false 6065179 8 When twelve-year-old genius cartographer T.S. Spivet receives an unexpected phone call from the Smithsonian announcing he has won the prestigious Baird Award, life as normal — if you consider mapping family dinner table conversation normal — is interrupted and a wild cross-country adventure begins, taking T.S. from his family ranch just north of Divide, Montana, to the museum’s hallowed halls. T.S. sets out alone, leaving before dawn with a plan to hop a freight train and hobo east. Once aboard, his adventures step into high gear and he meticulously maps, charts, and illustrates his exploits, documenting mythical wormholes in the Midwest, the urban phenomenon of “rims,” and the pleasures of McDonald’s, among other things. We come to see the world through T.S.’s eyes and in his thorough investigation of the outside world he also reveals himself. As he travels away from the ranch and his family we learn how the journey also brings him closer to home. A secret family history found within his luggage tells the story of T.S.’s ancestors and their long-ago passage west, offering profound insight into the family he left behind and his role within it. As T.S. reads he discovers the sometimes shadowy boundary between fact and fiction and realizes that, for all his analytical rigor, the world around him is a mystery. All that he has learned is tested when he arrives at the capital to claim his prize and is welcomed into science’s inner circle. For all its shine, fame seems more highly valued than ideas in this new world and friends are hard to find. T.S.’s trip begins at the Copper Top Ranch and the last known place he stands is Washington, D.C., but his journey’s movement is far harder to track: How do you map the delicate lessons learned about family and self? How do you depict how it feels to first venture out on your own? Is there a definitive way to communicate the ebbs and tides of heartbreak, loss, loneliness, love? These are the questions that strike at the core of this very special debut. 6054277 5 5 2009 The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet total:776|5:252|4:300|3:157|2:52|1:15| 776 3050 2337 337 4 5 false false Tue Apr 21 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 16 09:10:11 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 22 00:42:21 -0700 2009
First let take a...more...]]> 4 2 false false Fri Aug 21 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 19 20:53:02 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 25 18:26:58 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 2 false false Wed Aug 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 30 23:06:27 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 19 04:09:42 -0700 2009 naturalist—living with an entomologist mom, a bronco-busting dad, a sister older than her y...more...]]> 5 7 false false Tue Feb 24 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 18 16:29:34 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 21:01:48 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Sep 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 17 12:53:58 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 17 20:36:52 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed Sep 09 11:21:22 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 09 11:21:22 -0700 2009
Border-crossing debut
12-year-old mapmaker sets his sights on Washington
Interview by Michael Alec Rose


One day, T.S. Spivet gets a phone call from the Smithsonian Institution, informing him that he has won a national award for his mapmaking...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Sep 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 07 14:54:21 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 07 15:23:24 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jul 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 04 11:41:32 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 04 11:41:32 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Jul 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 30 20:19:44 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 30 21:46:52 -0700 2009
But nothing and no one has made my heart ache the way this book has. In this book, Reif Larsen has created a story so beautiful in its simplicity and at the same time, filled with la...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jun 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 23 13:33:59 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 23 13:44:27 -0700 2009
Tecumseh Spar...more...]]> 5 2 false false Tue Jun 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 21 20:48:25 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 21 21:09:26 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 20 07:51:08 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 20 07:52:36 -0700 2009
T.S. (short for Tecumsah Sparrow) Spivet is a 12 year old mapmaker. He lives on a remote ranch in Montana ...more...]]> 4 2 false false Tue May 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri May 15 10:50:51 -0700 2009 Fri May 15 10:51:57 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 2 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 25 07:06:32 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 25 07:31:10 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Tue Aug 18 10:23:12 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 10:23:12 -0700 2009

Q&A: Reif Larsen, author of The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet

Tuesday, August 18, 2009
By Eugenia Williamson

Reif Larsen’s debut novel, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, concerns a cartographic prodigy who ventures alone from Montana to Washington, D.C. to...more...]]> 2 0 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 06 06:39:06 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 06 06:57:12 -0700 2009 ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 08 10:02:43 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 11 05:55:36 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 3 false false Sun May 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat May 16 07:52:21 -0700 2009 Sun May 17 10:08:21 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jul 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 26 23:23:26 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 30 22:49:16 -0700 2009 first of many, i'm sure
I don't think in a single review on goodreads I've ever used the word 'beautiful' to describe a book or its prose, and I'm very glad I haven't, because this is the first to deserve it. In expression, structure, symbolism, charac...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Jul 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 07 14:38:39 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 11 08:24:10 -0700 2009 more...]]>