Gabi: A Girl in Pieces

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Gabi is an overweight hispanic girl who looks white. She is battling with her self-image regarding her weight, her skin tone, her father being addicted to drugs, and her mom not accepting her for who she is. During this time Gabi's best friend comes out to his family that he is gay, and ends up getting kicked out to live with Gabi for a little bit of time. Gabi's other best friend is raped and ends up pregnant. Then her mother finds out she is pregnant and her father overdoses in the garage. Through all of this upheaval in Gabi's life she finds someone who loves her for who she is on the inside, with little consideration to that on the outside. By the end of the story Gabi learns too to love herself for who she is, regardless about what people think of her on the outside.

This book is an amazing book for high school age girls especially. Being told from a diary type perspective the reader gets a close, personal view of Gabi's life. Girls can see how deeply Gabi is hurting and how in the end she learns to deal with the pain. This book will be a good one to use to help girls who are going through similar circumstances and will generate good discussion on these large topics.

As mentioned in the textbook there are qualities of good books (p.56-63). As I was reading in the textbook about these elements, some specific books came to mind from my reading, such as in Gabi a Girl in Pieces, the reader can identify with Gabi who is struggling with her self image. In this story the stereotype of insecure girl serves a purpose of showing how this one girl is getting through her troubles and that she makes it okay to the end.

Citation

Quintero, I. (2014). Gabi, a girl in pieces. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press.