TGIFTF: Thank Goodness, It’s Fairy Tale Friday & Style Perspectives Update

Dear readers,

Welcome to another edition of TGIFTF, but the book I have chosen to share doesn’t fall into the 398.2 category.  Today’s book, Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match/Marisol McDonald no combina by Monica Brown, illustrations by Sara Palacios, is shelved in the everybody/easy/picture book section of the library.

Meet Marisol.

She doesn’t match.  Or at least that’s what everyone tells her.

Her brown skin doesn’t match her carrot top.

Her pants don’t match her shirt.  Her pattern mixing is over the edge.

Even her language – Spanglish – is a mix-match of Spanish and English.

She even eats her pb and j on a tortilla.

But Marisol doesn’t care.

She is confident in that brown skin of hers.

Until the rest of the world voices their collective opinions of her personal style so loudly that Marisol can’t help but hear them.

Their message?

Marisol couldn’t match if she wanted to.

The next day she decides to show them she can.

But nothing seems as fun,as ‘Marisol’ when everything matches.

Not recess, not lunch, not art class.

What’s a girl to do?

Follow her heart or get in sync with the rest of her world.

In the end it’s the love of an insightful teacher and a mismatched puppy save the day.

I don’t want to spoil the ending by giving away too much here but this story will resonate with my precious Panamanian-American, green-eyed, brown-skinned daughters and so many of my sweet students.

Monica Brown’s writes Marisol’s story in English and Spanish with a few Spanish words sprinkled into the English for good measure.  The illustrations by Sara Palacios are as spirited and fun-loving as Marisol herself.  Brown shares her reason for writing this story at the back of the book.

And even thought this story isn’t a fairy tale exactly, there is a good message to be shared as in all good folktales.

Marisol McDonald is written on a 2.8 (second grade, eighth month) reading level and is a title for which there is a quiz on the Accelerated Reader program.  You can meet the author, discover some of her other books and find resources for her wonderful books on her webpage at http://www.monicabrown.net/.  Learn more about illustrator Sara Palacios on her webpage at http://www.sarapalaciosillustrations.com/.

So, now for my reveal.

Yesterday I linked-up with The Blended Blog contributors for our seventh post in our “Style Perspectives” series. I shared two possible outfits for our prompt:  cardi, tee, jeans, and statement necklace.  Check them out here.

I asked you guys, my readers, to decide which outfit I should wear today on my flight to Ft. Worth to see Brennyn and Cady.  The votes have been tallied and the winning look is:

(Adding this at 6:23, after this post went live at 5:00 – that rhymes)

Missed my plane.

Sitting on the floor of the El Paso airport, hoping to get on the next flight to Ft. Worth.  PC got my suitcase upstairs and put it in the trunk and I thought he had gotten my suitcase downstairs, too.  Trouble is, he didn’t know there was a suitcase downstairs.  We didn’t realize until he unloaded the one suitcase from the trunk.

My PC drove all the way home to grab my suitcase and try to get it back to me in time but we were about five minutes too late.

Hope to get out on the next flight now.

All that and I look like a bag lady, no, Marisol McDonald, too.

If you would like a copy of Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match/Marisol McDonald no combina, click here

OR

enter my giveaway for a chance at winning a copy.

Click below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you to Monica Brown and Sara Palacios for creating Marisol.

She feels like one of my own students!

Hugs and kisses,