{ "item_title" : "The Glass Sentence", "item_author" : [" S. E. Grove "], "item_description" : "A New York Times Best SellerAn Indiebound Best SellerA Kids' Next Top Ten BookA Summer/Fall 2014 Indies Introduce New Voices SelectionA Junior Library Guild SelectionOne of Publishers Weekly's Best Summer ReadsNot since Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass have I seen such an original and compelling world built inside a book.--Megan Whalen Turner, New York Times best-selling author of A Conspiracy of Kings She has only seen the world through maps. She had no idea they were so dangerous. Boston, 1891. Sophia Tims comes from a family of explorers and cartologers who, for generations, have been traveling and mapping the New World--a world changed by the Great Disruption of 1799, when all the continents were flung into different time periods. Eight years ago, her parents left her with her uncle Shadrack, the foremost cartologer in Boston, and went on an urgent mission. They never returned. Life with her brilliant, absent-minded, adored uncle has taught Sophia to take care of herself. Then Shadrack is kidnapped. And Sophia, who has rarely been outside of Boston, is the only one who can search for him. Together with Theo, a refugee from the West, she travels over rough terrain and uncharted ocean, encounters pirates and traders, and relies on a combination of Shadrack's maps, common sense, and her own slantwise powers of observation. But even as Sophia and Theo try to save Shadrack's life, they are in danger of losing their own. The Glass Sentence plunges readers into a time and place they will not want to leave, and introduces them to a heroine and hero they will take to their hearts. It is a remarkable debut.I think The Glass Sentence is absolutely marvelous. It's the best book I've read in a long time. The world-building is so convincing, the plot so fast-moving and often surprising, and the ideas behind the novel so completely original. I love this book.--Nancy Farmer, National Book Award-winning author of The House of the ScorpionI loved it So imaginative --Nancy PearlAn exuberantly imagined cascade of unexplored worlds, inscribed in prose and detail as exquisite as the ... maps young Sophia uses to navigate such unpredictable landscapes. A book like a pirate's treasure hoard for map lovers like me.--Elizabeth Wein, New York Times best-selling author of Code Name VerityBrilliant in concept, breathtaking in scale and stellar in its worldbuilding; this is a world never before seen in fiction . . . Wholly original and marvelous beyond compare.--Kirkus Reviews, starred reviewA thrilling, time-bending debut . . . It's a cracking adventure, and Grove bolsters the action with commentary on xenophobia and government for hire, as well as a fascinating system of map magic.--Publishers Weekly, starred review", "item_img_path" : "https://covers2.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/0/67/078/502/0670785024_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "17.99", "our_price" : "5.97", "club_price" : "5.97", "savings_pct" : "66", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "66", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10" } }

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An atlas through time

BookPage Children's Top Pick, July 2014

S.E. Grove’s debut novel is set in 1890s Boston, a place that anyone who has read history or historical fiction set in that era will recognize—or will they? This world shares geography with our own, but thanks to the Great Disruption, which happened almost a century earlier, the Earth’s regions became unmoored from time. Although New Occident (where Boston is located) lies firmly in the 19th century, other countries are in the Dark Ages, prehistory or even the future.

This fluidity of time means that cartologers, like Sophia’s uncle Shadrack, must make maps that depict not only place but also time. Like Sophia’s long-absent parents, Shadrack is an explorer. Just when he is beginning to show Sophia the mysteries of maps and mapmaking, he is kidnapped, leaving Sophia with a cryptic message—and an even more mysterious glass map. Now, Sophia and her new friend, Theo, must travel south to the Baldlands, where they find themselves threatened by shifting time boundaries and constantly pursued by others who want the map.

The Glass Sentence is the first book in the Mapmakers Trilogy, and it’s a great start. The narrative, which alternates between Sophia’s and Shadrack’s perspectives, is action-packed; the world that Grove has created is rich and interesting; and the characters are complex and endearing. It’s hard to say which part is more compelling—Sophia’s world travels or her internal journey, as she figures out who she can trust and how to trust herself.

 

This article was originally published in the July 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.