Skip to main content

Isla to Island

By

 

Isla to Island
By Alexis Castellanos
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2022. Graphic Novel.

In this mostly wordless picture book based on true events, a young girl named Marisol lives with her parents in Cuba during the early 60s.  Marisol's life is colorful, happy, and filled with the books she so loves.  Sadly, Marisol's family's happiness is threatened when Fidel Castro comes into power and Cuba is in unrest.  Marisol's parents, fearing for Marisol's safety, send her to New York to live and hopefully be safe until they can be reunited.  New York is so different from Cuba--here everything seems lonely, drab, and grey, and although the older couple who take Marisol in are kind, Marisol can't understand them.  School is even worse.  There she's bullied, lonely, and confused.  Only when she discovered the library at school does color start to come back into her life.  

This book proves that you don't need dialogue and lots of verbal imagery or background to learn to love characters and become fully invested in their story.  Marisol was so loveable and relatable.  The stark contrast between the colorful images of her life in Cuba with her parents and the colorless imagery once she makes it to New York really portray how alone and sad Marisol feels being away from home and family.  I loved Marisol's connection to books and how discovering them in New York made her feel more at home there.  A wonderful story that builds empathy towards the immigrant experience and helps the reader walk in someone else's shoes. Highly recommend.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

If You Like...KPop Demon Hunters

By
KPop Demon Hunters has been one of the most talked-about movies of the summer. If you loved this movie as much as I did, you don't want the magic (or the music) to stop. Try reading these books that touch on some of the same topics and themes as the animated hit! Brick Dust and Bones By M. R. Fournet New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2023. Fiction. 247 pages. Orphaned Marius works in the family business--as their cemetery's ghost caretaker. However, Marius also moonlights as a monster hunter in order to earn the costly Mystic currency he needs to bring his mother back from the dead. As the window to bring his mother back begins to close, Marius's exploits get more and more dangerous, and he may have set his sights on a monster too big to handle on his own. Like Mira, Marius longs for familial connection, and his work as a monster hunter will satisfy the thrill of demon hunting for fans the movie. Where's Halmoni? By Julie J. Kim Seattle, WA: Little Bigfoot, 2017. Comics. W...
Post a Comment
Read more

Five Faves: New Dragon Chapter Books for Middle Grade

By
As a kid I was OBSESSED (all caps!) with dragons.  Dragons can be scary, majestic, loyal, greedy, but what they all have in common is how fun they are to read about!  Check out the dragon books below for some fun new reads! Dad Rock Dragon Quest Written by Joan Reardon New York : Aladdin, 2025. Fiction. 342 pgs. Dad Rock Dragon Quest follows 12-year-old aspiring rockstar Zadie Drake, whose summer plans to bond with her super cool, if sometimes absent, daredevil park ranger dad get complicated when her mom’s boring new boyfriend tags along. After they arrive at her dad’s cabin, a poacher kidnaps her dad’s ice-breathing dragon, revealing her dad's secret role protecting magical creatures and thrusting the family into a high-stakes rescue mission. Along the way, Zadie begins to rethink her relationships with both her father and her mom’s boyfriend.  Dragonborn Written by Struan Murrya New York, NY : Dutton Children's Books, 2025. Fiction. 320 pgs. Dragonborn  follows 1...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Picasso Curse

By
  The Picasso Curse By Dan Gutman New York : Holiday House, 2025. Fiction. 183 pages. In this funny tale, Edwin Hodge visits the flea market with his parents all the time. Mostly he wanders around bored, but this week he decides to haggle his way into a "signed" Kobe Bryant poster (that the stall owner refuses to confirm is actually autographed) for $10. When he gets home and pulls it out of the frame he sees a random doodle in the frame behind the poster and rolls them both up to bring for show-and-tell. When his art teacher sees the doodle she speculates that it was created by Picasso, which Edwin's family later gets confirmed by art specialists. But when a string of terrible things begins happening to Edwin's family, he worries that he may be cursed.  Dan Gutman, who is known for his My Weird School series, focuses for much of the book on why Edwin is making the decisions he's making, and gives kids ample opportunities to think through what they would do if the...
Post a Comment
Read more