Marisol
By Gary Soto
2004
First Published
3.71
Average Rating
147
Number of Pages
Marisol Luna is a lively 10-year-old girl who was born to dance. She's a fourth-grader who lives with her loving parents in a busy and largely Hispanic neighborhood in the heart of Chicago. Marisol goes to school (where she is a Two-Square champion) takes care of her cat, plays with the kids in her neighborhood, and takes dance lessons. Ballet folkl—rico (Mexican folkdance) is her favorite type of dance—and where she really shines—but she's been exposed to some jazz and a little tap. She's also taking ballet, but she's new to it and a little impatient with its rigors. Her attitude towards ballet changes only slightly when she meets a wonderful new neighbor. Miss Mendoza is a former Rockette who gently reminds Marisol that ballet is worth working hard at, because it's the basis for all serious dance. The upsetting news that her family is moving out to the suburbs is made worse when Marisol learns that the dance studio in her new neighborhood has closed. No tap, no ballet folkl—rico—not even ballet. She may have to take karate lessons! Instead, with the help of new friends, resourceful Marisol finds a way to keep dancing.
Avg Rating
3.71
Number of Ratings
561
5 STARS
31%
4 STARS
25%
3 STARS
32%
2 STARS
10%
1 STARS
3%
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Author
Gary Soto
Author · 55 books
Gary Soto is the author of eleven poetry collections for adults, most notably New and Selected Poems, a 1995 finalist for both the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the National Book Award. His poems have appeared in many literary magazines, including Ploughshares, Michigan Quarterly, Poetry International, and Poetry, which has honored him with the Bess Hokin Prize and the Levinson Award and by featuring him in the interview series Poets in Person. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. For ITVS, he produced the film “The Pool Party,” which received the 1993 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Film Excellence. In 1997, because of his advocacy for reading, he was featured as NBC’s Person-of-the-Week. In 1999, he received the Literature Award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, the Author-Illustrator Civil Rights Award from the National Education Association, and the PEN Center West Book Award for Petty Crimes. He divides his time between Berkeley, California and his hometown of Fresno.
