“Sometimes I dream of her in the ocean at night. My feet are on the sand, burning. I’m not stuck but I don’t move. I watch her swim farther away. She’s lit up from the inside, swimming, swimming. Over the horizon. Glowing, and then gone.”

A Map to the Sun by Sloane Leong begins with the fast friendship of Ren and Luna on a beachside basketball court one summer. The friendship dissolves when Luna moves to Oahu and Ren’s texts go unanswered. Time passes, new friendships are formed, and Ren’s life changes. All must be reexamined when Luna moves back. Can the formation of a girl’s basketball team bring young women together from different walks of life and heal the scars of a broken friendship?

Leong’s work is colorful as well as dynamic, with interesting panel work and beautiful pieces of narrative amidst dialogue. I am so glad that I’ve discovered her work.

I definitely can see how this work would not be for every reader - the graphic novel was lengthy, there are multiple characters with different backstories and current conflicts, as well as relationship building between the basketball team. I found the color pallet changes to be helpful in pointing out when a new section of the story was about to be told. The multiple character narrative provides so much diversity of themes, ideas, and real life issues that arise when growing up. Personally, even though there is a lot to keep track of narratively, I didn’t find the storytelling “messy” or confusing. If anything, the complexity of the plot could be symbolic of coming of age. I know so many of my students who would love this graphic novel and I can’t wait to buy a copy for them upon publication.

[CW: self-harm, discussions of body image, fatphobia, sexual abuse & harassment, drug and alcohol use, sexism]

Thank you to First Second Publishing, Sloane Leong, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this graphic novel ARC.

This could have been better.

This had such promise. The beginning seemed to be about two girls with a strong friendship.

And then she was gone, and the story shifted to other friends, and life goes on, and then she returns, and we have the rest of the long, long graphic novel to find out about how people's lives interweave with their basketball playing, and with all the other things that life throws at you, such as junkie sisters, and low income, and sexism.

In short the novel had no focus, other than the basketball playing.

And it was hard to tell who was who, because of the coloring, and the way the art was done.

There is a lot going on here, perhaps too much to fit into one volume, and the ending left me feeling as though there might be more to come.

Not that I would want to read a second volume if that was the case.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

"A Map to the Sun" is a diverse MG/YA story that focuses on friendship, portrays teen girls as complex human beings that are forced to deal with an unequal and unfair world and makes romantic relationships not only secondary but wholly unimportant in the face of everything that these young women and young women everywhere have to deal on their day to day lives.
I loved this story from the very first page.
The art and especially the colors were a journey unto themselves and I loved seeing so much diversity in the way characters were drawn.
Seeing a story about a group of girls focusing on sisterhood, identity, body diversity, race, grief, sexism, economical disparity, class struggle, alcohol and drug dependence, abuse of power, sexual harassment and so much more, while still devoting most of its time in finding joyous moments and opportunities to grow and heal can be considered nothing other than a gift from Sloane Leong to the world and I'm certainly thankful.
Not only that, but all the girls are also POC and their different realities and experiences are explored in an honest and caring way, proving that its possible to write teen girls without resorting to the tired stereotypes of "bitchy, vapid, stupid girls" that we have been fed all our lives.
The only reason this was not a five-star read was that a lot of questions were left unawared and a lot of character arcs unresolved so I really hope I will get to meet these characters again in the future, mostly Ren and Luna.
Thank you to NetGalley and First Second Books for this DRC.

I liked this book. I had a hard time reading it due to the way they colored it but overall I liked the story. I know the way they colored it was an artistic choice but a lot of the times it made me confused on what was happening in a certain scene or confuse the characters. There was a scene where the girls received their basketball uniforms and they were yellow and white and one of them says "i like the purple" then in the next frame their uniforms are blue. It didn't make sense to me. Some of the frames were also hard to follow what was actually happening, I couldn't tell if they were just artistic interpretations of what the character was thinking or feeling or if something physical was actually occurring.

When it comes to the story though, we follow Ren through most of the story. In the beginning she was friends with a random girl, Luna, who complimented her basketball playing but when Luna moves away without a word two years pass and Ren makes new friends. Luna moves back and tries to pick up where they left off but Ren was hurt that she never called. Ren has a lot of family issues and pent up emotions that she takes out on the court. When a teacher at school wants Ren and her friends to start the school's first girl's basketball team they are all hesitant but ultimately come together and form a team. The rest of the book follows the team's journey and each member's personal struggles but ultimately ends with Ren bonding with all of them. I think this book could be relatable to a lot of girls, especially those who like sports and don't have a lot going on at home. I have neither of those personal connections to this title but liked it nonetheless.

Sloane Leong brings an energetic (almost neon and glowing) style to the graphic novel format. Part of the appeal of this book lies in its vibrant visuals.

Along with this strengths comes a multiple character narrative in which young readers can discover representations of experiences and ideas. The story is still the thing, and is only punctuated even more by the author’s artistry.

Highly recommended, and many thanks to First Second for an advance review copy for my unbiased review.

What brings us together is stronger than anything that might tear us apart. Basketball is the muse for this tale of friendship and finding your place. Strong storytelling in the dynamic use of color and shape.

A Map to the Sun is an okay graphic novel. The coloring is beautiful but not consistent. The plot is almost there, but not quite. It could have used another round of edits. Some of the relationships felt like they could have been queer, but there ended up not being any relationships between any of the girls despite the chemistry that felt like it was right there.

CW for self harm, alcoholism, sexual abuse/harassment, fatphobia, body image

CW: fatphobia, self harm, substance abuse, inappropriate student-teacher relationship

I'm sitting with this book, still not sure what to make of it. But I liked it. I think.

You have five teen girls, each having their own BS going on in their individual lives, who come together to form a basketball team. I, a grown woman, related a little bit to all of these girls and remembered how garbage navigating being "a girl not yet a woman" (Thanks Britney) in the world is. Their friendships break up and make up, but when tragedy strikes, the girls are there for one another. I was hoping Ren and Luna could/would be more than friends, but I don't think the author left that possibility completely off the table.

I liked the art and the vibrant colors! Definitely felt like you were in SoCal. I will be honest though, sometimes I couldn't tell Luna and Jetta apart. While one was Asian and the other Native and/or Latinx, they looked very similar when drawn in a group shot of the girls.

I highly recommend this for teens, girls especially, who will see themselves reflected on the pages of this book.

Thanks to First Second and Netgalley for an ARC.

A gorgeously illustrated story of female friendships. I think it’s a little too old for my middle school library and some of the illustrations veer towards nudity (hard to tell on my phone screen!) But it’s a great story.

The story is well thought out. The only problem I had was with the art. The changing color schemes and how characters were portrayed left me confused with who was who. I'm not the target audience so maybe teenagers won't have a problem with that but I felt very lost at times.

While this graphic novel started out strong, I was disappointed by the follow through. I was confused by the cast of characters and the artwork didn't help me along with this struggle. I wasn't always sure who was talking/thinking and not always sure of where the plot was going. I thought there was a romance brewing, but that didn't seem to go anywhere. I felt a bit empty at the end of the story. I had high hopes for a strong female sports graphic novel, and it was good, just not great as I had hoped.

This is a great graphic novel with a great cast of girl characters. I was really interested in this book because I played basketball growing up, and I thought I could relate to a lot of friendship dynamics. My only real complaints with the book were that it was hard sometimes to know who was who, and I was really disappointed when there wasn't a love connection with some of the girls. I thought there was going to be one, and maybe it's being hinted at, but at this point, I'm done with hints. I want it to be clear. For the most part, it was a really cute story, but it just didn't have the uniqueness for more than 3 stars.

I received an advance copy of this from NetGalley and First Second for an honest review. A Map to the Sun follows the lives and friendships of five high school girls as they navigate the bumps of adolescence and join a new basketball team at their school. The story opens with the birth of Ren and Luna’s captivating friendship that is interrupted when Luna suddenly moves away and falls out of touch. From the first panels, basketball is introduced as the running theme that brings Ren and Luna together, keeps Ren grounded, and brings the five girls together when an optimistic teacher at school starts a girl’s team despite a lack of funding and support.

The challenges each girl faces in their own lives were complex and heavy but believable. None of their story lines resolve fully, which I appreciated as that isn’t how life is. The final emphasis was on the friendships that were developed and the personal growth Ren experiences over the course of the story. The use of color was fantastic, each page was beautiful.

There were several points in the dialogue that didn’t sound realistic as a teen voice which pulled me out of the story from time to time. I also thought that Jetta’s secret relationship and breakup with the teacher was rushed and brushed off once it was over (1-2 pages that revealed the relationship and one page for the breakup). I think if that kind of situation is going to be portrayed in YA content it should be done with care. It certainly wasn’t endorsed by the other characters who knew about it, but it was handled as if she broke up with someone her own age. Once all of the main characters were introduced the story moved between them all, so I can understand if there wasn’t time to go into more depth with each of them, but in that case I think a student teacher relationship should be omitted.

A Map to the Sun is a beautiful graphic novel about a group of teenage girls who come together to form a basketball team at their school. Through wins and losses, the girls work through their individual problems and the problems between themselves, forming strong bonds and gaining self-confidence along the way.

This story feels so real. This is not a cheesy story about teamwork and winning championships. Nothing is wrapped up in a pretty bow at the end, and there isn't any preachy moralism. The characters are well defined and three-dimensional-- they're flawed and make a lot of mistakes, and sometimes they don't learn their lesson. But they do grow and change over the course of the story, and they each manage to find some room to breathe with friends who really care about them. I couldn't pull myself away from their journey, and I finished this comic in one sitting.

The artwork is really beautiful in places, and serviceable in others. I sometimes had difficulties telling two characters apart (Luna and Jetta). The colors are really gorgeous, and helped to denote changes in scenery or time skips.

TW: drug and alcohol use, graphic self-harm (cutting), teacher/student relationship (not graphic), drowning mention, parent death mention, fatphobia, house fire

I liked this portrayal of relationships between females, and the depth and variety of their struggles. I think I most liked that nothing was ever really resolved. I didn't like the artwork - it was really difficult for me to distinguish characters for most of the book. I spent too much time looking for small details and re-reading panels, even pages, because I'd mixed up the characters again and again. I also particularly didn't like the teen-adult relationship, and was frustrated that that story line, at least, didn't have some further resolution.

A Map to the Sun was way much more than I expected and it's awesomeness isn't about basketball actually. I love sports comics and girls playing basketball piqued my interest, since I love playing too. The story is about these girls, who all have their problems at school and home and how they end up in the same basketball team. This isn't really rags to riches type of thing, but more like the game is a way to balance everything else in life and to cope with people you now can recognize as friends. Leong is amazing at portraying the lives of the girls, friendship, struggle and losses, family and self-esteem issues and financial problems. All the girls have their own voices and still this isn't a collection of individuals as such, but one story. The variety of feelings and outcomes is wonderful and the melancholic feeling attached to everything. Such a powerful comic, really.

The art is simple in a way, but uses interesting view points and angles. The colors or of pink, yellow and all those of sunsets (or sunrises, whichever you prefer). A Map to the Sun looks different and feels different and this makes it something else. It would be awesome if all girls read this, since the comic offers everything what makes it hard for girls to struggle their way through this society.

Three stars

I really like the art, the diverse characters, and the issues that come up throughout this work. Each one seems realistic and relevant to the target audience.

Though many important topics arise here, they are not all fully developed and explored. In some instances, it feels like a series of YA tropes were randomly selected and included just to be sure they got an honorable mention: troubles with friends, teamwork, the development of bonds through sports, gender-specific issues, that disgusting teacher who is sexually assaulting/harassing/etc. a student (!!!), drugs, parent/child strife, and more. While these themes are meaningful, they are - in some cases - only briefly addressed within a scene or two. By using this structure, the author creates a less cohesive plot and makes it harder to care about the outcomes for individual characters.

If you're a fan of YA graphic novels, you won't be disappointed by the brilliant color choices, the creative and focused illustrations, and the sheer volume of YA-appropriate themes. You may, however, find yourself similarly craving a more thoroughly intertwined plot and a more satisfying/less predictable conclusion.