Young girl confronts the unknown in fantastic high-seas adventure

“The Last Mapmaker,” by Christina Soontornvat (Candlewick Press)

A fantasy sailing adventure in a world not fully explored, “The Last Mapmaker” is the coming-of-age story of a poor 12-year-old girl who must use her all of her natural abilities to rise from a literal swamp of poverty alone.

By chance, Sodsai Mudawan, who goes by Sai, gets a job with the master mapmaker of the Royal Navy of Mangkon. A two-decades-long war is just over, and he needs an assistant to help him redraw the world’s maps with new names. Sai is a good artist and natural drawer, and while keeping her impoverished background quiet soon works her way into the mapmaker’s confidence.

When the Queen sends her largest ship south to explore and discover new territory, offering those that go along a vast reward, the old mapmaker feels he must be aboard but needs a young assistant to help him draw the maps. He offers to take Sai along and train her.

“We may be gone for a year. More if we get waylaid for some reason …. Everyone … is treating this expedition like it’s all for fun. But the truth is that it could get dangerous. There’s a small chance we won’t come back.”

She didn’t care. “I had been saving my money for a ticket away from my life, and here was a free ride .… I wasn’t coming back. Ever.”

Before the ship sails off to the unknown, the old mapmaker leaves and Sai, who has now learned the trade well, takes his place. The ship survives mutiny, deadly seas and even a dragon to eventually reach the mysterious southern continent.