Customer Reviews

A Crazy, Mixed-Up Spanglish Day

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As an English as a Second Language teacher, I am always looking for easy to read books that address different cultures and languages. This book is perfect. I am now reading the 1st book in the Gabi series to a class, and have 2 other students reading #1 and #2 of the series on their own. I have students on a waiting list to read them next! The kids are thrilled to read books by an author who isn't afraid to throw in a little cultural flavor. This is an excellent book for beginning readers or older children just learning English--believe it or not, I am a middle school teacher!

This book was tough to follow and did really go anywhere. I felt like it was a jumbled piece of work that had no storyline or plot.

My son and I read this book together because it was listed as a Sunshine State Book (Florida's recommended reading list) for the 2004-2005 school year. I was very disappointed; the plot was very weak and I felt that the book portrayed non-hispanic people in a negative way. I think the only reason it was picked as a Sunshine State Book was out of political correctness, because the author intermixes Spanish words throughout the book and the main character is Hispanic. The only people portrayed badly in the book are presumably not Hispanic-- a boy named Johnny Wiley and a girl named Sissy Huffer, whose only "fault" the author gives us, is that she has "perfect blonde curls". In the book, the main character is criticized by her mother for speaking English at home. Her mother tells her, "See what happens when you get lazy and use the English word when there's a perfectly good Spanish word?" I can't recommend this book. Besides the underlying anti-Gringo and anti-English messages it sends, it just isn't that good of a book. The basic plot of the book is that the main character (Gabi) has to deal with a boy who teases her at school, but her solution to the problem is rather uninspiring. The only redeeming quality of this book is that it emphasizes the main character working out her problem using her brain rather than her temper. If you want an interesting book to read, pick any of the other books on the Sunshine State reading list -- the rest of them are more creative and have better developed plots.