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A review by maurakeaney
Merci Suárez Can't Dance by Meg Medina
4.0
This is an enjoyable follow-up to Newbery-winning Merci Suarez Changes Gears, which I loved more than this friendship-centric story set during Merci's 7th grade year. There is less focus on Merci's relationship with her grandfather Lolo than I had hoped for, though brief mentions make clear that his Alzheimer's is worsening, and Merci still mourns the closeness they used to have. Merci navigates the developmentally appropriate and very confusing emotional maelstrom swirling around the development of romantic feelings toward a peer, and she hits rocky waters several times as her relationships with her two best friends evolve and change.
I loved the closeness of Merci's family and wished there were more family scenes in this sequel, especially more scenes with Lolo and with her dad. I kept having to remind myself that it's developmentally normal for Merci to be more focused on her friends than on her family.
At times, Merci's diverse cast of friends (Filipino, Korean, Dominican, Cajun) feels a bit like checking off boxes for a required amount of diversity, though Edna's Dominican identity at least features in this plot line rather than feeling like performative check-boxing.
I enjoyed that Merci is appropriately imperfect and sometimes makes very poor decisions, which all readers will relate to. Her rich private school seems to me to be unrealistically idyllic and welcoming of children from low socioeconomic backgrounds, but perhaps such a place does exist somewhere.
4 rather than 5 stars for the simple fact that I wasn't interested enough in the story to keep reading...I kept abandoning it and then coming back to force myself to finish. I can't identify any particular deficiency compared to Changes Gears but I think, overall, I found the first book in the series more emotionally compelling.
As an aside, I wish the publisher had kept the original cover illustration for the first novel, of Merci zooming on her bike! The paperback edition, which matches this new sequel hardcover, is much more juvenile and shows her in a more passive stance.
I loved the closeness of Merci's family and wished there were more family scenes in this sequel, especially more scenes with Lolo and with her dad. I kept having to remind myself that it's developmentally normal for Merci to be more focused on her friends than on her family.
At times, Merci's diverse cast of friends (Filipino, Korean, Dominican, Cajun) feels a bit like checking off boxes for a required amount of diversity, though Edna's Dominican identity at least features in this plot line rather than feeling like performative check-boxing.
I enjoyed that Merci is appropriately imperfect and sometimes makes very poor decisions, which all readers will relate to. Her rich private school seems to me to be unrealistically idyllic and welcoming of children from low socioeconomic backgrounds, but perhaps such a place does exist somewhere.
4 rather than 5 stars for the simple fact that I wasn't interested enough in the story to keep reading...I kept abandoning it and then coming back to force myself to finish. I can't identify any particular deficiency compared to Changes Gears but I think, overall, I found the first book in the series more emotionally compelling.
As an aside, I wish the publisher had kept the original cover illustration for the first novel, of Merci zooming on her bike! The paperback edition, which matches this new sequel hardcover, is much more juvenile and shows her in a more passive stance.