Merci Suárez Changes Gears

Merci Suárez knew sixth grade would be different, but not this different. She's never quite fit in at her private school in Florida — she and her older brother Roli are scholarship students who do extra community service to cover their tuition, and they don't have a big house or a boat like their classmates. When bossy Edna Santos decides Merci is a rival for the attention of the new boy, Merci becomes her target.

At home, things are shifting too. Merci's grandfather Lolo, her closest ally, has started forgetting things, losing his temper, and falling from his bike — and no one in her family will tell her why. Merci Suárez Changes Gears follows one girl piecing together a year of change largely on her own, in the first book of the Merci Suárez trilogy.