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Essential Maps for the Lost

Deb Caletti (Goodreads Author)

3.47 · Rating details · 859 ratings · 177 reviews

There are many ways to be lost.

Sometimes people want to be lost. Madison—Mads to everyone who knows her—is trying her best to escape herself during one last summer away from a mother who needs more from her than she can give, and from a future that has been decided by everyone but her.

Sometimes the lost do the unimaginable, like the woman, the body, Mads collides with in t ...more

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Hardcover, 326 pages

Published April 5th 2016 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers

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Average rating 3.47 ·

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· 859 ratings · 177 reviews

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Jul 29, 2018 Alice-Elizabeth (Prolific Reader Alice) rated it did not like it

Shelves: scribd, read-in-2018

Read as an e-book via Scribd!

T/W- Depression, Suicide

Overall, I found Essential Maps For The Lost to be an unsettling and personally far too triggering read for me. The story followed Mads or Madison who escapes from her Mum over the course of a single summer and lets others control her future. One day while swimming, she collides into the body of a young woman in the water. She has taken her own life. Struggling mentally after that experience, she one day meets the son of the woman called Billy ...more

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Mar 13, 2016 Angela rated it did not like it

Shelves: dnf

Just really bored reading this. Going to dnf it for the time being.

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Jan 04, 2016 Jessica rated it really liked it

Shelves: first-reads

Won in the First Reads giveaways.

I thought this book was funny and sweet and mostly realistic.

I do have some worries about it though.
1. " "Gee gow." Ivy points. It's possible she's fluent in Chinese. " Um... That's too Rosie O'Donnell for me.
2. Most scenes of intimacy between Mads and Billy are from Billy's point of view. So are all of the sexual thoughts. Like Mads doesn't consider it at all. We don't know how she feels about him constantly kissing her and giving her puppy eyes.
3. I'm a little ...more

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Jul 07, 2015 Christina (A Reader of Fictions) marked it as dnf

Shelves: egalley

The writing is absolutely gorgeous, and in omniscient third which you don't see a lot in YA. However, it's also very distancing, which is a odd choice for a romance. I don't care about these characters, and the heroine's desire to steal a baby is not a Christina plot. From the start, I've been both impressed by this book and desperately not ever felt like reading any of it. So I'm stopping. ...more

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Jan 09, 2019 Hallie (Hallie Reads) rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, mount-tbr-2019, beat-the-backlist-2019

Reading Challenge Categories:
-#Ampersand2019 Reading Challenge: A contemporary book
-Beat the Backlist Reading Bingo: New-to-you author
-January Bookish Bingo: An author you've never read
-#ReadingUSA: Washington ...more

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May 21, 2017 Dove rated it it was ok

I'm so sad that i didn't like this book!! I always pick out what book I'm going to read very carefully through reading reviews and the synopsis and I was soooo disappointed. Most of my ratings are 4-5 stars, and it doesn't feel good adding such a lowly rated book to my reviews :(. I wanted to like this book, I really did, but at the end of the day, I couldn't take it anymore. THIS BOOK WAS SO GODDAMN BORING. I hate to be so rash, but I don't know how else to put it. It was slow..... I kept hopin ...more

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Apr 22, 2016 Marisa Turpin rated it really liked it

I checked this book out from the local library, and didn't want to return it. There were so many good quotes in it, but this is the only one I wrote down: "Can you imagine being depressed and then being judged for being depressed? Who's crazier anyway: people who struggle honestly, or the people who act like they never do?" This book deals with depression in an insightful manner. The two main characters are Madison ("Mads" for short---that nickname drove ME a little crazy, though) and Billy. At ...more

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Aug 07, 2015 Shannon (It Starts At Midnight) rated it it was ok

Shelves: read-for-review, 2016

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
I didn't dislike this book, which should count for something. I did, however, feel like it didn't exactly leave an impact on me in any real way. It was entertaining enough as I was reading, and the writing style was quirky and unique, which I loved. Mads and Billy were fine characters, and I felt for them and their struggles. They both come from messy home situations (as you may have gue You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
I didn't dislike this book, which should count for something. I did, however, feel like it didn't exactly leave an impact on me in any real way. It was entertaining enough as I was reading, and the writing style was quirky and unique, which I loved. Mads and Billy were fine characters, and I felt for them and their struggles. They both come from messy home situations (as you may have guessed from the whole "woman dead in the water" thing), and have a connection to each other than only one of them knows about.

I had typed out a list of "good and not good"... and as I was typing it out I think I realized that this book was more problematic than I thought upon finishing it. I liked it in the moment, for the most part. But when going over it in my head, some things troubled me.

I felt for Mads and Billy, I did. But they were really dysfunctional on every level. Mads kept wanting to steal the baby she was a babysitter for. Billy stole dogs from his neighbors to take to the kennel he worked at. Mads was obsessed with Billy's mom, without his knowledge. Then they have a romance... which is based on lies- pretty serious ones. It did leave me a bit unsettled that the only reason they ever liked each other (or at least, that Mads liked Billy) was because she found his mom floating during a morning swim. As for their "caretakers", Mads' mom is awful- self absorbed, co-dependent, and a sorry excuse for a parent all around, and yet somehow, Billy's bullying and cruel grandma is even worse. The mental health pieces are most definitely not as in depth as I would have liked, especially considering the family histories.

Mads trying to find herself was a good thing. Billy trying to figure out his place in the world was a good thing. Mads' aunt, uncle, and cousin were lovely characters. I liked the writing style quite a bit too. But as a whole, I find that it was lacking in some of the substance I was looking for.

Bottom Line: The story itself was entertaining, and there were some very charming pieces, but I feel like it just touched the surface of suicide and mental health, and really even Billy and Mads as characters.

*Copy provided by publisher for review ...more

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Mar 30, 2016 Kelly Hager added it

This is my first Deb Caletti book and that's embarrassing for someone like me who is a huge fan of contemp YA. Many blogging/actively literate friends have been raving about her for years and I absolutely get it.

From what I understand, her books tend to deal with important things (abusive relationships, for example, and anxiety) and this one is no exception. This book is actually one of the best representations of grief I've ever read.

Deb Caletti's writing is also gorgeous. She writes these prof ...more

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Aug 20, 2019 Myndi rated it liked it

I've liked Deb Caletti books in the past, so I picked this one up from the library. Unfortunately I had a bit of trouble getting into the story. It's told in the third person, but from alternating points of view if that makes sense. I just struggled a bit with it being written like that.

The actual "meat" of the story was quite good. I like that both teens had something that they were struggling with and how they sort of helped each other without knowing that they were. I also really liked Mads' ...more

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Jun 22, 2017 Claire rated it it was amazing

Uh it was amazing. I loved it dearly!!!

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Mar 10, 2020 Ashley rated it liked it

Shelves: own, ya, romance, contemporary

3.5
If you're looking for a complicated love story that also deals with grief, mental health, toxic family and hard decisions, this is a good book for you.
I loved the writing style and how the narrator spoke to the readers at times. The almost stream-of-consciousness writing we get from each characters perspective really puts you in their head and helps you to really empathize with them. I loved the characters and the parallels drawn between them. I didn't mind that it was a little corny at time ...more

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Jan 29, 2018 Anna Bowling rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya

There are many ways to be lost, and, if we're lucky, maps to find our way back. For Mads, trapped in the inescapable undertow of her mother's impossible dream, an early morning swim connects her to Billy Youngwolf Floyd. The thread that connects them? Billy's mother, Anna, whose body Mads discovers in the lake. Both Mads and Billy have a deep desire to rescue those who can't speak for themselves, which means they both have a lot of questions about Anna's suicide, but are there really any answers ...more

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Feb 26, 2016 Kelly Gunderman rated it really liked it

Check out this and other reviews on my young adult book blog, Here's to Happy Endings!

“Somewhere in the universe, a couple of stars collide. They aren’t fancy stars, or even ones with names. Just regular old stars. Two of millions. Still, just like that, some of the best things begin.”

There are plenty of sweet, romantic YA contemporary novels out there that focus on cute, fluffy relationships and all kinds of high school drama – none of them going very deep or having much substance to them. Esse ...more

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Jan 19, 2016 Jules rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

"She'll rescue herself because she kisses back, she lets love in, and love is one of the only weapons that has half a chance in the dark."

Mads is trying her best to escape: from a mother who can do nothing alone, to a future that she wants nothing to do with. After colliding with a woman's body in the river, Mads goes to stay with her aunt and uncle for the summer. But Mads didn't expect to meet a boy- Billy, the son of the woman she collided with in the river. Through coincidences and complica "She'll rescue herself because she kisses back, she lets love in, and love is one of the only weapons that has half a chance in the dark."

Mads is trying her best to escape: from a mother who can do nothing alone, to a future that she wants nothing to do with. After colliding with a woman's body in the river, Mads goes to stay with her aunt and uncle for the summer. But Mads didn't expect to meet a boy- Billy, the son of the woman she collided with in the river. Through coincidences and complications, Mads and Billy's worlds collide.

This book was different from Caletti's other works. It was told in an almost omnipresent viewpoint, which told us right off the bat that this would be different. It was also told in alternating viewpoints, which was an interesting treat, as Caletti's novels are usually only one point of view.

I found myself racing through this book, unlike many of Caletti's past novels, which I tend to slug through. Filled with flirting, wisdom, and an interesting plot, I devoured this book.

The characters in this book were so lovable. At least 70% of the time, I pick apart the main character. This time, however, I did not hate any character in the novel aside from Mads' mom (who I believe you were supposed to hate, let's be honest), and was too busy loving the characters to tear them to pieces.

Despite his awful name, Billy Youngwolf Floyd was pretty dang cute. Unlike other male leads in YA, Billy was not a smooth talking charmer. He was awkward and nerdy, with lots of references to Night Worlds, his favourite video game. The fact that Billy rescued dogs in his free him and wasn't afraid to cry just made my heart leap. He was adorable and made this novel great.

Though the story was told in alternating viewpoints, I felt that Mads was the dominant one. Mads was, as usual, a "relatable" character. She had a mental illness, as most young adult heroines do. But Mads was a very strong character. She whispered words of wisdom to baby Ivy, and she let herself love. Mads saved herself. I love how Caletti emphasizes that you don't need a boy to save you.

My one big problem with the book (ok, fine; minor problem- I love this book so much! There is nothing majorly wrong with it) was that the intimate scenes were only in Billy's perspective. We never got to see what Mads thought when Billy kissed her. It was all longing and desire on Billy's end, but Mads seemed unresponsive and just overall blah about it, since we never got to be inside of her mind.

The fact that we never did see Mads' point of view during intimate scenes frustrates me. We generally never do get a girl's perspective on intimacy in young adult, which, as a feminist, is a pet peeve of mine.

Overall, the romance was adorable and I absolutely loved the characters to pieces! Deb Caletti really outdid herself on this novel. ...more

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Jan 05, 2016 Claire Hennessy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

“A husband might ditch the joint, but a daughter never can,” eighteen-year-old Mads reflects. Having graduated high school early, she’s now living with her aunt and uncle taking an intensive community college course so she can get her realtor’s licence, and join her mother’s practice. Never mind that it’s not what she wants – that her dream is to study English at university – this is the path that’s been set out for her. And she’s drowning in it.

This sophisticated YA novel by the prolific Seattl “A husband might ditch the joint, but a daughter never can,” eighteen-year-old Mads reflects. Having graduated high school early, she’s now living with her aunt and uncle taking an intensive community college course so she can get her realtor’s licence, and join her mother’s practice. Never mind that it’s not what she wants – that her dream is to study English at university – this is the path that’s been set out for her. And she’s drowning in it.

This sophisticated YA novel by the prolific Seattle-based Deb Caletti, who’s produced a book a year for over a decade, is set near the water, and drowning both metaphorically and literally is at its heart. On a morning swim, Mads encounters a dead body and pulls it to shore, an experience that pushes her further into the depression that she’s struggling with. She becomes obsessed with the drowned woman, who threw herself off a nearby bridge, and goes to her old home – where she meets her nineteen-year-old son, Billy, for the first but not the last time.

Billy is a decent guy, but haunted by his mother’s death and the years of upset before that; now he lives with his unsympathetic grandmother and steals badly-treated dogs from their owners, then deposits them at the shelter he works with, claiming that they’re ‘lost’. Without hammering the point home, we can see that both he and Mads are lost in their own way, living in a world where terrible things happen and there are no easy answers. “A why without an answer,” Mads thinks, “is the worst kind of lost thing – a lost thing you never had to begin with.”

And then there are maps – the maps that can help lost travellers along the way. Billy’s mother’s favourite book was From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler by E L Konigsburg, and he still carries around the map from within the novel – a floor plan of the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, where the two characters in the book run away to. Mixed-Up Files becomes a touchstone for Mads and Billy, and this novel – deviating from Caletti’s usual tendency to write in the first person – uses the same ‘God voice’ that Konigsburg adopts, allowing us to see two rounded, imperfect characters trying to figure out how to deal with the different kinds of grief that hit us in life – and how to handle the love that sometimes feels too scary or fragile to trust.

Caletti’s prose is fresh and quirky without ever getting irritating; optimistic without being saccharine. As in her other YA novels, the teenage protagonists being the central focus doesn’t mean that the others – the adults, the children, and the dogs – in their world aren’t carefully characterised as well. Fans of Gayle Forman’s I Was Here or Jennifer Niven’s All The Bright Places should pick this one up. ...more

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Feb 16, 2016 Liza Wiemer added it

Shelves: arc, challenge-2016-contemporary-romance

Thank you so much to the publisher for the ARC.

An eye-opening look into depression, suicide, family dynamics, serendipity, and how two lost souls find each other and fall in love. A journey that will leave readers cheering for the characters and hoping that they'll find a happy future together.

Depression is a serious topic and Deb Caletti holds a spotlight to it by intertwining the lives of two teens in an emotional, honest, heartbreaking and healing journey. Madison has a needy, self-absorbed, ...more

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May 16, 2016 Alissa added it

The Teen Librarian has been hearing about this book for a while now. In fact, it's been on her "to-read" list since she first read a review about it (she can't remember if it was School Library Journal or VOYA or some other professional source, but she doesn't suppose it matters). And, of course, she thinks the cover is beautiful! She's kind of embarrassed to admit this is why she read the review, the review that made her want to read the book, in the first place. She knows better, of course. Sh ...more

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Apr 18, 2016 Rachel rated it really liked it

This happens to be my second novel that involves doggies (The Unexpected Everything was the first one) in the last two weeks and it was my favorite aspect of the tale.

It took me a while to get into the story, mainly because of the writing but as the novel went on I flew through it and started to love the characters, however, it would have been better with one POV. The prose was very lyrical, most of all in the first chapter, and it takes a bit to get into that, at least for me.

The main love inte ...more

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Mar 22, 2016 Linda rated it liked it

Really a 3.5. I wouldn't suggest this as a teen's introduction to Deb Caletti's writing. More for the serious reader.
Told in the alternating voices of Mads (immobilized by her mother's depression and her father's abandonment) and Billy (the eternal optimist believing that it only takes the love and care of one person to improve your life), two lost souls connected by their love of a book and their struggles with living with a depressed mother. Both are keeping secrets which threaten the relation ...more

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Feb 02, 2017 Carolyn Elaine rated it liked it

The novel confused me. I couldn't understand all the deep thinking. I couldn't follow the deep thinking. Caletti had the right idea for the story, but I feel like she just couldn't deliver the story well enough. I was confused from the start.

Essential Maps for the Lost is about Mads and Billy. Billy's mother jumped off a bridge and died. Mads found Billy's mother in a lake dead. This is the story about a forbidden love between Mads and Billy.

Essential Maps for the Lost is an appropriate name fo ...more

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Sep 09, 2019 Rachel Mayes Allen rated it liked it

As far as stereotypical teen romances go, this one is decent. Deb Caletti's writing never fails to reveal her intimate understanding of the human heart, and this book, like all her others, provides some genuinely lovely and illuminating passages. As far as the storyline goes, however, it's undeniably lacking. The plot meanders from one unlikely event to another without ever really going anywhere. Mads is boring, Billy is unrealistic, and their relationship just never seems to make as much sense ...more

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May 05, 2016 kira levenson rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2015-2016

Although kind of cliché, it wasn't bad. It's the classic "troubled girl meets troubled boy" with a dash of "intertwined fate", but it's still well-written. It deals with issues like unstable homes, mental illness, and the effects they can have on others. It shows how difficult it is for some people to leave unsupportive or neglectful families because sometimes their family is all they have, or they are all their family has. ...more

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Apr 21, 2016 michelle rated it it was amazing

just stick all these words inside me forever and let me know them and live them amen

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Oct 02, 2017 Olivia J rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, 2019-reads

Absolutely beautiful. Probably my second favorite book of all time.

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Sep 06, 2019 Kim Smiley rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is one of those books that even when you're listening to it, you think it's kinda boring. It's a little all over the place and I even thought about just going to the next book on CD. But I'm glad I didn't because for once, this book got better. You just have to stay with it is all. Trust me, I'm the first one to ditch a book if it doesn't have my attention after the first chapter, sometimes two, but this one was actually a good story.

Two "kids" even if they are 18 and over are so alike and This is one of those books that even when you're listening to it, you think it's kinda boring. It's a little all over the place and I even thought about just going to the next book on CD. But I'm glad I didn't because for once, this book got better. You just have to stay with it is all. Trust me, I'm the first one to ditch a book if it doesn't have my attention after the first chapter, sometimes two, but this one was actually a good story.

Two "kids" even if they are 18 and over are so alike and meet under the strangest of circumstances.

Mads, (Madison, but no one calls her that). She is more like the mother to her own mother who is completely dependent on her to do everything to run her real estate business. She's even sent Mads to live with her sister's family so she can take a course to get her real estate license asap so they can be partners. Mads even graduated high school early just to do this.
But no one has ever asked her if she even WANTS to be a real estate agent. It's like her life has been planned for her by her mother who relies on this poor 18 yr old for everything. And Mads is the type of person who just can't say no. And this is depressing to her because she's getting everything she doesn't want.
She even babysits for people across the street from her Aunt & Uncle. Little baby Ivy, who is the sweetest, yet has to hear the constant fighting of her parents or just her mother constantly belittling her husband even when he's not there.
Until one day when Mads takes a swim in the lake and bumps up what is a body. She was a lifeguard, and that training kicks in for her to get this body of a dead woman to shore. Then she falls apart and becomes fixated on this woman. Anna Youngblood-Wolf. All she cares about is this woman and her family. She parks by her house and sees Anna's son, Billy. This is her fixation, and multiple attempts to kidnap, excuse me, "rescue" Ivy from the horrible parents she is forced to live with and listen to every day.

Billy Youngblood-Wolf. His mother jumped from a bridge and killed herself. Now Billy is stuck living with his grandmother, a woman who probably added to his mother's depression, as she never has anything nice to say about anybody. Billy is fixated on saving dogs. he finds them chained up or being abused, and he kidnaps, excuse me "rescues" them and takes them to the shelter he works at to give them a better life.

One day these two characters meet. Neither wants to reveal things about themselves, (Billy about his mother's suicide, Mads that she's the one who pulled his dead mother out of the lake). But yet, they seem to fit together in an odd way that works. But just because you don't tell someone your secrets doesn't mean they don't have a way of eventually coming out.

Very good story, very slow to start, but once it does, it's worth it. ...more

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Sep 21, 2018 Rebecca rated it liked it

Shelves: family-story, drama, young-adult, romance

At 18, Mads, forced to graduate early, is in Seattle taking a real estate course in order to join her volatile, somewhat-incompetent mother's one-person real estate company. That is so emphatically not what she wanted from her life that she's already severely depressed when, at an early morning swim in the lake, she literally runs into the body of a suicide victim and has to tow her to shore. After that, Mads becomes obsessed with finding out more about the woman--she's not really sure why. She At 18, Mads, forced to graduate early, is in Seattle taking a real estate course in order to join her volatile, somewhat-incompetent mother's one-person real estate company. That is so emphatically not what she wanted from her life that she's already severely depressed when, at an early morning swim in the lake, she literally runs into the body of a suicide victim and has to tow her to shore. After that, Mads becomes obsessed with finding out more about the woman--she's not really sure why. She learns that Anna Youngwolf-Floyd had a son, Billy, and Mads basically starts stalking him. Billy is just devastated by the loss of his mother. Now he's stuck living with his passive-aggressive grandmother on a houseboat, and working part-time at a pet rescue center (he regularly steals abused dogs from their owners). He doesn't know why he's suddenly seeing a lot of this gorgeous girl, but when he sees her looking up at the bridge his mom jumped from, he panics and worries that she's planning to do the same--so he runs over to save her. And they meet. And it goes from there...except that Mads never tells him that she pulled his mother out of the lake, and she lies to the aunt and uncle she's staying with about the boy who is suddenly making her smile. There's no way this will end with anything but an explosion--but what might come after that?

I picked this up because I wanted an audiobook and thought I should read more in this genre--plus it was set in a familiar location and the protagonists both loved "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler," a childhood favorite of mine as well. It didn't entirely work for me for several reasons. First, the audiobook reader over-enunciated in a really fake way, and couldn't pronounce some of the local place names (how hard is it to look those up?). Then, listening to it as an audiobook intensified the gloomy, massively depressive tone so that I had to give that format up (it was making me too depressed) and skim the rest on paper. I also couldn't stand the obnoxious 10 year old cousin who spied on Mads and reported back to his parents. Other parts of it worked better. The language was descriptive (even though over-full of metaphors that felt over-crafted), and I liked Billy (Mads was harder to like). So...just not my genre, I think. I'm not into all the feels. ...more

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Jan 27, 2018 Leah Wolff rated it really liked it

Shelves: my-reviews, 2018

I’m a pretty big fan of Deb Caletti. I really love how simple her message is sometimes but the way she writes it gives it a lot of heart and such deep meaning. She puts into words what people need to hear but the books aren’t a chore to get through and the audience never feels lectured, which I really appreciate.
This simple story about life moving on through and after loss was a good one to remember. That no matter what you’re going through, no matter how tiresome life can be or how much is wei I’m a pretty big fan of Deb Caletti. I really love how simple her message is sometimes but the way she writes it gives it a lot of heart and such deep meaning. She puts into words what people need to hear but the books aren’t a chore to get through and the audience never feels lectured, which I really appreciate.
This simple story about life moving on through and after loss was a good one to remember. That no matter what you’re going through, no matter how tiresome life can be or how much is weighing down on you, it goes on. It gets better and you just have to get through the bad stuff before the good stuff can come.
I would categorize this as an easy read, simply because there were a limited number of characters and the plot was predictable, but when you’re addressing issues such as mental health and depression, you don’t need to heavily weigh down the plot with unnecessary plot lines and intricate characters. You want to get your point across. I really enjoyed the way this was written, because of its specificity towards depression. When you’re depressed or dealing with immense grief like the main characters in this book were, you can’t concentrate long enough to get into a JRR Tolkein type of story where you have to focus 100% of your energy on keeping the story and characters straight. This was written in a tense that was easy to understand/read/grasp which was the point of the story.
**spoiler starts here

I think it’s rare that I appreciate all of the main characters, but I did in this story. Granted, there were only two, but I liked both of them. I was rooting for both to find peace of mind and be able to move on from the joint tragedy they suffered. I thought it was really cool that Mads and Billy had each other to lean on, even if he didn’t know what brought them together in the first place. I was happy that their connection, once discovered, didn’t keep them apart. They definitely grew to love and need each other in their own ways and it was just a nice display of grief and acceptance.
Some of the quotes from this book really touched me, and I wish I had actually taken the time to write them down while I was reading it, but they were nice to read and get those assurances that even though people do bad things, they can do good things too.
...more

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Jun 29, 2018 Danni rated it it was ok

I feel bad giving this book 2 stars because I don't think it was 'bad' as such. I think if you are a big romance reader you would easily rate this book 3 stars. Unfortunately, I am not and although I knew this book focussed on the relationship between the 2 main characters, I didn't realize how heavy the focus was.

The writing was a little descriptive for my liking - at times I skipped entire pages of writing and found that I hadn't missed anything at all. Equally, although I loved how mental ...more

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Feb 23, 2016 Stephanie Derbas (In Wonderland) rated it really liked it

Shelves: own

This review was originally posted on In Wonderland My Thoughts

I remember reading Honey Baby Sweetheart back in high school (which let me tell you, was a long time ago) and I remember enjoying it and wanting to read more of Deb Caletti's books. Fast forward to 2016 and I still hadn't read anymore of Deb Caletti's books. I did however buy a couple. Then I see a tour for ESSENTIAL MAPS FOR THE LOST and it sounds so good, I immediately sign up for it. I was not disappointed! Reading this book has m

...more

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About Deb Caletti

Deb Caletti

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Deb Caletti is the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of over sixteen books for adults and young adults, including Honey, Baby, Sweetheart, a finalist for the National Book Award, and A Heart in a Body in the World, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book. Her books have also won the Josette Frank Award for Fiction, the Washington State Book Award, and numerous other state awards and honors, and ...more

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Jennifer De Leon Celebrates Trailblazing YA Literature

Contemporary young adult literature has often led the way in depicting the real-life issues facing teens from all backgrounds. To delve into...

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“Courage, traveler. Weird. It's coming from inside her. Hold your little map and shout to the darkness, it says. Shout this: You are nothing, darkness, against something as old as love. Shout: I will walk right through you, darkness, because I am, and I will be. This boldness-she's felt it before. In the truck, when she first saw Billy. No, before that, when she was brave, so brave, and brought Anna to the shore. This is how you save yourself? This small voice inside? This microscopic cell of belief, allowed to divide? Yep. Uh-huh. The voice is your own personal sword and shield-remember that. Remember that every hard day.” — 2 likes

“More, much more, will happen after this. Things involving maps and books and true love and tragedy, tragedy like you wouldn't believe. But fine things too. The best ones.” — 1 likes

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Preview — Essential Maps for the Lost by Deb Caletti

Essential Maps for the Lost

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

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Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About Deb Caletti

Books by Deb Caletti

Related Articles

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