I wanted to read this middle grade sequel because the first featured the main character learning to deal with her grandfather’s Alzheimer’s progression. I had hoped this one would continue in the same nuanced vein. My own mom died of Alzheimer’s. I know firsthand not all Alzheimer’s patients “quietly fade away” as popular media tends to portray (like Captain America visiting Peggy Carter in a hospital bed).
Many fight their way to the end, getting violent and belligerent with themselves and family and caregivers, lashing out and hurting themselves and others in the process, to the point they need to be removed from the home for safety reasons.
I really appreciated that the first book depicted the grandfather getting depressed and violent. I felt it took a bit of the stigma away from kids whose grandparents behave this way in this very public day and age. Unfortunately, here he’s relegated to a “quietly but heart-breakingly losing his memory” depiction that I’ve seen in so many other books and media. The story does do a good job of showing some of the other difficult things caregivers have to do for Alzheimer’s patients and how that impacts entire families. Merci has to clean up her grandfather after he urinates outside in his pajamas, while hiding the incident from her grandmother because her abuela would be mortified.
I absolutely love that the author is such a huge name in children’s literature that she doesn’t need to construct the story the way 99% of other MG books are plotted – with a main character having a want / need and putting “it all” on the line to achieve that. Real life often doesn’t work that way and kids need to see that, too, in the books they read.
In that sense, this is a breath of fresh air, an in-depth character exploration of Merci and what she – and other kids like her -- face at school, home, with friends and inside herself. It’s a true MG tale, in that she finds her place in all those spheres and matures while doing so.
Merci mistakenly thinks she needs to pay to replace some camera equipment that’s damaged when she leaves it unattended after a Valentine’s dance, and she pawns her bicycle. That thread ripples to the very end and has many different impacts on her relationships with her school mates.
Enjoy!
