but it's also an exploration of a relationship between mercy and her grandfather, lalo, at really key points in both their lives. and you wrote this book in 2018? i did. i did write it a newbery medal winner in 2019. yeah. and how many mercy suarez books have you written now? now there's three. because when i finished the sixth grade year, i said, well, i have to know what happens in the seventh grade and is she going? and what's going to go on with this girl? edna, in her life and what's she going to do about like all these feelings of love that start to come up when you're 13 and then when i finished the seventh grade with mercy suarez can't dance, i said, well, wait, she's got to finish middle school. so i did the eighth grade year. mrs. suarez plays it cool and that one was hard hardest to write for me because i had to bring all of the, you know, all the threads, the narrative threads together and knit it all together at the and especially the issue of her grandfather's illness. so, you know, when i write books for kids, i'm writing the truth. i'm writing those moments that punch