Merci Suárez Changes Gears

Title: Merci Suárez Changes Gears

Author: Meg Medina

Genre: Newbery 

Awards: 2019 Newbery Medal

Age Group: 4th-8th 

Merci Suárez Changes Gears revolves around the Suárez family's daily life and challenges from the perspective of Merci, a sixth-grader at Seaward Pines Academy. She lives in one of the three "Las Casitas" next to her Tía Inés (along with her twins, Axel and Tomás) and her grandparents, Lolo and Abuela.   She and her brother, Roli, attend school on a scholarship. A new school year comes with a new set of challenges for Merci. Well, not all new...Edna Santos is just as annoying and really tries Merci's patience. There is a new kid at school, Michael Clark, and Merci gets assigned to be his Sunshine Buddy to ease his transition into a new school. This complicates things with Edna even more, which starts a new sort of rivalry between the two girls. Life at home does not prove to be any easier. Lolo has Alzheimer's, unbeknownst to Merci, and the supportive, encouraging, safe person that he always was to Merci seems to be slowly fading away. Merci becomes frustrated with the fact that she has to babysit her cousins and watch Lolo as if he were a small child and angry that she can't try out for her school's soccer team. Between (accidentally) hitting Michael and (also accidentally-ish) cutting Edna's eyebrows off, being the victim of Edna's costume-destroying wrath and getting picked to help with the Great Tomb Project, getting in a scary car accident and losing Lolo, Merci finds a sense of acceptance and maybe even a little pride in her own family. Sure, she doesn't get to go on the fancy vacations that Edna does, but she realizes that families stick together and support each other even during the hard times. By the end, after she unwraps the brand new bicycle that she had been trying to save up money for throughout the book, she comes to terms with change. Change is hard, but it is not all bad, and she has what it takes to confront it face-to-face. She just has to change gears and forge ahead.

Not going to lie, before I read this book, I did not think I would love it. I'm not sure why exactly, maybe because it seemed like a "kiddy" book, but I actually really enjoyed it! For that reason, I would use it in my classroom if I taught upper elementary. I think even though Merci is growing up in a Cuban family under challenging circumstances, this book has a lot that is relatable to every student. Many people underestimate the challenges that children go through, and this book sheds light on the hard (but love-filled) life of a sixth-grader. It was witty and had me laughing to myself quite a bit, even as a college student! Meg Medina is definitely an amazing writer. No wonder this book won the Newbery Medal! I also loved how I was able to pick up on lots of the pieces that she mentioned from her own life at the author talk that we went to!

I would recommend Merci Suárez Changes Gears for 4th to 8th grade! Since Merci is in 6th, middle school is definitely the perfect age since it deals with coming-of-age topics, but really almost anyone could enjoy it. The actual text of the book was pretty simple for the most part, although there is some Spanish throughout (luckily I know a bit of Spanish so I could figure it out, but it also does translate it for you in the book) and some harder topics such as Lolo having Alzheimer's. It was fairly long but a quick read...great for a daily read aloud!

Some lesson activities that I found to go along with this book are...

• I Have-Who Has Game: This link will take you to a fun review game! Each card has a term/name and then something to find from someone else's card (for example: I have bike. Who has what Papi does for a living?). This gets students interacting and testing their knowledge of the book!
• Writing Prompts: Students could write a journal entry from the point of view of Merci, write about how Merci changes from the beginning to the end of the book, or compare/contrast Merci and Edna.
• Book Club: Students could form book club groups to discuss the book, what they thought about it, and to answer some questions.