The Last Mapmaker is an adventure story for middle-grade readers written by Christina Soontornvat and published in 2023. Although set entirely within a fantasy world created in the mind of the author, the story has strong thematic and historical ties to the author’s ancestral homeland, Thailand. Christina Soontornvat herself was born in Texas and spent much of her childhood as an apprentice of a different sort inside her family’s Thai food restaurant. Her protagonist shares much psychologically with her strong-willed and determined creator, a young woman who embarked on an odyssey taking her from reading books in that restaurant to becoming one of the most honored and successful writers of books for children in the world.
A pre-teen girl named Sai challenges expectations of both age and gender when she becomes the apprentice to her country’s most celebrated mapmaker. In a society where the privilege of birth and circumstances are explicitly celebrated with jewelry honoring each generation of accomplished ancestors, Sai must also struggle with presenting a facade of refinement in the face of the reality of being raised by a father who is a con man. Eventually, she sets sail aboard a ship navigating unmapped parts of the ocean that have stimulated legends of dragons and treasure beyond anyone’s wildest imagining but which may also prove true. Many reviews have noted that Sai’s story adheres strongly to the same iconic Hero’s Journey template also followed by characters like Luke Skywalker and Katniss Everdeen.
The Last Mapmaker was greeted with instant and almost universal critical acclaim. A rave review in Booklist even predicts that “this original novel will leave readers hoping for sequels.” The Washington Post succinctly encapsulates the central focus of many critical reviews which compliments both the storytelling elements and the large underlying themes that the storytelling explores by asserting that the book delves into questions about exploration, power, and responsibility,' while also noting that it "offers a twisty, entertaining tale of discovery.”
Many publications, periodicals, and institutions agree with this assessment. Among the various Book of the Year honors include those from the New York Times, Kirkus Reviews, the New York Public Library, the Chicago Public Library, and even Best Audiobook of the Year by Audiofile.
The Last Mapmaker was runner-up for the Walter Dean Myers Award for the Best Book for Young Readers in 2023. That same year the book was recognized as a Newbery Honor Book. Soontornvat received the same honor twice in the same year—2021—for recognition of two different books.
