Online ordering for tickets has closed for the day. Please call or come in to reserve tickets for the event. Tickets and books will be available at the location. We will see you tonight!
The purchase of a $20 Family Ticket from The King’s English Bookshop includes a copy of Islandborn and general admission seating for up to four people. Tickets are on sale now!
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Díaz’s first foray into children’s books is an ode to the power of our imaginations to connect us to the past. In Islandborn, young Lola, who was born in the Dominican Republic and lives in New York City, is asked by her teacher to draw a picture of her home country, except that she moved from the Island as a baby and does not remember it at all. She turns to her family members and asks them to share their stories. She learns about their happiest moments in the Dominican Republic, as well as the darker parts of the country’s history. Through their anecdotes, she creates her drawing. Islandborn touches on immigration, struggling to find a place of belonging, and identity.
Lavishly illustrated by Utah artist Leo Espinosa, this picture book will delight the entire family.
Event Location: Larimer Auditorium at Rowland Hall Upper School, 843 South Lincoln Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84102
Junot Díaz won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. He is also the author of the story collections Drown and the National Book Award finalist This Is How You Lose Her. He serves as fiction editor at Boston Review and professor of creative writing at MIT. His many honors include a MacArthur Fellowship, induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
Leo Espinosa is an award-winning illustrator and designer from Bogotá, Colombia. His work has been featured in a variety of mediums, including The New Yorker, Wired, Esquire, The New York Times, Chronicle Books, Nickelodeon, Swatch, Hasbro, American Greetings, and Coca-Cola. Leo has served as faculty member at Rhode island School of Design and his illustrations have been recognized by American Illustration, Communication Arts, Pictoplasma, 3x3, and awarded with Gold and Silver Medals from The Society of Illustrators. He lives with his family in Park City, Utah.