Summary
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.
Gary Soto was born April 12, 1952, and raised in Fresno California. He graduated from Roosevelt High School and attended Fresno City College, graduating in 1974 with an English degree. His poems have appeared in many literary magazines, including The Nation, Plouqhshares, The Iowa Review, Ontario Review and Poetry, which has honored him with the Bess Hokin Prize and the Levinson Award and by featuring him in Poets in Person. He is one of the youngest poets to appear in The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry.
Soto has received the Discovery-The Nation Prize, the U.S. Award of the International Poetry Forum, The California Library Association's John and Patricia Beatty Award twice, a Recogniton of Merit from the Claremont Graduate School for Baseball in April, the Silver Medal from The Commonwealth Club of California, and the Tomás Rivera Prize, in addition to fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts twice, and the California Arts Council.
For ITVS, he produced the film The Pool Party, which received the 1993 Andrew Carnegie Medal. Soto wrote the libretto for an opera titled Nerd-landia for the The Los Angeles Opera. 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 serves as Young People's Ambassador for the California Rural Legal Assistance and the United Farm Workers of America.
Soto is the author of ten poetry collections for adults, with New and Selected Poems a 1995 finalist for both the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the National Book Award. His recollections Living Up the Street received a Before Columbus Foundation 1985 American Book Award.
(Bowker Author Biography)
