Isla to Island

by Alexis Castellanos, Alexis Castellanos (Illustrator)

Overview

This stunning wordless graphic novel follows a young girl in the 1960s who immigrates from Cuba to the United States and must redefine what home means to her.

Marisol loves her colorful island home. Cuba is vibrant with flowers and food and people...but things are changing. The home Marisol loves is no longer safe—and then it’s no longer her home at all. Her parents are sending her to the United States. Alone.

Nothing about Marisol’s new life in cold, gray Brooklyn feels like home—not the language, school, or even her foster parents. But Marisol starts to realize that home isn’t always a place. And finding her way can be as simple as staying true to herself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781534469235
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	03/15/2022
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	127,498
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	10 - 18 Years

About the Author

Alexis Castellanos was born and raised in Florida where she enjoyed sunny days, dramatic thunderstorms, and delicious Cuban food. After graduating from college, she moved to New York City and worked as a scenic artist, bringing theatrical sets to life with a little bit of paint and a whole lot of ingenuity. She currently works as a graphic designer by day and spends her nights dreaming up stories. She lives in Seattle with her partner and her extremely photogenic cat, Belle. Isla to Island is her first graphic novel.

Alexis Castellanos was born and raised in Florida where she enjoyed sunny days, dramatic thunderstorms, and delicious Cuban food. After graduating from college, she moved to New York City and worked as a scenic artist, bringing theatrical sets to life with a little bit of paint and a whole lot of ingenuity. She currently works as a graphic designer by day and spends her nights dreaming up stories. She lives in Seattle with her partner and her extremely photogenic cat, Belle. Isla to Island is her first graphic novel.

Editorial Reviews

★ 02/07/2022

In a graphic novel that opens in 1958 Cuba, portrayed in lushly colored tropical scenes, Marisol Alabarce leads a vibrant life with loving parents who encourage her interest in books, food, and plants. Political trouble soon stirs as Fidel Castro assumes power, and when military presence, scarcity, and violence descend, Marisol’s parents fear for her safety. They send her alone to New York via a Catholic relief program, to live in Brooklyn with an elderly couple who read as white. But adjusting is not easy, and Marisol deplanes into a New York City rendered almost entirely in grayscale art, soon navigating school, learning English, and missing her family in Cuba. When she encounters the school library and rediscovers her love for plants—moments that utilize brilliant pinks and greens amid the gray—her world slowly regains color. Employing spare text in the form of signs and radio chatter in Spanish and English, debut creator Castellanos effectively uses color as a vehicle to portray Marisol’s loving life with her family in Cuba, despair at their separation, and slow arc to a new life in which she honors her Cuban identity through food and music. Back matter includes a recipe, author’s note, and further resources. Ages 10–up. Agent: Marietta Zacker, Gallt & Zacker. (Mar.)■

Publishers Weekly

"A different kind of immigrant story uniquely told."

Booklist

*"Powerfully depict[s] the disorienting experience of immigration in a way reminiscent of Shaun Tan’s The Arrival."

The Horn Book Magazine

★ 2022-02-09
A mostly wordless middle-grade graphic novel follows the journey of a Pedro Pan child, one of thousands evacuated from Cuba to the United States during the Cuban revolution.

Marisol’s story opens with black-and-white photographs of her parents’ early lives and then bursts into color. In tidily arranged panels, we see bright homes, delicious food, and beautiful tropical wildlife. Then Fidel Castro seizes power. Food grows scarce, and voices become hushed. When a bomb nearly blows apart Marisol’s bedroom window in the middle of the night, her parents make the difficult choice to send her to New York City. While the White couple who take her in are kind, she cannot understand the speech bubbles falling from people’s mouths, and her classmates are cruel. Everything is dark, gray, and cold—so unlike her vibrant isla—until she discovers the neighborhood library. She starts learning English, and her foster parents take her to the botanical gardens. The trio cook Cuban dishes and dance in the living room. Slowly, color seeps back into Marisol’s world. This beautiful and heartbreaking book bears witness to the experiences of children of the Pedro Pan generation, although not all experienced Marisol’s happy ending. Her story will resonate with Cuban children growing up on their abuelos’ stories and anyone who has had to leave their home and start over. The wordless narrative is incredibly impactful, underscoring Marisol’s alienation and the language barrier she faces.

An important and authentic look at the Cuban refugee experience. (author's note, recipe, further reading) (Historical graphic novel. 10-18)

Kirkus Reviews

★ 01/01/2022

Gr 5 Up—In 1961 Cuba, revolution and violence convince Marisol's parents to make the difficult decision to send their daughter to safety in the United States. Though this wordless graphic novel begins in full, tropical color, when Marisol lands in New York, the only color is in the red flower her father tucked behind her ear; the people and setting are in grayscale, and the speech bubbles are empty or filled with scribbles, representing the English that Marisol cannot yet understand. The two older adults who take Marisol in are kind, but she cannot communicate with them; the first comfort Marisol finds is in a school library book about trees. Her hosts take her to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, where plants in the greenhouse are rendered in vibrant color. As winter thaws into spring, Marisol's life gains color through library books, plants, and food. Her hosts cook with her (from a Cuban cookbook from the school librarian), build her bookshelves, and buy plants for her room. When she enters seventh grade the following fall, Marisol's world is fully in color, and she has the courage to speak to her classmates in English. Family photos serve as an epilogue; back matter includes a recipe, a list of further reading, and a note about Operation Peter Pan, the 1960–62 exodus of young Cubans (when Fidel Castro took power, many parents, terrified that their children would be taken from them, sent their kids to the United States). Marisol and her family are Latinx; the older adults who take her in are white. VERDICT This historical graphic novel is an inspiring, empathy-building story, accessible to all readers.—Jenny Arch

School Library Journal