Maybe Maybe Marisol RaineyReview posted April 4 2026.
HarperAudio, 2021. 1.75 hours on 2 compact discs.
Review written October 16, 2021, from a library audiobook.
Starred Review
Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey is a delightful beginning chapter book with a memorable, lovable, and distinct heroine.
Marisol likes to name things. She lives in a house with a giant tree in the backyard, a tree that everyone else says is the best climbing tree in the world. She has named the tree Peppina, and has even named the two lowest branches, Booster Branch and Knobby Branch. But Marisol has not ever climbed Peppina, and she does not plan to.
Marisol is afraid. Marisol has a big imagination, and it is all too easy for her to imagine falling.
But Marisol has a best friend, Jada, who understands and doesn't tease Marisol for her fears -- unlike her brother and the girl from her classroom, Evie Smythe.
Marisol and Jada have adventures together, biking around the neighborhood together, passing the dog they've named Daggers, acting out a silent movie together, and doing other things best friends do.
This is a sweet story of an imaginative girl dealing with fears and joys. I listened to the audiobook, which was a lot of fun -- and then noticed when I picked up the print book that I'd missed out on some very amusing illustrations. So in either form, you're in for a treat.