Merci is starting her first year of junior high at a private school. She misses the nurturing support of her 6th grade teacher, but looks forward to getting to play on the junior high soccer team. Merci lives in Florida, in a row of three houses occupied by her extended family. She is especially close to her grandfather whom she calls Lolo. As the school year progresses, Merci begins to notice that her Lolo is struggling with some things that never bothered him before. Merci has her own struggles at school as she repeated finds herself at the mercy of a bossy queen bee, Edna. Then there is the new kid, Michael, from Montana, that seems to want to spend more time with Merci, who definitely does not have a crush on him, than Edna, who definitely does. Could life ever be more complicated?
This book won the Newbery in 2019, but I had never "read" it because, for some unknown reason, it is not available in audio. I finally bit the bullet and checked out a text based version. It received a lot of attention and awards when it came out, and it was good, but I didn't think it was amazing. It is one of the books that tries to pack in a bunch of social issues. I thought the way Medina handled Merci's grandfather's decline was well done. Her relationship with her brother is sweet, and her challenges with her "friends" believable. It was worth reading, but I don't know if I would have given it a Newbery. (2018, 368 p)
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