Merci Suarez Changes Gears, by Meg Medina

This is the newest Newbery medal winner that I picked up last weekend from the bookstore. I wasn't expecting to have time to read it for a while, but snow days = a lot of time to read, so I got to it more quickly than I thought I would! SO glad I did! Now and then the Newbery winner will be a book I don't find that interesting (Criss Cross, for example), but mostly this award, given once a year to the best of the best, hits it on the head. Merci is a winner!

Mercedes Suarez is in 6th grade at a private school. She got in thanks to scholarships, but many of the other kids in her school have families who can afford the school, so already Merci is set apart from many of her peers in this way. She lives in one of three houses in a row on her street, the other two being occupied by her grandparents and by her aunt and uncle and nephews. This theme of extended family plays into the story strongly and is something else that sets her apart from her classmates. Lastly, her grandfather has Alzheimer's Disease, and is starting to show itself in ways that Merci sees but doesn't understand. Mix all of this together in a bowl, along with Merci just trying to figure out life being 11 or 12 years old, and you have the ingredients of a story...in Meg Medina's hands, you have the makings of a really, really good story!

Medina's strength seems to be in her character development. Every character in this book stands alone, I think, and Medina shows both the positive and negative sides of many of her characters. No one is all good, and no one is all bad, which makes life a challenge sometimes, right? It also makes this realistic fiction story very realistic, and hard to put down! One of the better books I've read this year so far - and it should be to be the Newbery winner! Don't let the cover throw you off - it did me, a bit, as it seems more like an elementary book.  It could be, but also a really good book for middlers as well...5 paws!