Point of View

The novel is written in first-person from the limited perspective of Merci Suarez. Merci is just beginning the sixth grade. She is intelligent and intuitive in her evaluation of people and events. She is also honest and reliable, willing to share her own actions and feelings even when those do not put her in a very good light. It seems the reader can accept her words at face value and that she tries to tell the entire story.

Merci does not know everything that is happening in her family, meaning the reader does not have this information until Merci does. The problem with Lolo is a major example of that. Lolo is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, but Lolo knows only that something is wrong. She cites the recent issues, including that Lolo tried to pick up the wrong children at daycare and that he has...