The Atlas of Us

Ever since she failed to graduate high school, was fired from her job at a friend’s floral shop, and her father died from cancer, Atlas James has been feeling directionless. The only guidepost she seems to have is the Bear Creek Community Service program; while some teens are court-mandated to participate in the four-week project cleaning up Sierra mountain hiking trails, Atlas—whose father loved the mountains—volunteers, feeling as if attending is her only chance to honor him and turn her life around. When Atlas arrives, she’s given the nickname Maps (“The nicknames are a blank slate”). It’s a difficult learning curve: she can’t pitch a tent, and the work is exhausting. But the experience is also inspiring and invigorating, and though Atlas’s grief doesn’t disappear, her growing friendships with her assigned trail mates—and her on-again-off-again attraction with intense trail leader King—help lighten the load. Dwyer (Some Mistakes Were Made) crafts stirring and organic character interactions via Atlas and her trail mates’ good-humored banter, as well as her electric chemistry with King. Combined with the lushly depicted wilderness setting, Atlas’s fledgling relationships emphasize how connection can bloom unexpectedly—and powerfully—even amid grief. Atlas and King read as white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Sarah Landis, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Jan.)