Review: Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero

Gabi, a Girl in PiecesGabi, a Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gabi is a high school senior in Southern California and this her diary. SO MUCH DRAMA!! Her voice is funny, good natured, honest, and searching. She's smart, a poet, loves to eat (gotta love a girl who keeps beef jerky under her pillow!) her father's a meth addict, her two best buddies are going through some major life upheavals--and she's finally getting a love life. She treads a careful line between honoring Mexican cultural traditions and becoming herself.

One of the themes of the book is connection to, acceptance of, and agency over young women's bodies. Gabi is not stick thin and she wrestles with this throughout the book, culminating in a zine she creates that we get to read.

I recommend for a few reasons: teens tend to love first person narratives and SO MUCH DRAMA!--just like the telenovas that Gabi's aunt Tia watches every day--yet the drama has a purpose: Gabi does a lot of serious thinking about herself.

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