The Cartographer’s Daughter

Published in the U.K. as The Girl of Ink & Stars, Hargrave’s first novel takes place on the island of Joya in the year 1524, on an Earth not precisely like this one. (Plugging in the included latitude and longitude coordinates for Joya suggest that it is La Gomera, one of the Canary Islands.) Twelve-year-old Isabella Riosse lives on Joya with her mapmaker father; her mother and twin brother died years earlier from a “sweating sickness.” After a girl turns up murdered on the island, Isabella’s privileged friend Lupe—daughter of Joya’s strict governor—disappears while attempting to investigate. Disguised as a boy, Isabella joins the search party and ventures into the Forgotten Territories at the island’s center, learning more than she imagined about its history and legends. Hargrave laces enticing elements of magic and myth throughout an adventure punctuated with frightening encounters and painful losses. But while Isabella is both capable and devoted, her first-person narrative doesn’t always give a full sense of her emotions, or of Joya’s somewhat murkily described history and geography. Ages 10–up. Agency: Janklow & Nesbit. (Nov.)