Merci Suarez Changes Gears By Meg Medina
Merci Suarez Changes Gears by Meg Medina, was one of those books that, as I began reading it, was not at all what I expected. As an educator with mostly experience in the primary grade levels, one of the things I teach my students to do is make predictions based on the cover of a book. The cover of this book shows a young girl (Merci Suarez) riding down the street on a brand new blue bicycle. From looking at it (and thinking about the title in a general sense), you would think that a big part of this book, would have to be about her and this bike that we see her riding on. Even though her desire for a new bike is mentioned throughout the book, it is about so much more than that.
The book Merci Suarez Changes Gears is about a girl named Merci Suarez. She is a sixth grader who comes from a big Latino family. She is very fortunate in that, she gets to see her grandparents, aunt, and nephews all of the time because they all live next door to one another, in what they call Las Casitas, in Florida. In the book, we meet Merci's family. There are her parents, her big brother Roli, her grandparents (Lolo and Abuela), her aunt (Tia Inez) and her cousins Axel and Tomas (the sons of Tia Inez). Throughout the book, these are the people that she is the closest. Merci and Roli attend Seward Pines Academy on scholarship. This means that they must do a certain amount of hours of volunteer work in order to maintain their spot at the school. Merci is assigned to participate in the Sunshine Buddies program, which has current students of the school befriend new students at the school and helps them acclimate and feel comfortable during their transition into the school. In the school setting we meet characters such as Edna Santos, Michael Clark, Miss McDaniels and many more. Edna Santos is the typical mean girl who always gives Merci a hard time on just about everything. Michael Clark is the cute new boy who is Merci's Sunshine Buddy assignment and the boy that Edna is crushing on. Edna also teases Merci about possibly having feelings for Michael, but Merci continues to deny this throughout the book. Miss McDaniels plays a semi-big part in the book as she work at the school and interacts with Merci about her involvement with the Sunshine Buddies program.
While everything is going on with Merci in her life at school, she makes sure that she spends adequate time with her family when she is not in school. One of her favorite things to do is take bike rides with her grandfather Lolo. It seems that the more time she spends with Lolo, the more strange things that she is noticing about his behavior. For example, he is crashing off of his bike, calling her by the names of other people in their family that she has never met, as well as repeating himself a lot. These behaviors seem to get worse and worse throughout the book and finally, Merci confronts her brother Roli to explain to her what is going on with Lolo. Roli tells Merci that Lolo has Alzheimers and that he is having trouble remembering things that he once new. We learn that it is rapidly progressing and that they may soon not be able to take care of him as a family. This is something that really changes the way that she sees her grandfather, although she still loves him very much and doesn't want him to be sick.
The book ends during Christmas, where Merci's friends and family all gather together to celebrate the holiday. Gifts are exchanged and food is consumed. Roli gets a 3D printed moon lamp along with other science related items and Merci finally gets the big girl bike that she wanted. The book ends with her riding around Las Casitas on her brand new bike trying to think of what the future holds for her and her family and preparing to change gears in order to take on anything that comes her way.
After reading this book, I feel like it is a great middle school read for young girls, but for me, it was hard to get through. I am not sure if it was because I was reading this book as an adult or because I did not grow up with similar experiences as the main character, but I didn't feel like I could relate to the book on a personal level. This is something that I look for when really enjoying a book. That is not to say that others might relate to the main character or even other characters in this book. The one thing that I did really resonate with, was the overall setting of middle school and the way that this book brought back memories of my own experiences during that time of my life.
The book Merci Suarez Changes Gears is about a girl named Merci Suarez. She is a sixth grader who comes from a big Latino family. She is very fortunate in that, she gets to see her grandparents, aunt, and nephews all of the time because they all live next door to one another, in what they call Las Casitas, in Florida. In the book, we meet Merci's family. There are her parents, her big brother Roli, her grandparents (Lolo and Abuela), her aunt (Tia Inez) and her cousins Axel and Tomas (the sons of Tia Inez). Throughout the book, these are the people that she is the closest. Merci and Roli attend Seward Pines Academy on scholarship. This means that they must do a certain amount of hours of volunteer work in order to maintain their spot at the school. Merci is assigned to participate in the Sunshine Buddies program, which has current students of the school befriend new students at the school and helps them acclimate and feel comfortable during their transition into the school. In the school setting we meet characters such as Edna Santos, Michael Clark, Miss McDaniels and many more. Edna Santos is the typical mean girl who always gives Merci a hard time on just about everything. Michael Clark is the cute new boy who is Merci's Sunshine Buddy assignment and the boy that Edna is crushing on. Edna also teases Merci about possibly having feelings for Michael, but Merci continues to deny this throughout the book. Miss McDaniels plays a semi-big part in the book as she work at the school and interacts with Merci about her involvement with the Sunshine Buddies program.
While everything is going on with Merci in her life at school, she makes sure that she spends adequate time with her family when she is not in school. One of her favorite things to do is take bike rides with her grandfather Lolo. It seems that the more time she spends with Lolo, the more strange things that she is noticing about his behavior. For example, he is crashing off of his bike, calling her by the names of other people in their family that she has never met, as well as repeating himself a lot. These behaviors seem to get worse and worse throughout the book and finally, Merci confronts her brother Roli to explain to her what is going on with Lolo. Roli tells Merci that Lolo has Alzheimers and that he is having trouble remembering things that he once new. We learn that it is rapidly progressing and that they may soon not be able to take care of him as a family. This is something that really changes the way that she sees her grandfather, although she still loves him very much and doesn't want him to be sick.
The book ends during Christmas, where Merci's friends and family all gather together to celebrate the holiday. Gifts are exchanged and food is consumed. Roli gets a 3D printed moon lamp along with other science related items and Merci finally gets the big girl bike that she wanted. The book ends with her riding around Las Casitas on her brand new bike trying to think of what the future holds for her and her family and preparing to change gears in order to take on anything that comes her way.
After reading this book, I feel like it is a great middle school read for young girls, but for me, it was hard to get through. I am not sure if it was because I was reading this book as an adult or because I did not grow up with similar experiences as the main character, but I didn't feel like I could relate to the book on a personal level. This is something that I look for when really enjoying a book. That is not to say that others might relate to the main character or even other characters in this book. The one thing that I did really resonate with, was the overall setting of middle school and the way that this book brought back memories of my own experiences during that time of my life.
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