Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match

Summary of Book

Marisol McDonald has flaming red hair and nut-brown skin. Polka dots and stripes are her favorite combination. She prefers peanut butter and jelly burritos in her lunch box. And don’t even think of asking her to choose one or the other activity at recess—she’ll just be a soccer playing pirate princess, thank you very much. To Marisol McDonald, these seemingly mismatched things make perfect sense together.

Unfortunately, they don’t always make sense to everyone else. Other people wrinkle their nose in confusion at Marisol—can’t she just be one or the other? Try as she might, in a world where everyone tries to put this biracial, Peruvian-Scottish-American girl into a box, Marisol McDonald doesn’t match. And that’s just fine with her.

Author Biography

Monica Brown, Ph.D., is the author of award-winning bilingual books for children, including My Name Is Celia: The Life of Celia Cruz/Me llamo Celia: La vida de Celia Cruz (Luna Rising), a recipient of the Américas Award for Children's Literature and a Pura Belpré Honor. Her latest book, Side by Side/Lado a Lado (HarperCollins) was nominated as an Outstanding Literary Work for Children in the NAACP Image Awards. She is a Professor of English at Northern Arizona University, specializing in U.S. Latino Literature and Multicultural Literature. She also writes and publishes scholarly work with a Latino/a focus and numerous scholarly articles and chapters on Latino/a literature and cultural studies. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Illustrator Biography

Sara Palacios was born and raised in Mexico City. She holds degrees in Graphic Design, Illustration, and Digital Graphic Techniques from universities in Mexico, and is currently pursuing her MFA in Illustration at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. She has worked as a freelance illustrator for Santillana, McGraw-Hill, SM, and others. Sara divides her time between San Francisco, California, and Mexico City, Mexico.