I really enjoyed this book! It was an honest, raw look at relationships between teenage girls. None of the girls in the book had perfect lives, and those lives often bled into their relationships with each other. They were all very different from each other, but somehow this book also captured the universality of being a teenage girl: dealing with problems that seem too big to handle, body image, family problems, personal issues, friendships and even heavier topics like drugs, abuse, death and inappropriate relationships with adults.

The art was gorgeous. I loved the changing color palette throughout the book and that even though none of the colors were "natural," it still worked. I would definitely read another book by this author

Ren is an androgynous black. Luna is a cheery hapa surfer from Oahu. A family tragedy causes Luna's family to move and Ren loses contact with her, despite efforts to keep in touch. In addition to losing contact with Luna, Ren is dealing with a sister entangled in drugs, abusive relationships, her parents' separation, and resentment toward Luna. Two years' later, Luna returns and tries to act like nothing happened. Trying to use their love of basketball, Luna tries to rekindle the friendship. This book deals with a lot of heavy topics that some readers may not be ready for, but will be invaluable for those who need that support. These topics include domestic discord, abusive adult behavior, smoking, drinking, self-harm, and body-shaming. These reveal the team members’ personal circumstances and bring these characters to life, but suggest compelling backstories that unfortunately remain underdeveloped. The graphic novel's color work uses a beautiful, intense mix of greens, purples, and yellows to bring the illustrations to life. The characters are easy to sympathize with. Readers who are interested in graphic novels dealing with these concepts may want to pick this book up.

Two sisters torn apart and set on different paths come together again in war torn Nigeria. When the children under her care all fall into a coma, Ify heads back to Nigeria to find the cure. In Nigeria she discovers that the war has been erased from the population's memory in a forced cyberization. In the meantime, Uzo is working to preserve these memories, while having flashbacks of her life with Ify. Politically charged and action packed, the sequel will keep you turning the pages. Recommended for high school and up.

The illustrations in this graphic novel and the color palette are amazingly beautiful!
A heartwarming story about girls with different backgrounds coming together to form a basketball team and help lift each other up.

It's an interesting year to read both A Map to the Sun and Dragon Hoops. A Map to the Sun is more a friend story, tied together by basketball. I found the relationships between Ren and the other girls on the team really compelling, as well as her own betrayal by her family. I felt like the villianous boy's basketball coach was just too over-the-top evil, but I feel like this book will otherwise connect with a lot of middle school girls I work with.

Absolutely gorgeous colors and illustrations in this graphic novel, though it was sometimes hard to tell the characters apart. This book occasionally loses the plot and can be a little hard to follow. However, I appreciated that this book explored teens from working class families and how sports weave into their daily lives. I also love explorations of friendship. It's a realistic story in the fact that the author shows that not every story has a complete and perfect ending

This book covered a lot of difficult topics and I thought it did it really well. We get to know each of the 5 girls and learn their struggles. Fat shaming. Bullying. Self harm. Student-teacher relationships. Sexual assault. Addiction. Loss of parent. Cancer. The colors were so vibrant and beautiful. I really appreciated this book.

Wow. This was simply compelling. The art and coloring were spectacular. The girls in this book are 3 dimensional, their problems are real and the love they build for each other is even more real. This should most likely be required reading for all high schoolers. This is a love letter to the way sports can bring people together. It is about how to find your own family when your birth family falls apart. I can’t thank Net Galley for this Arc enough. Go. Get. This.

It's a sports manga but the side story of two friends that broke apart when one moved away and then came back. I didn't care for the coloring at all. The bright colors and neon made feel very trippy and disorienting. I loved the California setting (a basketball court by the beach is so dreamy!) and how it was set among working class kids. That was relatable because so many high school stories are set at among middle class or NYC kids, so it's nice to read an experience that was closer to mine with the puzzle of parents working non-9 to 5 or third shift jobs, figuring out transportation, and school budget limiting extracurricular activities.

My biggest issue was the art. The colors were garish to my eyes. I also had trouble distinguishing some characters. Only Ren and Nell stood out because of hair style and body shape, and sometimes So because she had short hair. I sometimes mixed the coach up for a student.

A Map to the Sun is about a group of girls who are learning how to deal with life's issues, friendship, family, etc but cope together through a new girls basketball team. On top of outside issues, they learn to work together in order to play better, become better teammates and eventually win.

The beginning was rather long and drawn out and I found the multiple story lines being confusing.

The teens in my library are going to eat this up! The art is really nice, though the ever-changing colors threw me off a bit. I especially connected to Ren's relationship to her sister...wow did that hit home. So well done!

Ren and Luna became fast friends one summer. When Luna moves away without a word, Ren feels abandoned and is hurt. Years later, Luna returns and hopes to pick the friendship back up from where she left it. Ren is still hurt by what happened and keeps Luna at a distance. It is again through basketball that Ren, Luna, and Ren's current friends find a way to support each other and carve out their place.

I loved the color palette, but I think it made it difficult to tell the characters apart. There were many times that I had trouble following who was saying what. I think that it had a depth to it that would allow for discussion.

A Map to the Sun by Sloane Leong is a story of teenagae friendship and coming of age. A group of friends experience different changes such as moving, troubles with family, and troubles between friends. At times, I found it hard to follow the characters and storyline. The colors portrayed in the pictures were intense neon colors.

A strong story about sports and teen relationships, A Map to the Sun starts with Ren and Luna, two girls who meet on the beach during their middle school summer break. Luna disappears without saying goodbye when she suddenly moves, but returns two years later, expecting to pick up where she and Ren left off. But Ren is hurt, angry, and full off mistrust, especially since her older sister's issues have made life nearly unbearable for her. A new teacher decides to form a women's basketball team at the high school, bringing Luna, Ren, and a group of other girls who are tagged as the misfits in school. As they practice and improve, we get glimpses into each of their lives and see how succeeding in one arena changes how they react and are perceived in other spaces in their lives. The color palette is bright and beachy; lots of oranges, yellows, and purples, but some of the coloring made it difficult for me to tell characters apart (I read an ARC; this will likely be tightened up in the finished book). The story is strong, and highly recommended for teens and a solid choice for realistic fiction readers.

I was first drawn to A Map to the Sun because of its stunning and bright cover. I am a big fan of First Second books and this one is no exception!

A Map to the Sun is a story of friendship, teamwork, and growing up, revolving around basketball. This isn’t a basketball story, but a friendship story that grows through the game. The story opens with the childhood friendship of two girls, which shifts when one moves away…and then back. Added to their story is a team of diverse girls, who join the basketball team for a variety of reasons. What they find is home in each other.

This little slice of life feels true to the teenage experience. The art is breathtaking, with the variety of bright color usage that flows through the pages and shifts depending on the mood. It’s like a sunset on youth. I guess this is growing up.

A Map to the Sun is a lovely story about Ren, who plays pick up basketball for fun, and her ragtag group of friends who join their school’s new girl’s basketball team. Although they’re underfunded and inexperienced, the girls play hard and with heart. The story delves into issues of friendship, family, and relationships while each girl grows as a player and part of the team. The art is really great and the coloring is absolutely phenomenal throughout. I highly recommend this to all graphic novel fans.

I really appreciate the way that nothing truly resolves itself here, except that the girls have become friends. To me, that's rings very true--they're all facing their own issues that just can't get resolved in such a short time frame, but at least they have each other.

First, I'll speak to the color palette which is absolutely riveting. The cover gives you a slight sense of it. Second, the action sequences and panel movement firmly places this graphic novel in the category of a strong illustrative style with dialogue and narration to be the icing on the cake.

When the girls are playing basketball, the sequences are so expressive and action-oriented that you are really in the moment and really with the girls, looking at them and seeing them. You feel the girls on a deeper level, there is no shallowness here (of character or story). There are so many circles that overlap with each of the characters struggling with family issues and personal issues that their friendship, and sometimes lack of support among each other, is the driving force of their team and their growing up and navigating a world that hasn't always been kind.

It's a quiet graphic novel with that makes a powerful statement demonstrating that silence often speaks louder (and pictures are worth a thousand words).

I enjoyed this more than I expected! A group of girls, all struggling with their own different challenges in home and social life, come together in a basketball team. Most of them have never played before and a lot of people around them don't think there's much point to a girl's team anyway, but the team comes together anyway and though they have a rough start, they pull through and become a halfway decent team. And even though none of them were really looking for a team to join, it becomes an escape for them and a way to learn how to deal with all the frustrating parts of life.

When I was a teenager, I was heavily involved in sports at my high school. Like this team, we were also pretty underfunded and not very good, but I still loved it. It was somewhere I could get away for a while and not worry about school or my parents or the ways I was feeling. I don't know how I would have gotten through a lot of high school without sports, but a lot of the sporty content for young adults tends to be inspirational stories of star catching their big break. That was never me, I was just an average (sometimes below average, to be honest) player who was escaping from my reality for a few hour and I really do think that's the vast majority of kids in these sports programs. So getting to see it portrayed in this story was some really heartwarming nostalgia for me and will hopefully be some inspiring representation for young girls.

Plus, the art style was absolutely gorgeous! It was very unique and eye grabbing without taking attention away from the dialogue or plot. Really just marvelous.

I liked the art, especially the varied color palette and use of panels, and the small details often subtly included. The story of the development of the team and their friendship was very sweet and well done. Sometimes it did seem as if the book was overstuffed with a few too many plotlines (the story with Ren's sister also seemed to start up a bit late in the text and perhaps needed some foreshadowing), it took a while for me to keep track of characters, and the shifts between POVs was sometimes a bit abrupt and hard to follow, but it's overall a nice contemporary YA graphic novel.