Caletti, Deb. Essential Maps for the Lost. 336p. ebook available. S. & S./Simon Pulse. Apr. 2016. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9781481415163. 

Gr 9 Up –The relationship between Mads and Billy, two teenagers thrown together by grisly fate and bound together over the course of the novel by love, echoes with a motif—a certain book beloved by them both: E.L. Konigsburg’s From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Having read the story of these two siblings who decide to hide out in the Metropolitan Museum of Art after closing time is not essential, but it is helpful to understanding the book’s significance in their lives. Mads is a big reader; Billy has really only read this one book, which was special to his depressed mother, who left Billy reeling and living with his Gran after she jumped off a Seattle bridge. Mads struggles with depression herself even while she is living with her aunt and uncle to take an accelerated course to get her realtor’s license. She feels trapped and locked into the future her mother has dictated. The teen is swimming in a lake one spring morning when the corpse of a jumper bumps her. Mads tows Anna Youngwolf Floyd to shore and becomes obsessed with her and the son she left behind. As she and the dog-saving, rescue shelter–working gamer Billy come to know each other, Mads can’t tell him what brought her into his life. Caletti excels at focusing on the perspectives of both young people. Billy’s overwhelming and moving love for Mads will pluck the heartstrings of many readers. VERDICT Recommend this tale of overcoming the ogres of depression and loss with the saving graces of sustaining relationships and self-discovery.–Suzanne Gordon, Lanier High School, Sugar Hill, GA

This review was published in the School Library Journal February 2016 issue.