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Islandborn is a story about a little Afro-Caribbean girl, Lola, who migrated to the United States with her family at a very young age. When Lola goes to school one day, her teacher gives the class an assignment where students must draw a picture of where they come from. Lola was very little when she migrated to the US and doesn't remember what the islands were like. She begins to consult her family members and close friends who remember what the islands were like. Lola learns that she doesn't have to remember the Islands because the Island “is” Lola.

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Junot Díaz is an award winning Dominican-American writer. Diaz was born in the Dominican Republic and migrated to the United States at age six. He currently resides in Massachusetts where he is a creative writing professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Islandborn features Dominican girls living in the Bronx much like Junot Diaz’s goddaughters. Diaz also represents the identities featured in this book since he was born in the Dominican and moved to the U.S. when he was six years old, similar to the main character Lola who moved from “the island” when she was just a baby.

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Leo Espinosa is an award winning illustrator and designer originally from Bogota, Columbia. Espinosa studied graphic design and worked as an art director in advertising. He currently resides with his family in Utah, and his work has been featured in a variety of publications, products, animated series, and gallery shows worldwide. Also, “Leo's illustrations have been recognized by American Illustration, Communication Arts, Pictoplasma, 3x3, The Society of Illustrators and the American Library Association” (studioespinosa.com). Islandborn won the Pura Belpré Award in 2019 for Espinosa’s illustrations.

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CC.1.3.2.A Recount stories and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.

CC.1.3.2.C Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

CC.1.4.2.V Participate in individual or shared research and writing projects.

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This is a great book because there are so many different ways to use it in the classroom. I would use it with a second-grade class by doing the following:

The teacher will complete a prereading strategy with students by asking them what they think the story will be about after looking at the title, cover, and taking a picture walk.

Next, the teacher will complete a read aloud of the book, asking questions throughout the story about setting, characters, events, conflict, resolution, etc.

After the read aloud, students will work with a partner to determine the theme or lesson of the story and how it makes them feel. They will be able to use details from the story to support their answers.

The class will then participate in a whole class discussion about what answers they came up with and how they can relate it to their own life.

Finally, students will complete an All About Me Project. They will be expected to research where they come from (culture/heritage) and put their research into writing over the course of a few days. Students will also draw or print out pictures to go along with their writing. These projects will be hung around the classroom and the lesson will be concluded by talking about everyone’s culture and relating it back to Lola in Islandborn.

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2019 Pura Belpré Honor Book

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My overall impression of this book is that it is a well written and illustrated story, as well as greatly diverse. I enjoyed the story as a whole from the beginning of the book when Lola is struggling to remember anything about the Island, to the end when she can create a whole masterpiece about her home. Junot Diaz made sure to create a book about immigration that not only talks about the good times, but the bad times as well. Illustrator, Leo Espinosa, really brought this story to life with his colorful and true to life drawings. The illustrations throughout the book gave a genuine representation of immigration and the Afro-Latinx identity without ever stereotyping. This book creates a great pathway for teachers, students, and parents to talk about how we are all unique in where we come from.