Oddly, the book's one flaw is an occasional and inelegant demand for action. By the time he gets to Washington, he's in a very strange place (pun intended, I suppose). Trapped in a railroad car for days, he has nothing to do but reflect, draw, and read his mother's journal. Although Spivet crosses the entire country, the real journey is inside his own head. He's still in shock from the traumatic death of his older brother, he can't talk to either of his (strange) parents, and his 'conventional' older sister doesn't have time for him.Īgainst all odds, Spivet decides to take the Smithsonian appointment - and with the clatter of pens, he hits the road. Unfortunately, when it comes to the intangible and the unmappable, Spivet has a much harder time. Just flipping through the book is a joy.Īs a cartographer, Spivet is an undeniable success - so much so that the Smithsonian want him to represent them for a year (not realizing his true age of 12). As well as text, it seems like every point - key or mundane - is illustrated with charts, diagrams and, most of all, maps. But in this case, Larsen goes well beyond footnotes. (Two notable exceptions being Stroud's Bartimeaus trilogy and Clarke's Jonathan Strange, both of which do a wonderful job merging footnotes into the narrative).

Fortunately for the reader, the book is littered with his work - maps, doodles and footnotes clutter the margins of every page.Īlthough many books try to make the footnotes critical to the story's appreciation, generally it winds up being a distraction. Growing up in rural Montana, he fills his hours (and his notebooks) by mapping everything he can find - from shucking corn to the Continental Divide. Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet is the cartographically-obsessed child of a cowboy and an entomologist. Spivet is a unique coming of age story with beautiful design - the ideal gift book released just in time for the holiday season.

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