Reviews

Gaby, Lost and Found by Angela Cervantes

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myunghhoe's review

5.0

did gabby ever reunite with her mom :(((((((((((((((

One of my students loaned me this book to read, and I'm glad she did because this book is about empathy and compassion, two incredibly important qualities that too often seem in short supply. Cervantes does a nice job of humanizing the immigration debate with the story of Gaby and her mom. She also shows the important, nurturing relationships that can form between people and their pets.

zapkode's review

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5.0

{My thoughts} – Gaby is a sweet little girl that got dealt a terrible hand in life. A few years before the book starts her mom and dad split up and her dad leaves. A few months before the book starts her mother is deported back to Honduras when she goes to work on a day that she wasn’t scheduled. The place where she worked was raided and she was deported. Since her mom got sent back to Honduras that left her caregiver to be her father. He moves in with her and more or less treats her as an inconvenience. Not to mention he can’t keep a job and barely keeps food in her belly.

When her mom was deported she was originally suppose to go live with her best friend Alma and her family. However, her dad wouldn’t allow it. Instead he made her stay with him where she was hardly being cared for. Because of the way he was caring for her she was bullied and treated poorly by a number of students at school.

Gaby’s class takes on a project where they help out at a local shelter. She gets to write profiles for all the animals as a means to help them find their forever homes. While she is volunteering there with her class she becomes attached to a cat named Feather.

The majority of the book is about her time helping at the shelter and her desire to get her mom back home. I think that her helping at the shelter really helped her grow as a person with a better understanding of everything that’s going on within her life. The work that she does at the shelter seems to help her deal with all the pain from losing her mom.

I really recommend this book for any child because it’s a great book. It’s well written and given the current events taking place it really has the potential to hit home with many of the children reading it. It’s about being scared, about fear and about finding understanding in a situation that is beyond any one child’s complete understanding. I look forward to reading more books by this author in the future.

stefaniejane's review

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3.0

Touching story about Gaby, daughter of an illegal immigrant, and how she feels when her mother gets deported back to Honduras. Her father comes to live with her, but he is self-centered and doesn't care for her in any way. She takes care of herself and throws herself into her community service project: working at the animal shelter. An aspiring writer, Gaby writes gripping adoption fliers for the animals, and with the help of best friend Alma, hopes to give the strays a forever home.

The tie-in with the strays and Gaby is very obvious and deliberate, the prose pretty straightforward. I would recommend this book for 5-7th grade, though. Really sheds light on a reality kids are living, whether adults try to hide it from them or not. Nice to see a lot of Latino families and great friendships.

sallyavena's review

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3.0

Not a lighthearted read, but would be a good book to read to start a discussion with your tween about illegal immigration.
Here's my full review of this book: http://www.compassbookratings.com/reviews/index.php/review/view/2000

pacifickle's review

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2.0

Text littered with heavy handed similes. Completely unrealistic story about a girl who's mom is deported very publicly, but then child protective services are never contacted by authorities, and they still aren't contacted even though we see numerous community members very involved in her life who don't investigate the situation. Her school also doesn't get involved though they claim to have loved her for many years. Characters mention she's very thin and neglected but don't take any action. Finally, she goes to live with a friend's family but with no legal measures to help them take official custody or guardianship. Gaby is treated as though she's a stray animal from a shelter.

ry_reader_29's review against another edition

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5.0

This book was happy,sad and heart warming all at the same time.

crystal_reading's review

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4.0

This was a sweet middle grade book about a girl going through a tough time. Her mom has been deported and her father (who hasn't been a big part of her life) has stepped in, but isn't doing a stellar job. Fortunately she has good friends and a community service project that keeps her involved with the animals she enjoys. I generally avoid animal stories because they often make me cry. This one did too, but not really because of the animals, but the troubles that Gaby was facing in her life.