Gabby Torres Gets a Billion Followers

November 1, 2024

Gr 3-5-After a year of pleading, nine-year-old Gabby Torres is finally invited to join the Sea Musketeers, an ocean conservation club. She comes up with a great idea: make a club social media account. Everyone loves it and decides Gabby will be in charge, but Gabby's parents feel otherwise. Gabby and her best friends, Prya and Kat, create a compelling slide show to convince them to allow it. Her parents agree but with rules: post once a week, only post with mom, and never go online alone without supervision! Excitement builds as the club's posts begin to get comments. Unfortunately, Gabby peeks and sees a negative comment which leads to her making many bad choices trying to get to the bottom of who the anonymous poster was, even accusing her best friends and her teacher. When phone calls from school come in, Gabby is in deep trouble. Her parents ground her, and she can no longer manage the account. This book's narrative creates opportunities for caretakers to have candid conversations with young readers about internet usage, potential dangers, and safe practices. Brightly colored illustrations amid a mix of panel sizes and block text blend together to form this timely, realistic story. VERDICT A strong entry in the family and friends graphic novel genre. Give this to fans of Raina Telgemeier, Shannon Hale, Varian Johnson, and Nathan Fairbairn.-Elisabeth LeBris

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2024
Everyone's a suspect when someone leaves Gabby a mean social media comment. As the youngest member of a student environmental club known as the Sea Musketeers, 9-year-old Gabby Torres is eager to stand out, and she decides that starting a social media account for the group is just the ticket. The others are encouraging, but Gabby's worried parents lay down some guidelines for online safety. Her best friends, Kat and Priya, who also hope to join the Sea Musketeers, are supportive, but Gabby makes a mess of things. Kat and Priya are upset when the test to join the Sea Musketeers proves harder than they realized, Gabby ends up breaking her parents' social media rules, and, when she notices a rude anonymous comment on the club's page, she begins to levy accusations against everyone around her. Short paragraphs of text are mixed with traditional comic art. Zippy cartoon illustrations adeptly convey emotions, while ample white space and simple backgrounds keep the focus on the endearingly earnest protagonist. Set in the same world as Dominguez's Stella D�az series, the tale offers a nuanced and compassionate depiction of forgiveness as Gabby works to make amends and realizes that making a mistake can be an opportunity to learn and grow. Gabby is biracial (her mother presents white, while her father is Mexican American), and Spanish words are occasionally used; Kat appears white; Priya is Indian American. A gently edifying and wholly genuine depiction of a young person navigating relationships.(Graphic/fiction hybrid. 7-9)

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March 1, 2025
Exuberant nine-year-old Gabby Torres volunteers to start a social media account for her ocean-conservation club, the Sea Musketeers, to prove her maturity to its older members. Though her parents are initially wary, they ultimately agree to let her run the account under their strict supervision and with limited access. Gabby is excited to learn about hashtags, promote the club's mission, and score new followers, but after she receives a rude comment from an anonymous account, she begins to view everyone -- from friends to family members to teachers -- as potential culprits. As her accusations intensify and her desire to identify the commenter drives her to break her parents' rules, Gabby finds that her desperation is alienating those around her and distracting her from her good intentions. Dominguez has created an instantly endearing protagonist in Gabby: though she still has growth to undergo, her zeal feels wholly natural in a preteen whose enthusiasm for a cause and desire for acceptance override her common sense. Gabby's close relationship with her Mexican American family provides an affectionate, grounding presence. While the story is not without its messages, it's also charmingly funny. Vignette illustrations and/or comics panels on every page depict Gabby's imaginative perception of the world (e.g., she assumes "Miss Information" is a woman who spreads fabrications online). Gabby's future exploits are sure to have followers -- though maybe not quite a billion. Emma Shacochis

(Copyright 2025 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)