Merci Suarez Changes Gears

Title: Merci Suarez Changes Gears
Genre: Newbery
Author: Meg Medina
Major Awards: Newbery Medal
Age Group: 4th-8th grade

Merci Suarez is a sixth-grader navigating school and home life. She is a student at Seaward Pines Academy, where she and her brother, Roli are scholarship students. Merci's family leads a pretty modest life and cannot compete with the wealthy students they attend school with. Merci is very close with her family, especially her grandfather, Lolo. She tells him everything and he is her safe space. She lives in one of the three "Las Casitas" with her family and next door to Tia Ines, cousins Tomas and Axel, and Lolo and Abuela. As she enters the school year, challenges arise. She is assigned a Sunshine Buddy named Michael Clark who is a new student at school who she helps mentor and be a friend to. This does not sit well with Edna Santos, a girl who loves-to-hate Merci, and quickly becomes jealous of after developing a crush on Michael. As if this was not enough stress for Merci, her beloved grandfather Lolo starts acting strange. He falls from his bicycle, starts forgetting things often, and becomes angry very easily. This upsets Merci, and she cannot figure out what is going on with him. Because of Lolo's regressing, Merci gets assigned more tasks around the home, including watching Tomas and Axel after school. This means that she cannot try out for the soccer team at school, which is absolutely devastating to Merci. She starts feeling ashamed of her family and develops feelings of hatred towards them. School life does not prove to be getting any easier, either. She accidentally hits Michael Clark with a baseball, and she gets into big trouble because of this. Edna also becomes more jealous of Merci and Michael's friendship by the day, and makes snide comments to Merci. Edna's jealousy comes to a head when she destroys a project Merci helped Michael with. This sends Merci into a shock, and she feels that nothing can get worse in her life. But it can... On the way home from school, Roli and Merci see Lolo running into traffic. This causes Roli and Merci to get into a car crash from trying to stop him. She becomes upset by this and is as confused as ever. That night, Merci gets the shock of her life when finding out that Lolo has been battling Alzheimer's disease for two years, and not a single family member told her. She becomes extremely frustrated with her family and completely shuts them out. After spending a few days reflecting on this, Merci comes to the realization that her family is important to her. She starts capturing pictures of everyday life and enjoying each moment with her family. For Christmas, Merci receives a bicycle which teaches her an important lesson: she can handle this harder gear being thrown at her. All she has to do is take a deep breath and enjoy the ride. 

I would love to have this book in my classroom! I really enjoyed this story, even as a college student. I think many upper elementary and middle school students would enjoy it because it is relatable to things they may be going through. This is a tough time in general for these students, with friend drama and relationships. Many students these ages are also becoming embarrassed or "too cool" for their family members. I think that by reading this story, they will realize the importance of family. In the end, family members are the ones that will always be there, so it is important to have a close relationship with them! 

I think this book would best suit fourth through eighth grade students. Like I stated above, this book sheds light on topics that students these ages relate to, including topics on friendship and acceptance. It also includes references to popular social media apps for students these ages, like Snapchat. Because of these things, I feel like students these ages would totally relate to the book and find it captivating to read. Meg Medina did a great job of relating the book to pop culture, and I think that many students these ages (and older) love this book because of that!

In my classroom, I could have my students write down the problems Merci faced at the beginning of the book, and then tell me how that problem was resolved at the end of the book. I could also have them write an essay on the importance of having a close family member or friend in life. We could also have a discussion about the importance of "shifting gears" in life to focus on the things that are really important, and not letting the small stuff stress us out so much.