escapes her sister's shadow by chatting with strangers in online role-playing games; Nell skips class to work at her family's convenience store to the tune of her brothers' fat shaming. Luna is homesick yet seeks comfort in Ren's familiarity, but Ren hesitates to welcome Luna back in her heart when she fears being abandoned again. Increasing the pressure to perform is the boys' coach, who vilifies the girls as "a drain on the school and especially on the boys."
The team fights on the court for what they can't find in their private lives: a win. They hone complementary strengths, encouraging one another to improve. In admirable displays of solidarity, they protect and uplift each other, even in alarming situations. At the same time, Leong takes care not to misrepresent high school relationships as everlasting, never overselling the girls' bonds. While they learn to shelter in their mutual support and respect, not all of them are inseparable.
Leong's slice-of-life approach also allows for a more truthful representation of adolescence; not every conflict receives a clear resolution, alluding to the girls' continued evolution beyond the book's scope. Evocative art accentuates the story's multiple tones, with every backdrop colored like sunsets and sunrises, thereby elevating the atmosphere of magical summers come and gone, of endings and beginnings, of despair and hope. Leong's clever use of panels makes scenes dynamic: suspended action in one panel carries the eye through the offstage transition to the next. She employs motion lines and onomatopoeia that feel organic rather than distracting, seamlessly creating the illusion of movement. Exaggerated bodily expressions and well-timed dramatics add the perfect balance of humor and conviviality.
Though the team may part ways in the future, the love and personal growth galvanized by their connection will endure. A sweeping portrait of camaraderie, A Map to the Sun by Sloane Leong (Prism Stalker) reminds readers that simple kindness and understanding can go a long way in helping someone heal. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer
Shelf Talker: This coming-of-age graphic novel portrays the varying friendships between five girls on an underdog basketball team as they unite to overcome competitive odds and cope with personal demons.