ANGELINA’S ISLAND

Angelina misses Jamaica, and even though her mother says New York is home now, it certainly doesn’t seem like it. Buildings cover the sun and sky, and Angelina can’t walk in the sand and feel the sun on her head. The birds are gray instead of colorful. For breakfast, there’s cereal instead of island fruit, and she misses her island school and old friends. Then Angelina’s mother learns that Carnival is coming up in nearby Brooklyn. Local craftsmen make Angelina a beautiful costume, and when the day arrives, New York suddenly looks and feels like home; Angelina realizes she’s found a new island in the sun. Straightforward text and folk-art–inspired illustrations show an increasingly hopeful Angelina as she dreams of Jamaica and adapts to New York. While the many aspects of island culture that are present in New York City are absent here (West Indian markets, for example, sell many of the foods Angelina longs for), this tale of adjustment and discovery does imaginatively portray both places and will comfort all who have immigrated or moved. (Picture book. 4-8)