Friends. This is the read aloud for your classrooms next school year, please please make it happen ! It’s a beautiful interconnected inter generational story about relationships and change. It also gets into class/SES in such important ways and I wish I had this one as a scholarship kid at a private school growing up. I related to this book so dearly and loved the way the author created such a strong, authentic 11 year old voice for this super lovable main character, Mercedes. I adore her, and even better, she has an amazing cast of characters within her family too. Sometimes being in a tight knit family is hard, especially when it comes to giving everyone the space to change in their own lives while still functioning as part of a cohesive family unit. Watching our loved ones change is hard, and we’re not always (often not!) ready for it, but changing also brings new adventures that enrich our lives too. Change means trying again at friendships, trying again with our identities, or trying again at love. I’m so sad I won’t be directly in a classroom to do this one as a read aloud next year because it’s PERFECT for it. If you teach 3-5 this is the read aloud for your little classroom community. Please!

Well done, Meg Medina, you are a rockstar writer and you made something I cannot wait to share with kids, this is a new favorite. .