Gabi, A Girl in Pieces

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

Awards:

California Book Award for Young Adult (Gold) (2014)

William C. Morris YA Debut Award (2015)

Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award (2015)

Summary:

Gabriela “Gabi” Hernandez chronicles her senior year of high school in a diary. This diary begins less than a month before the beginning of school with Gabi learning that her best friend, Cindy, is pregnant. This is the start of a rocky year involving acceptance, grieving, hope, and what it means to be a “good girl”.   

Reaction:

The cover art for this novel is immediately striking. The art is from Gabi’s zine she created for her poetry class where she breaks down the parts of the female body to help girls and others understand how a woman is put together. The portion with the title also catches the eye because there are phrases struck out - A Gordita, A FatgirlI - before deciding on A Girl in Pieces.

Gabi appears a sort of static character compared to her friends. Cindy becomes pregnant at the beginning of the novel and then her other best friend, Sebastian, decides it best to come out to his family as gay. Things don’t go well for Sebastian and he is kicked out of his home. He stays with Gabi for a while before staying with his aunt. Gabi’s father is addicted to crack so she has to deal with his actions as well. She is there but all of the action happens around her.

As the novel continues, Gabi slowly begins to take part in the world around her. She becomes involved in poetry, finding a voice she didn’t have before. She defends her best friend despite the consequences that could ruin her chance at Berkley. With the help of Martin, she finds a way to release some stress through running.

One aspect of life Gabi must constantly battle is the thoughts and feelings of the older women around her. Her mother and Tia Bertha both have strong opinions about what a “good girl” should do and what “bad girls”, like Cindy, do. Gabi doesn’t do anything that would constitute her as “bad”, but her mother always disapproves of her choices or so it seems. Gabi has high grades, gets into a good school, doesn’t fall into a bad crowd or do drugs. But she still isn’t good enough. Gabi is trying to figure out who she can be as a Mexican-American female.

Gabi is proud of her heritage. Her writing is infused with English and Spanish. She is frustrated at her own skin tone. It’s too light for other Mexicans but too dark for white people. Where does she fit?

It also does not help that her younger brother can appear to do no wrong. Several times in the novel Beto messes up somehow and Gabi is blamed for it. Beto is encouraged to carry a condom around just in case while Gabi is warned against the dangers of having sex before marriage. And Gabi should lose weight. No man will want her if she weighs too much.  

Gabi, A Girl in Pieces is an engaging novel for the Latinx community. It conveys struggles that continue to take place for first-generation Mexican-American children, especially females.  

Connections:

Activities:

- Gabi mentions several poems her teacher assigns them to read (Howl, The Raven, We Real Cool, etc.) Do a jigsaw activity where each group is assigned a different poem. Students will then come together with each person an “expert” on the poem Gabi had to read. Share the poem and the discussion the group had about the poem.
- Promote during Hispanic Heritage month
- Provide as a choice with literary book circles with a theme of Latinx authors.
- Think of something your parent does that you disapprove of. Write them a letter (it doesn’t need to be sent) explaining why you disapprove and how it affects you.
- Have a class discussion about male and female expectations in society.
- Infuse this novel with a poetry unit. Create your own class anthology of student poetry.
- Each person that becomes pregnant deals with the situation differently. Compare Cindy, Gabi’s mom, and Georgina. How are their situations different? How do they each deal with becoming pregnant?
- Was Gabi justified in her reaction to German or did she go too far? Explain.

Video:

Bedoya, K. and Portugal, C. (Creators). East Los High. Wise Entertainment, Population Media Center, and Into Action Films, 2013-2017.

• This television series distributed by Hulu chronicles the lives of Latinx high school students in East L.A.
  

Atlas, M.R. (Co-Producer), Brown, E. (Producer), LaVoo, G. (Producer), & Cardoso, P. (Director). (2002). Real Women Have Curves [Motion Picture]. United States; HBO Films.

• This film is about a first-generation Mexican-American girl. Her mother is always on to her about her weight and how she needs to help the family, much like Gabi’s own mother. Ana, the main character, is also a writer who dreams of going to a good college. There are many parallels to Gabi’s story in this film.