Merci Suárez Can't Dance

A Kirkus Reviews Most Anticipated Book of 2021
In Meg Medina's follow-up to her Newbery Medal-winning novel, Merci takes on seventh grade, with all its travails of friendship, family, love--and finding your rhythm.

Seventh grade is going to be a real trial for Merci Su rez. For science she's got no-nonsense Mr. Ellis, who expects her to be a smart as her brother, Roli. She's been assigned to co-manage the tiny school store with Wilson Bellevue, a boy she barely knows, but whom she might actually like. And she's tangling again with classmate Edna Santos, who is bossier and more obnoxious than ever now that she is in charge of the annual Heart Ball.

One thing is for sure, though: Merci Su rez can't dance--not at the Heart Ball or anywhere else. Dancing makes her almost as queasy as love does, especially now that T a In s, her merengue-teaching aunt, has a new man in her life. Unfortunately, Merci can't seem to avoid love or dance for very long. She used to talk about everything with her grandfather, Lolo, but with his Alzheimer's getting worse each day, whom can she trust to help her make sense of all the new things happening in her life? The Su rez family is back in a touching, funny story about growing up and discovering love's many forms, including how we learn to love and believe in ourselves.

Author: Meg Medina
Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA)
Published: 04/06/2021
Pages: 384
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 7.80h x 5.70w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9780763690502
Audience: Ages 9-12

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 4.6
Point Value: 11
Interest Level: Middle Grade
Quiz #/Name: 511799 / Merci Suarez Can't Dance


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 02/01/2021
Booklist 02/15/2021 pg. 58
Publishers Weekly 03/01/2021
School Library Journal 03/01/2021 pg. 96
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 04/01/2021
Shelf Awareness 04/16/2021
Horn Book Magazine 05/01/2021 pg. 137

About the Author
Meg Medina is the 2019 Newbery Medalist for Merci Suárez Changes Gears. About this sequel, she says, "I'm so excited to bring my readers into the world of the Suárez family and Seaward Pines once again. . . . New friends, new teachers, and new self-doubts. It's been a thrill to write about all the zany things that the seventh grade can throw at a person." The recipient of the Pura Belpré Author Award for her young adult novel Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, Meg Medina is also the author of the novels Burn Baby Burn and The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind and the picture books Mango, Abuela, and Me and Tía Isa Wants a Car, for which she received an Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award. Meg Medina lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her family.