Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina
Published by Candlewick Press on September 11th 2018
ISBN: 076369049X
Pages: 368
Goodreads

Eleven-year-old Merci struggles with changes both at home and at school as she begins sixth grade in this poignant and realistic novel.

Merci’s tight-knit extended Cuban-American family live in South Florida in three houses next to one another, which they affectionately refer to as Las Casitas. Merci’s particularly close to her grandfather, Lolo, who has always listened to her carefully and without judgment, leading her to favor him as her confidant. However, her second year as a full scholarship student at a prestigious private school brings many changes, including persistent needling by mean queen bee Edna, and it coincides with behavior from Lolo that worries Merci, such as a fall from his bicycle, confusing people for one another and wandering off.

Merci’s first-person narrative voice is spot on as she tells her story in short but detail-filled chapters that unfold naturally. Readers will feel the depth of love she has for her family even as she experiences realistic frustration and anger as she bumps up against their high expectations for her and the demands on her time. The juxtaposition of the privilege of most of her classmates compared to Merci’s working class family is nuanced and pervasive and the dynamics between them are true to life. Likewise, her dawning, but at first limited, understanding that there is something medically wrong with Lolo is believable for a kid her age.

Older grade school and middle school students who favor realistic fiction will be a natural audience for this moving and immersive story about Merci, which ends on a note that leaves open the possibility of a sequel.

Reviewed by Brooke Faulkner, McArthur Public Library, Biddeford