Gabi, A Girl in Pieces

Quintero, I. (2014). Gabi: A girl in pieces. TX: Cinco Puntos.

Gabi is a Mexican American girl who lives in California. She is a hilarious young lady that shares her life through her journal entries. Gabi shares her most intimate thoughts, body image issues, and her father’s addiction. She also discusses what is going on with her friends: Cindy and Sebastian (which have drama of their own).

Gabi reveals to Cindy that she is pregnant. She is devastated at the fact that she didn’t even tell her she was having sex! Unfortunately, this pregnancy was not planned nor was the baby conceived out of love. Gabi detests the baby’s father, German, when she finds out, he took advantage of Cindy forcing her to have sex.

Sebastian struggles with his sexuality and finally decides to share with her his sexual preference. Of course, as a good friend, she already he was gay but never said anything. Unfortunately, Sebastian’s parents are not supportive of this and kick him out.

Gabi, through her talent as a writer, continues to take the reader through her adventures, struggles, and questions she has about life (sex, marriage, and religion). She talks about her food addiction, her interest in several boys, and the shocking news of her mom’s pregnancy!

We enjoyed reading about Gabi's view of life, cried when she lost her father to drugs and bit our nails when her nemesis, Georgina, got pregnant but decided to get an abortion. We smiled with the birth of her baby brother and almost died when she fought German, the boy who raped her bestie! It was amazing to read how she slapped him! He deserved it! Unfortunately, Gabi suffered consequences for her actions and couldn’t walk in her graduation ceremony. Senior year ended.  Gabi was accepted, along with her boyfriend, to Berkeley. A new stage of her life is about to begin in which she can practice her independence and achieve her dreams.

Gabi is such an interesting character! Students can enjoy doing a character analysis. It can help them see her traits, actions, thoughts, feelings, challenges, and accomplishments. They can also analyze the changes she experienced throughout the story focusing on what events caused them. Students can use this knowledge to create a video on Adobe Spark promoting the book. The librarian can upload this video on the library’s Facebook page or she can share the best ones with her classes during book talks to encourage students to check the book out!

Author, Isabel Quintero, did a wonderful job in Gabi, A Girl in Pieces. Her voice and writing style is phenomenal and entertaining. It is a book that makes you laugh (maybe a little more if you are Mexican and have background knowledge on all the things she touches on that remind you of your family)! She also wrote Ugly Cat and Pablo, Ugly Cat and Pablo and the Missing Brother, and she is working on My Papi Has a Motorcycle.