Merci Suarez Changes Gears

Merci Suarez Changes Gears

Title: Merci Suarez Changes Gears

Genre: Newbery

Author: Meg Medina

Awards: Newbery Medal

Age group: 4^th-6^th grade

This book definitely has its ups and downs for poor Merci that’s for sure. For this book being a Newbery winner though, I do have to say I expected more, but it is still a good read for kids. What surprised me about this book is it’s definitely a more modern book because it does have more current technology such as cell phones and snapchat.

Summary:

Merci Suarez Changes Gears, is about a Latina sixth grader who goes to Seaward Pines Academy on a scholarship and the challenges she faces juggling school and home life. She lives with her whole family in three houses that are connected called Las Casitas. She has one brother named Roli, who she believes is super smart and will be going to college soon. At school she faces many changes and challenges such as social problems like transitioning from elementary to middle school life, becoming a sunshine buddy to a new kid named Michael (who is a boy) which makes Edna(her previous sunshine buddy/new frenemy) very jealous. Edna throughout the book gets on Merci’s last nerve and tries to get Merci in trouble. She even goes as far as destroying the costume her Abuela made for Michael for a project. There also is problems at home that she deals with throughout the book with her grandfather, who she loves and looks up to the most, but finds out that he has Alzheimer’s disease (even though her parents tried to hide it from her in the beginning) which means he becomes very forgetful and needs more help to do regular things. She also has to deal with always babysitting the twins to help the family, which leads her to not being able to try out for the soccer team which she really looked forward to. Despite getting in a car wreck, having do deal with Edna, and helping with the great tomb project; Merci finds that even though change is hard, without change things can’t get better. You must sometimes change “gears” in order to go faster. In the end, she ends up getting the bike she was saving up for and looks forward to what will happen next year and she now thinks she is ready.

Since I am aiming more towards teaching the younger grades, I would personally probably not use this in my classroom since it is more of a long chapter book meant for older kids. I also believe this book is more meant for a personal reading book, so if a student is interested I could always recommend it. I did like finding out more about the book at Meg Medina’s author talk I went to. Knowing her experiences and how much they related to the book really made the character come to life for me.

I believe the appropriate grade level for this book is 4^th-6^th grade .Since Merci is in the 6^th grade, middle school would be the best age since it is the right age for coming of age topics to relate too. Though I believe any age could still enjoy this story. The actual text was easy to read not too many big vocabulary words and relatively short chapters.

If I were to use this book in the classroom it would probably be in a unit about understanding other cultures and respecting one another. This book has some great examples of family and cultural traditions through Merci’s point of view to a Cuban/American family life.

HAVE FUN READING!💙-Lacy