1034-38 (2021 #9-13). March 2021

The Huntress by Kate Quinn - historical fiction, library book club - great read but missed discussion (I was the only one zooming so I gave up).

Merci Suarez Changes Gears by Meg Medina - Newbery Award 2019.  I read Merci Suarez Changes Gears because I received the next book in the series (Merci Suarez Can't Dance) as an advance edition for a LibraryThing Early Reviewer.  Before I retired in 2019, I used to try to read all the Newbery Medalists and Honor Books.  This book won that medal - for "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children" - that same year.

Mercedes "Merci" Suarez is a sixth-grade girl living with her Cuban-American extended family in a group of homes in an unspecified city in South Florida.  She attends a private school as a scholarship student, along with her brilliant high school senior Roli (Rolando), with whom she shares a bedroom at home.  Their parents, grandparents, aunt and five-year-old twin boy cousins make up the rest of the family.

Merci has to deal with troubles at school and at home.  Interestingly, her most troublesome classmate is another Latinx, albeit wealthy, girl.  At home, her beloved grandfather "Lolo" is becoming forgetful and irritable - and no one will tell her what's going on.  Her family obligations, and the requirement that she perform additional community service as a condition of her scholarship, preclude Merci from trying out for the school's girls soccer team.

I love how Merci is not perfect - she makes lots of mistakes, and has to deal with the consequences.  I also loved the interactions in her close-knit family, and how they help her take things in stride.  A heartwarming and appealing book by Meg Medina.

Merci Suarez Can't Dance - early reviewer, children's, chapter book, contemporary realistic fiction, Latinx, advance reader edition - Merci Suarez Can't Dance continues the story of Mercedes "Merci" Suarez from Meg Medina's 2019 Newbery Medalist, Merci Suarez Changes Gears.  Now Merci is a seventh grader at her private school, still on a scholarship.  Her older brother is off at college, her parents and grandmother are preoccupied with her aging grandfather (he has Alzheimer's), and her aunt is preoccupied with a boyfriend.  So Merci is often stuck watching her five-year-old twin boy cousins.  The whole extended Cuban-American family lives next door to each other in South Florida.

Merci is also starting to discover boys, even though she insists she won't go to the school dance.  She does get roped into being the photographer for it, though.  An incident at the dance causes most of the conflict driving the main plotline, which still involves her main school rival, the wealthy Edna Santos.  

Once again, I love how Merci is not perfect - she makes lots of mistakes, and has to deal with the consequences.  I also loved the interactions in her close-knit family.  Her parents' fears that her mistakes will cost her the scholarship are palpable.  I don't think you have to read the first book before this one, but it probably helps.  I look forward to seeing what Merci does in eighth grade.

Hiding Baby Moses by Judith L. Roth, illustrated by Melanie Cataldo - early reviewer, advance reader edition, picture book, Bible story, traditional literature - Hiding Baby Moses is a picture book retelling of the Bible story (from Exodus chapter 2) of the "Finding of Moses" (also known as "Moses in the Bullrushes").  Told from the viewpoint of his unnamed older sister (perhaps Miriam), the familiar tale is enhanced by the evocative, colorful illustrations by Melanie Cataldo, and an original song by author Judith L. Roth and her husband Marc Roth.  The song has words similar to Psalms 91:4 and 17:8, and Isaiah 32:2.  Judith Roth is also a poet with a master's degree in theology, and has been a musician and youth minister.  


The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern - fantasy read for mno book club.  Lots of similarities to her first book, The Night Circus, read almost ten years ago.  

© Amanda Pape - 2021