Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni.
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Friday, March 29
The newest doll in the line of American Girl Place dolls is Marisol, a Mexican-American girl from the Pilsen neighborhood whose family moves to suburban Des Plaines because, as Marisol explains in her background story, Pilsen is "dangerous, and there was no place for me to play." Not too surprisingly, Pilsen leaders aren't too happy with the characterization of Pilsen as dangerous, while the mayor of Des Plaines points out that his city's Hispanic population is 17 percent. Meanwhile, local area American Girl Place customers can learn more about the new doll by joining a book club devoted to Marisol, "the girl who was born to dance."