Devastatingly beautiful, soulful, a fulfillment of a promise to his goddaughter, Junot Diaz’s Islandborn offers a new map into children’s books. In class, Lola is asked to draw a picture of where her family immigrated from. She can’t remember. So she asks others: memories and imagination blend for a picture of The Island. Illuminated by the light of childhood, with an uncommon emotional scale, Leo Espinosa is an operatic illustrator. Islandborn is both wonderful and rereadable.
Photos by Larry Hirshowitz.
