Review of Marisol's Book--**SPOILERS!**

[nycgal]

I just finished Marisol's book. It was the first LE girl book I've read, and I really liked it. I had a lot in common with Marisol, like living in a city, not having siblings, and loving dance and cats, so I enjoyed it also because of that. [img]smile.gif[/img]

The book had a definite individual tone--it's a little hard to explain [img]wink.gif[/img] --that I didn't find in the historical AG books, such as perspective, metaphors, etc. The language the characters used was very realistic. [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

The Marisol in the book strikes me as different from the doll. I'm not sure the Marisol in the book would wear something as elaborate as her meet outfit (although I love that outfit). Also, her folklorico skirts are referred to many times as her most prized possessions, so I don't know why they chose to make the jazz outfit instead of the skirts. [img]frown.gif[/img] (It's mentioned that she took jazz briefly over the summer, and liked the boas). The tap outfit is also mentioned briefly, but there's an illustration of Marisol wearing it which is nice. The trunk, ballet class (outfit), cat (Rascal) and dance bag are all important. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I really enjoyed the book! I won't give too much of the story away. I think even if you don't have Marisol it's cute. A little predictable, but not to the point of annoying. [img]wink.gif[/img] Enjoy...and feel free to add more reviews!!

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ December 30, 2004 07:23 PM: Message edited by: AG*dancer* ]</font>

[rolloverrover]

I've heard several people mention the lack of a "folklorico" outfit. I bet one will be coming down the pike. Once the initial rush for Marisol wears off, they'll introduce some glorious folklorico outfit which will give renewed interest to Marisol again.

[littledarling]

I finished reading it a few minutes ago and really liked it as well! The moving parts were sad and reminded me of the several times I've moved (the main one being when I was also ten, so I could really understand how she was feeling. Only I moved further away than she did. She's atleast close enough to occasionally visit her old friends.). I loved the emphasis on dance in the book, I've never taken classes (well, not really, though when I was 5 I did get take one of those community enrichment or whatever classes but it was mostly a play thing and not very serious.) but I felt they were realistic. They certainly made me want to get up and stretch and dance, anyway!

There are quite a few Spanish words, which made me very happy (I love Spanish!) and there's a glossary in the back for the Spanish, French and Ballet terms, so that helps.

I agree that the way they talk is realistic and the whole book was fun to read because it's from her perspective and she seems to be a really sweet girl. Some things about her personality reminded me of Josefina, actually. I also agree that the meet outfit doesn't exactly seem like something she would wear, except for the purple wrap sweater. My Marisol is still in her ballet outfit, minus the skirt, and I put the wrap sweater on her. I just love that look. My mom's already bugging me to put other clothes on her, but mostly because she wants to dress her doll in that outfit, lol! We definitely are going to have to get another one.

The one thing I didn't like was so few pictures. I would have loved to see more of both Marisol, especially dance ones, and of the girls featured in the True Stories section.

I hope they do decide to add a folklorico dress (or dresses, as she had more than one) because they are very important to her and are mentioned lots. Plus they are so pretty!