Named to Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2014 July 24 My mother named me Gabriella after my grandmother who coincidentally didn't want to meet me when I was born because my mother was unmarried and therefore living in sin. My mom has told me the story many many MANY times of how when she confessed to my grandmother that she was pregnant with me her mother beat her. BEAT HER! She was twenty-five. That story is the basis of my sexual education and has reiterated why it's important to wait until you're married to give it up. So now every time I go out with a guy my mom says 'Ojos abiertos piernas cerradas.' Eyes open legs closed. That's as far as the birds and the bees talk has gone. And I don't mind it. I don't necessarily agree with that whole wait until you're married crap though. I mean this is America and the 21st century; not Mexico one hundred years ago. But of course I can't tell my mom that because she will think I'm bad. Or worse: trying to be White. Gabi Hernandez chronicles her last year in high school in her diary: Cindy's pregnancy Sebastian's coming out the cute boys her father's meth habit and the food she craves. And best of all the poetry that helps forge her identity.
