As Gabi begins her senior year of high school, she encounters events that will really test her family, and friends, and herself. The main problem in Gabi A Girl In Pieces by Isabel Quintero is her family. Her father, a meth addict, is usually not at home, walking the streets, and running up debt. A second main problem is that both Gabi’s mom and best friend have a baby during the school year. With a new sibling aunt Bertha moves in to help and to help cope with the family’s loss. Her best friend having a baby also caused problems for their friendship. As Gabi starts to make new friends her old friends have problems of their own.  Her friends problems will later affect her. All the problems have something in common, Gabi, her friends and family overcame them all and made the best of them.

Before reading this book I did not know much about any cultural except mine. After reading I have learned things such as, religion is a very big part of Mexican culture. In this book it seemed like the Hernandez family did not want to mix their culture with American culture. Some things I found interesting was author included both English and Spanish in the same line of dialogue. Another thing I found interesting was at holidays such as Thanksgiving, they had both traditional Thanksgiving food and Spanish food. Since I am used to just Thanksgiving food, this came as a surprise to me.

This was a really good book, it gives a good example of how high school could go for some. For others it could not relate to them at all, but anyone can enjoy this book. I think I share little to nothing with anyone in this book, but still enjoyed it. At first I thought the book was a little weird, but then realized it only included situations that could happen to almost anyone, I was just not used to hearing about scenarios like the ones in the book.The book also won two awards, Kirkus reviews best book of  2014 and  School Library Journal  best books of 2014. I would recommend this book to anyone who thinks they can not overcome their own challenges, or to anyone who needs a book to read and is interested in diaries. In this book it shows you anyone can make the best out of any situation.