Merci Suarez Changes Gears

Title: Merci Suarez Changes Gears
Author: Meg Medina
Genre: Newbery Medal
Age Group: 4th - 6th grade
                                                       
Summary:
Merci Suarez is a 6th grader who attends Seaward Pines Academy with her older brother, Roli, on a scholarship given due to her father doing work around campus. Merci lives in house three of the "Las Casitas," which are three houses built next to each other. The other two houses are where her grandparents, Lolo and Abuela live as well as her Tia Ines and her twin sons. Like any new school year, some changes happen. As Merci enters junior high she feels like everything is changing around her While still dealing with old problems such as Edna Santos, the middle school queen bee, she is having to deal with being a "sunshine buddies." She gets paired with Michael, who happens to be Ednas crush and she becomes jealous over it.
As well as dealing with her life changes in middle school, at home, she is also dealing with her grandfather, Lolo, who has become very forgetful all of a sudden. No one will tell her why but because of her grandfather becoming forgetful, she is in charge of more house chores. Due to this, she cannot try out for soccer, even though she has been looking forward to this since school started. To make matters worse, Edna destroys Michaels's project that Merci helped with out of spite. Merci thought the day could not get any worse until she and Roli are on the way home and see Lolo run out into the street, causing them to get into an accident to try and help him.
After this, she finds out that her grandfather had been battling Alzheimer's for the last two years. This angers and frustrates Merci and it is not until a couple days after she realizes how important family is to her. After this realization, she begins spending more time with her family. When Christmas rolls around Merci gets a new bike! The bike teaches her that she can handle changing gears, which is the same as her changing gears in life. She realizes she can do anything and get through everything life throws her way.

I would love to have and use this book in my classroom. I really think upper elementary students would enjoy this book. Junior high is a transitional time period and it becomes difficult for students and I think this book would shed some light on how much family is important.

I think this book would benefit the upper elementary level students. It addresses important topics such as friendships, bullying, and family. As well as being relatable with the things and problems students face. The author, Meg Medina did a great job of being able to reference pop culture and keep it relatable.

I would use this book to talk about the importance of family or some kind of support system. As well as have the students write an essay over being able to change gears like Merci did and discuss the deeper meaning behind that. Lastly, I would want them to apply that to their life, how can they be able to change gears if needed and why.