Meg Medina's Newbery Award-winning book, “Merci Suárez Changes Gears,” and a portrait of the author (Images courtesy Candlewick)
Richmond author Meg Medina’s book "Merci Suárez Changes Gears," about an 11-year-old Latina girl in Florida facing the challenges of adolescence, won the John Newbery Medal this week.
It's an honor given each year to denote "the most distinguished contribution" in American books for children and is awarded by the Association for Library Service to Children.
The Cuban-American author says she received the call after she had resigned herself to not winning this year. She was pleasantly surprised.
“I just had to take a minute and do my most ugly, mucus-y cry,” she says. “They waited for me … I think I thanked them,” she says, laughing.
Medina, 55, writes picture books and young adult fiction. She chatted recently about what the award means to her, the trouble with her book about bullying and a possible sequel.
Richmond magazine: You’ve won awards for your books before. What makes this one special?
Meg Medina: I have won awards before, and every one of them is a beautiful thing, right? The Newbery is a whole other thing. It’s the one that teachers use to determine what is valuable literature for their kids. The idea of being in that arena is surreal. It doesn’t feel like it could be really happening, but it is, and I’m just delighted.
RM: Have you had any problems getting your work into libraries?
Medina: Yeah, and in schools, because I had a novel called “Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass.” That won the 2014 Pura Belpré Award, which helped save it. Because a lot of people just looked at the title and said, “It’s gotta be trashy,” or whatever they think of the word "ass." Or they're just afraid of alienating parents or causing alarm. I got disinvited to a bunch of places, including here in Cumberland County, and the book was challenged up in Fairfax County. It gets its share of alarmed parents. It’s a book that's centered on bullying, what it’s like to be a girl in the crosshairs of a bully and find yourself sort of cycling down how you get out of it.
RM: What are you working on next?
Medina: So, I have a picture book that’s in the pike, that will come out, I believe, next year. It’s about two little girls; they're having their last play date before one of them moves away. Again, centered on Latino girls. And I’m wrapping my head around what might be next for Merci, so we’ll see.
RM: Anything else you’d like to add?
Medina: It is amazing for me to feel that I wrote a book that resonates, that speaks across cultures, right? It speaks about Latino youth, but beyond Latino youth, sort of universal kind of things. But what’s been so fun is to see friend and neighbors and people I’ve known over my 21 years in Richmond, and to feel that sense of celebration and love; that has felt really nice.
