Get Ready For Gabi #1

Get Ready for Gabi #1

by Marisa Montes, Joe Cepeda (Illustrator)

Move over Dora the Explorer. Out of the way Junie B. Gabí está aquí! A school and family-based Little Apple series with a funny, spunky Latina main character--a wonderful first for Scholastic!

With her friends and familia by her side, Gabi* is ready for anything--sort of.

Maritza Gabriela Morales Mercado (Gabi for short) has big problemas. Her worst enemy, Johnny Wiley, is driving her crazy. He makes fun of her name. He picks on her friends. And now Gabi has to spend an entire month working with him on a school project! Gabi is so upset she can't even talk straight. Her English words keep getting jumbled up with her Spanish words. Now she's speaking a crazy mix of both, and no one knows what she's saying! Will Gabi ever make sense again? Or will she be tongue-tied forever?

Genres: Realistic Fiction, Juvenile, Childrens, School, Fiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

Reviews

[Eleanor · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK, I just wrote this whole review only to accidentally delete it. I want to read some other books, too, so I’m going to try and ride it a little faster this time. I happened to find this book a while ago, and I’ve been wanting to read it for a while.
This book is about a girl do you speak Spanish at home, and English at school. The problem is, when she gets tired or upset, she can’t speak straight in either language.
My favorite part was the ending. Also, if I were doing a project on animals, I would probably want to do a monkey, a kangaroo, or panda. I really liked Gabby’s family. Gabby was the girl in the book. Her brother was really crazy.

[Concetta Seidler · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book to read with children who are learning about diversity. This book is centered around a student who has two identities. One is for at home the other is for at school. She speaks Spanish and English but often she mixes up the two when she gets stressed. Her one classmate begins to make fun of her identity at school so she gets fed up and announces to the class her real name. She says this name with an accent so that no one can come up with a silly nickname for her. She showed a sense of confidence when doing this and taught readers it is okay to be yourself. I would recommend this book to children of all ages.

[Madison Hurlbut · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an older book, for third graders specifically. Gabi is full of attitude and has so much to say. She is of Latina descent and specks all Spanish at home, but English at school. She does a good job at it until she gets paired to do a project with the classroom bully. She is so upset shes speechless and gets stuck with this in-between Spanglish which her mother hates. This is a good series for children because so many more children that I ever realized are in this situation. In Youngstown city schools alone there are lots of children who can relate to this. Being able to relate to books is going to help children through the situation.

[Laura West · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gabi is a third grader going through the difficulty of speaking her native language of Spanish at home but attending an English speaking school. Combine this with the trials, tribulations and pressures of being a third grader and adding in a nemesis of little Johnny, Gabi breaks out in a lot of Spanglish. Overall, I saw the need of this book as bilingual children are very intelligent being able to speak two languages but its the frustration of being able to separate languages effectively. I sadly thought this book was a little bit stereotypical and generic, maybe playing too much on the comedy aspect. Gabis triangular like hair and her brothers dramatic facial expressions ruined the illustrations for me and just left me a little bit annoyed. I just felt the whole book was too over the top for my liking and not real enough.

[Teresa Scherping Moulton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maritza Gabriela Morales Mercado is known as Maritza at school and Gabi at home. At school, she speaks English and sometimes gets into trouble for fighting back against Johnny Wiley, who teases her and calls her "Maritza Pizza." At home, she speaks only Spanish and enjoys spending time with her loud and loving family. Gabi has a lot of ambition - to fight crime someday as the head of a secret government agency that the president will call for help - but first she needs to figure out how to use her brain instead of her feet to solve problems. With a big class project and a secret surprise from her parents happening soon, Gabi will need to think fast and decide how best to save the day and stay out of trouble.

I feel like kids will enjoy this book more than I did. I wanted to like it because it has a Latina protagonist and falls into that early chapter book category. But there were little things that bothered me, like the whole premise that Gabi is accidentally mixing up her English and her Spanish all the time. I get that this probably happens to a bilingual speaker when he or she is stressed (although I think most bilingual people are really good at switching), but it seemed like it happened a lot in this story, which was a little irritating. I also think the whole thing with changing what name she wanted to be called was a good idea in theory but ended up being confusing. I'm glad that a book like this exists, but I wish I couple of things were different.

I would recommend this book to grades 2-4, especially those who like realistic fiction and/or are looking for stories with a Latina main character. Readalikes for this book might include the Dyamonde Daniel series by Nikki Grimes or the Freddie Ramos series by Jacqueline Jules.

[Taneysha forsyth · Rating 5 out of 5]

hi i am taneysha forsyth a eight grader and i have a review that will knock your soxs off.this book i read on the first week of summer brake it is the great


Get Ready For Gabi!

There is a powerful moment in this story that shows you how the character felt and explains his changes threw out his life that can change his life forever.Well Gabi is a high school or middle school kid who talks spanish to explain herself.However Gabi is ready for anything that comes toward her way.I notice that Gabi changes when her is around her familia(family)and her friends.The powerful moment was when gabi finds out that she has to work on this project with this guy.QUE HACES? QUE PASA? The time when Gabi gets very nevors was when she never know what is going on.iThe strongest method the author used to the extrem was when he pulls the reader in to make her/him real like the main character Gabi.I felt like the author could of used some very important details to tell u about Gabi's background.
This reminds me of the time my best friend made me mad and i had no choice but to cruse her out in the spanish language.i was kind of neveros at fist because i nver knew the possible come back like Gabi did.It all started when i was in 4th grade and my friend took my hw and said she did it.I was knid of shocked i could not belive it.The day was mala/malo(bad) because the teacher blamed me.Part of my lif as a child was over.GET READY FOR GABI is one of the greatest spanish books i ever read.

[Jessica Farmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why this book? Begins collection of chapter books for read alouds later in the year.
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Theme/Keywords: Family, Friendship, Bilingual Children
Special Features: Black and White illustrations on several pages
Characteristics of quality: familiar bilingual language and family like many of my children.
Gender of primary character: Female
Race/ethnicity of primary character: Hispanic
Cultural considerations: Character is living in two different linguistic worlds at home and school, which reflects many of my students.
Language considerations: Glossary of terms in back of book in Spanish or English, depending on which translation one buys.
Open Ended Question: What language do you use when you feel really angry? Why?

[Whitney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really cute early chapter book about controlling one's anger, learning to be an individual, and navigating school and home life. Gabi is a Latin American girl who speaks Spanish at home and English at school but gets confused one day when she doesn't get enough sleep. In the end, however, I'm not sure who this book is for. Is it for Hispanic kids looking to fit in? If so, the definitions of Spanish words are probably unnecessary. On the other hand, I'm not sure that non-Hispanic kids would really enjoy the plot line.

[McKinzie Elton · Rating 5 out of 5]

To introduce this book, I would have students journal about bulling, answering questions such as "In what situations do you and your friends see people bullied? Do you ever try to stop someone from getting bullied?"

[Lilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a staple in my classroom library. My 2nd grade bilingual students loved Gabi and all her ganas de usar su arma secreta...las botas rojas!

[✿ ~Yessenia~♥︎ · Rating 1 out of 5]

i hate this book!!!this is very boring has no interesting part it just plain boring from page 1 i give it a 1 out of 10 dont read

[Jessika Colon]

its helpp me red beter

[Keiry · Rating 5 out of 5]

iLOVE this book

[Debra]

Gabi speaks spanish and home and english at school. Many of the ELL students can identify with this as they do the same.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. Young students can relate to the story, and it teaches them about different cultures. It introduces Spanish words and you can start learning Spanish terms when you read it.

[Deborah Harris]

AR Quiz No. 70875 EN Fiction
Accelerated Reader Quiz Information IL: MG - BL: 3.1 - AR Pts: 2.0
Accelerated Reader Quiz Type Information AR Quiz Types: RP

[Elvedina k · Rating 3 out of 5]

read this for cramathon