ISLA

Dorros likes to outfit his grandmothers with wings (see Abuela, 1991, for another soaring granny) that allow them to take their grandchildren on culturally packed flights over ancestral haunts. Here the girl and her grandmother ride the skies from New York City to the Caribbean island that was the grandmother's home. What follows is a splendid physical geography of the island, covering the fields, tiny towns, and the rain forest, as well as an exploration of the social landscape: uncles and aunts, friends and neighbors, the new city and the old marketplace. Dorros's text, injected with Spanish phrases, is always purposeful, informative, and even lyrical in its own bright, clipped way. Kleven's inventive paintings run wild with color and activity, faithful to the text and sometimes sharpening it. Rarely does the allegedly dull science of cultural geography get such spirited handling.