Islandborn

From New York Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize winner Junot D az comes a debut picture book about the magic of memory and the infinite power of the imagination.

A 2019 Pura Belpr Honor Book for Illustration

 

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

So when Lola's teacher asks the students to draw a picture of where their families immigrated from, all the kids are excited. Except Lola. She can't remember The Island--she left when she was just a baby. But with the help of her family and friends, and their memories--joyous, fantastical, heartbreaking, and frightening--Lola's imagination takes her on an extraordinary journey back to The Island. As she draws closer to the heart of her family's story, Lola comes to understand the truth of her abuela's words: "Just because you don't remember a place doesn't mean it's not in you."

 

Gloriously illustrated and lyrically written, Islandborn is a celebration of creativity, diversity, and our imagination's boundless ability to connect us--to our families, to our past and to ourselves.

Author: Junot Díaz
Publisher: Dial Books
Published: 03/13/2018
Pages: 48
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.18lbs
Size: 11.10h x 8.80w x 0.50d
ISBN: 9780735229860
Audience: Ages 4-8

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 3.4
Point Value: 0.5
Interest Level: Lower Grade
Quiz #/Name: 194007 / Islandborn


Award: Pura Belpre Award - Honor Book


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 12/18/2017
School Library Journal 02/01/2018 pg. 57
Kirkus Reviews 02/15/2018
Booklist 02/15/2018 pg. 80
Shelf Awareness 03/30/2018
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 04/01/2018
Horn Book Magazine 05/01/2018 pg. 103
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2018 - Superior,Well Above Average

About the Author
Junot Díaz was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Drown; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and This Is How You Lose Her, a New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist. A graduate of Rutgers University, Díaz is currently the fiction editor at Boston Review and the Rudge and Nancy Allen Professor of Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

Leo Espinosa is an award-winning illustrator and designer from Bogotá, Colombia, whose work has been featured in The New Yorker, Wired, Esquire, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and more. Leo's illustrations have been recognized by American Illustration, Communication Arts, Pictoplasma, 3x3, and the Society of Illustrators. Leo lives with his family in Salt Lake City, Utah.