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Monday, March 19, 2018

Islandborn, by Junot Diaz and illustrated by Leo Espinosa. Dial, Penguin Random House. 2018. $23.99 ages 5 and up

"Lola had always wanted to remember the Island, but no matter how hard she tried she never could. It was like a familiar word just at the tip of her tongue, but instead of a word this was an entire world! Lola closed her eyes and tried to recall anything about the Island but nothing came up. She kept trying all through the school day ... "

Who wouldn't want to meet this little girl? She exudes happiness and warmth. The title page places her story in the neighborhood of Washington Heights in New York City. The first two lines tell us everything we need to know about it.

"Every kid in Lola's school was from somewhere else. Hers was the school of faraway places."

In Leo Espinosa's opening double page spread, we can see just how welcoming a place it is, as parents and children make their way to the school's open front door. Ms. Obi has an assignment for her students; one that they can work on at school and at home - it is due tomorrow. The classroom erupts with excitement. Everyone is talking about the place they were born and the memories they will share it their assigned drawings. Everyone that is but Lola. She has no memory bank to draw from; she left the Dominican Republic as a baby, too young to remember anything about it. Through careful questioning and support from her teacher, Lola is able to make a plan.

Because she cannot remember a thing about her island home, she looks to her community to help her understand what is so special about it. Each person she talks with has a very specific story to share - the music, the colors, the food, the people. From her building superintendent she hears the other side of the story. He tells her of a time of great fear and endless sadness when a 'monster' (dictator Rafael Trujillo) held power, and how difficult it was for so many to resist his overpowering hold on their homeland. Their stories are all Lola needs to fire her imagination and provide incentive to create a drawing that makes her proud, and impresses her fellow students.

Lola is as delightful a character as her island home is beautiful. Her diligence and need to know about
La Isla fill her head with images that make their way onto to her drawing paper. As her family, friends, and neighbors tell their stories, her pride in her birth country swells until she is ready to share a very important discovery.

 "Just because you don’t remember a place doesn’t mean it’s not in you.”

Leo Espinosa has filled the book's many pages with energetic, detailed mixed-media illustrations that offer a sense of the pride felt for their island home and the beauty found there.
                                                                    
 
https://www.npr.org/player/embed/591732716/592823661


https://www.cbs.com/shows/cbs_this_morning/video/gwX3_rc06RdFkH5e_4dYX9c6TKBT7glO/junot-d-az-on-new-children-s-book-islandborn-/

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