Meg Medina: Hi, I'm Meg Medina and I'm the author of Merci Suárez Can't Dance. Middle school is such a time for us to figure ourselves out. We're trying on lots of different identities. We're making all kinds of gruesome mistakes and Merci makes a bunch in this book too. And I think we just discover ourselves. We discover how to love ourselves, how to forgive ourselves, how to be better people, how to move beyond the mistakes that we make. All of those things are part of the job of being a kid growing up and moving through middle school. And so I gave that big, tall job to Merci to see what she'd do with it. And so, as I was writing, I was realizing that one thing that happens to us when we're almost thirteen sometimes is that we start to really think about these questions about love, not only romantic love, which can just freak you out because it's so new and scary, but all kinds of love. Love with our friends. Love for our parents. The love that Merci may be watching between her grandparents after all these years and then those secret crushes we have and the crushes that then become maybe not so secret. So, in so many ways, this book is about the seventh grade, but it's also about Merci figuring out this notion of love. The part I'm going to read you from Merci today happens in the seventh grade hallway after school:

Just then, somebody shoves past me. "Excusez-moi." Edna Santos bumps me with her fancy red leather backpack and steps between us to get to her locker. "That test was a breeze," she says. "N'est-ce pas?" I glare at her as she starts working her combination. Hannah and Lena are in my science class this year, which is great. But so is Edna, and every so often we end up as lab partners, which I hold as another strike against Mr. Ellis. No one ever volunteers to be her partner, even though she's one of the smartest kids in there. Let's just say Edna puts a capital E in Extra. And worse, she's taking French this year, too, which is even more annoying. It's bonjour this and au revoir that, all day long. When Edna opens her locker, a whiff of cinnamon hits me. It's the car air freshener she's got in there. It's all neat as a pin, not like mine, which occasionally dissolves into an avalanche if I'm not quick with the door. She grabs a folder covered in heart stickers and looks at me irritably. "Do you know what's keeping Hannah? We're going to be late for the dance committee this afternoon." "Meeting?" I say. "Hannah said she's coming over after school today. She's helping me and Lena babysit the twins." Edna shrugs. "Well, she can't go. I've called a mandatory meeting to go over last-minute things for the Heart Ball." "Who decided that?" I say. "I did. I'm in charge of the dance, remember?" "Really?" I say bitterly. "I hadn't heard." Lena jabs me in the ribs with her elbow. She and Hannah both promised to help me with my Edna skills. I rubbed my side. Seriously, how could we not know? It's all Edna talks about these days. What she's going to wear to the Heart Ball. Who she thinks she's going to ask to the Heart Ball. What songs they'll play at the Heart Ball. Who she thinks she'll kiss at the Heart Ball. Heart Ball, Heart Ball, Heart Ball. I'd like to free-kick the Heart Ball into outer space.