"Gabi: A Girl in Pieces" by Isabel Quintero
Quintero, Isabel. (2014). Gabi: A girl in Pieces. El Paso,
TX: Cinco Punto Press. ISBN: 978-1-935955-94-8
This is
a young Mexican-American girl’s coming of age story. We get to live out her
perspective of what it is like to not be Mexican enough for the Mexicans and
not American enough for the Americans, which is something I think a lot of
people struggle with. The dichotomy of being part of two cultures can be a very
delicate one that is hard to balance. Gabi struggles between her disappointment
in a meth junkie father and a very strict, conservative Catholic mother. She
has to deal with her mother projecting her personal failures onto her daughter
and that cannot be easy to handle at the age of 17.
There
is some “adult content” in the book, but it is the reality that teens face now
days. Sex is everywhere. Drugs are everywhere. Violence and rape culture are
the norm for them. Its hard to understand that unless you can see from their
perspective. I grew up pretty sheltered, so the fact that Gabi has 2 friends that
get pregnant their senior year is a strange concept for me, especially since
they are from such conservative families. One thing I do understand is the fear
of judgment for being different. Gabi struggles with her self-perception and
weight and very few people are supportive of her in this. This is something we
have in common. Though our shapes may be different, our mentality is the same.
I
really, really would have enjoyed this book as a teen but I still enjoyed it in
my 30s. As a teacher, I felt the need to recommend it to a specific student
within minutes of finishing, and as I type, she is already through page 200 and
gushing about it. This book is teenage reality. Specifically, the reality of a Mexican
teenager in American society. The struggle is real and this book lets mixed up
kids know that they will be ok. #hotcheetosandcheese
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