The Year the Maps Changed

by Danielle Binks (Author)

The Year the Maps Changed
Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade

Wolf Hollow meets The Thing About Jellyfish in Danielle Binks's debut middle grade novel set in 1999, where a twelve-year-old girl grapples with the meaning of home and family amidst a refugee crisis that has divided her town.

"Timeless and beautiful, and it deserves to be read by people of all ages." - Printz Award-winning author Melina Marchetta

If you asked eleven-year-old Fred to draw a map of her family, it would be a bit confusing. Her birth father was never in the picture, her mom died years ago, and her stepfather, Luca, is now expecting a baby with his new girlfriend. According to Fred's teacher, maps don't always give the full picture of our history, but more and more it feels like Fred's family is redrawing the line of their story . . . and Fred is feeling left off the map.

Soon after learning about the baby, Fred hears that the town will be taking in hundreds of refugees seeking safety from a war-torn Kosovo. Some people in town, like Luca, think it's great and want to help. Others, however, feel differently, causing friction within the community.

Fred, who has been trying to navigate her own feelings of displacement, ends up befriending a few refugees. But what starts as a few friendly words in Albanian will soon change their lives forever, not to mention completely redrawing Fred's personal map of friends, family, and home, and community.

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Publishers Weekly

Set in a small Australian town in 1999, Binks's character-driven debut novel follows 11-year-old Winifred "Fred" Owen-Ricci through a complicated year of change that stretches her understanding of personal as well as global responsibility. Since her mother died when Fred was six, she has been raised in a cozy family unit with her police officer stepfather, Luca, and her beloved maternal grandfather, Pop. When Luca's new girlfriend and her 10-year-old son move in, Fred begrudgingly tries to adapt. Soon, the family's community also expands--in some cases also begrudgingly--with the arrival of 400 Kosovar Albanian refugees escaping war in Kosovo. Guided and challenged by ethically driven adults around her--including a thoughtfully drawn history teacher who awakens and nurtures her interest in geography--Fred grapples with the concept of a moral compass and with her changing community and relationships, especially when tragedy hits home. Acknowledging the mark of colonialism on Australia's history, and including a parallel secondary arc about Fred's Vietnamese neighbors, Binks engages Fred's emotionally grounded, intelligently questioning narrative to look at the way "maps lie. Or at least, they don't always tell the truth." Protagonists largely read as white. Ages 8-12. Agent: Annabel Barker, Annabel Barker Agency. (Oct.)

Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

I cared so much for that family, especially the gorgeous relationship between Fred and Sam and what it says to us about being part of communities on a local and global scale. It's timeless and beautiful and it deserves to be read by people of all ages. — Melina Marchetta, Printz Award-winning author

A poignant, emotional coming-of-age story. — Kirkus Reviews

Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780063211605
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Quill Tree Books
Publication date
October 18, 2022
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV013000 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | General
JUV039250 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Emigration & Immigration
JUV039020 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Adolescence
JUV039120 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Prejudice & Racism
JUV030080 - Juvenile Fiction | People & Places | Australia & Oceania
Library of Congress categories
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