While this was not one of my favorite reads, the style of writing will resonate with students. A mix of color illustrations and text, similar to the Emmie series by Terri Leibson, students more comfortable with graphic novels will find comfort in this book. A lot of great themes were covered, I'm just the wrong age. Proper use of social media, pitfalls of sneaking around, friendships, unfounded accusations, and general growing up are all touched on.

i could see this book doing numbers with the pre-teen crowd. I used to love books like this at that age. it's relateable and very interactive by not being full on graphic novel, but not full novel. Kinda a nice intro into both honestly.

This was a fantastic chapter book that creatively teaches kids about online/social media safety in a way that isn’t condescending. Gabby is a fun and funny character that readers will want to see in future stories.

Looking for a great book to help your kids learn about online social media safety? This is a fantastic choice!

The story follows a girl who wants to run a social media page for her club, but after seeing a negative comment, things start to spiral. As she navigates the challenges of online interactions, she learns valuable lessons about friendship and the importance of not taking everything posted online too seriously.

It’s an engaging and insightful read that teaches kids about digital responsibility in a relatable way. Highly recommended!

actually, Gabby Torres did NOT get a billion of followers. But she did learn about social media responsibility and awareness. she also learned about the nature of internet trolls the hard way. i love how this book is using diary entries format and truly felt like something that 9 years old would write. it has an innocent but enthusiastic tones about the narrative. recommended for little kids who start to get curious about social media.

In GABBY TORRES GETS A BILLION FOLLOWERS, Gabby is the youngest member of the Sea Musketeers club, a group of students who want to protect oceans. Having watched her mom do social media content for her bookstore, Gabby is convinced she can use social media to promote the club and share content to support its mission. She presents the idea to the group and becomes the group’s social media manager. Her parents are initially opposed to Gabby being on social media but eventually they relent as long as Gabby agrees to follow their rules. Gabby dives in headfirst, excited about her role and watching the follower number grow. When she encounters a negative comment, she becomes obsessed with trying to figure out who is behind it, leading her to break her promises to her parents.

The highly illustrated book provides a relatable story about the challenges of social media for elementary readers. Along the way, Gabby also learns some important lessons about friendship. Fans of the author’s Stella Diaz series will enjoy this one—especially when they realize Stella is the president of the club. With its pairing of humor, environmental activism, and social media pitfalls alongside plenty of colorful illustrations, the book will appeal to many elementary grade readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sharing an eARC of the book with me.

This was really fun. There is a great message about the dangers of social media, and ways kids can make change. I liked the mixed format of traditional comic panels and — how would you describe them? almost like a journal with illustrations. I also appreciated the message about being a good friend. Lots of good stuff in this one!

Very cute book, I enjoyed the storyline, I believe my daughters will enjoy this. I bought a copy for them on Amazon! I love the integration of Spanish words and culture. I also enjoyed the illustrations. Overall great book for kids!

Gabby Torres does not get a billion followers... but she does get on social media for the first time when she starts a page for her environmental club. Definitely aimed at younger readers, but a nice introduction to the world of the internet & social media.
Thanks for NetGalley for an advance copy of this book!

This was a great start to a new middle grade series. I’d say it’s geared more toward the younger end and is a cross between graphic novel and early chapter book. I enjoyed the diverse cast of characters. There was plenty of humor paired with life lessons. And it was very well illustrated. Thank you to NetGalley and Roaring Brook Press for this arc.

Gabby Torres Gets a Billion Followers is a fantastic read for the younger middle grade crowd! It is highly illustrated, but not quite a graphic novel. I really enjoyed the illustrations, and found Gabby to be a delightful character. I loved how passionate she was... and how impatient lol. I definitely related from my younger days. This is a great way to talk about social media, and its dangers with the kiddos.

Thanks to NetGalley, Angela Dominguez, and Macmillan Children's for the chance to read and review. My opinions are my own!

Gabby Torres feels that she is a very mature nine year old, and therefore can mix with older kids, at the Sea Musketeers Club, for protecting the ocean life. She wants to spread the word about the club and what it does, and feels the best way is social media. Her parents say that as long as she is doing it with them watching, she can.

And you know where this is going. She breaks the rule, and gets obsessed with trolls that put her and her club down. She thinks, that like Harriet the Spy, that if she asks enough questions, she can figure out who said the mean things. In doing so, she alienates all her friends.

It is a cute beginning to what looks as though it will be a series of adventures. It is also a good tale of what can go wrong when kids get into social media too much.

I did like how it wasn’t only about that, though. That his was also about her trying to learn how to cook, so she would have gifts to give out, or sell to raise money for her sea group. Makes for a more rounded character.

Although this book is listed as middle grade, it is almost an early chapter book, so it might be good for younger middle grade. After all Gabby is only in the fourth grade, and middle grade starts in the sixth grade.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is coming out on the 14th of January 2025.

Gabby is a great character, and her story is fun and informative. The artwork is nice, but I did find that, overall, I never quite warmed up to her and was always just. a bit off put by how she dove into things without considering the consequences. And yes, I get that it was likely age appropriate behaviour, but I really didn't like how she treated people and how she justified everything she did that was wrong.

That being said, Gabby's first experience with social media does serve to teach an important lesson about how social media can be both powerful and hurtful. Becoming obsessed with it the way Gabby does is a way for the negatives of social media to be presented without diving into the more scary aspects for young readers. There were lessons aplenty in this book, including how to be a good friend. I'm just not sure that, by the end, Gabby truly learned them or learned them the right way. I kind of feel like she stepped back from social media completely rather than learned how to be responsible with it, and the baking thing drove me a little nuts because she still kept forging ahead. Does no one use a recipe?!

All in all, a good way for an elementary schooler to understand about social media risks and to initiate a conversation for sure.

This was a great read and an important one for kids. Kids are often excited to venture into the world of social media, but are often not ready They also don't want to hear what their parents or teachers have to say about being on the Internet. Gabby Torres is a great way to communicate that information to kids in a fun, age-appropriate way. I teach fifth grade and this book may be a bit young for my students. They will still enjoy reading it though they likely won't get the message that's trying to be communicated. A definite must for an elementary school classroom.

Gabby Torres is a lively nine-year-old girl who has recently joined the Sea Musketeers Club at school. The club was named after Jacques Cousteau’s infamous sea divers who explored the ocean and performed experiments. The goal of the school’s club is to make everyone aware of the ocean and how humans are ultimately destroying the ecosystem and offer ways to help save the oceans.

Gabby is in charge of the club’s social media and creates a web site. However, there is a caveat to her work; her parents allow her to be online ONLY on Mondays and requiring their approval for whatever content she wants to post. For her protection, she is never to go on the internet unsupervised. With her mother’s help, Gabby is able to post her first web page to the Sea Musketeers’ web site which eventually gains followers. On the same token, Gabby loses – friends that is. Her BFFs Kat and Priya want in with the Sea Musketeers Club, which is rather exclusive. When Gabby’s half-hearted attempts to get her BFFs into the club (but not really because this is something Gabby enjoys doing on her own without her friends), Kat and Priya sense her efforts are not sincere and start giving her the cold shoulder.

Eventually Gabby becomes obsessed with knowing how many are following the Sea Musketeers web site and starts to take sneak peeks online without her parents knowledge or supervision, making Gabby lose focus on the club’s goals. Will her parents find out? Will her BFFs start talking to her again? Will the Sea Musketeers eventually get a billion followers?

While at first glance, you’d think the story was about a girl being on TikTok, Instagram, or some other popular social media platform. But this story is also has an ecological impact, providing some education on how to save our oceans. The illustrations are delightful and the colors are bright. What I really enjoyed was the illustrations interspersed with text on the pages, in similar vein to Terri Libenson’s Emmie & Friends series and Maria Scrivan’s Nat Enough series. Fans of those series will enjoy this new series as well with an excerpt for the next book in the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy.

This was the book I needed in elementary school when my teachers said I was too old for Junie B. Jones but I didn’t want to let her go! 😂 Gabby Torres Gets a Billion Followers is perfect for elementary students with a passion for literally anything, as Gabby shows examples of zines that would inspire any kid to make one, teaches us small and easy ways we can help protect our oceans, and shares facts about social media that will help prepare parents for when their kids enter that world. All of this information and passion is tied into in a short and inconclusive mystery, which is the one part of the story I wasn’t thrilled with since we didn’t dive too deeply into that investigation (and I’m still convinced I know who did it even if the story doesn’t agree). Overall, though, I’d happily recommend this and share it with my patrons!

This was such a fun read going through Gabby's life from her perspective. The illustrations throughout really made it even more enjoyable and I look forward to grabbing a physical copy of this for my daughter.

Gabby Torres Gets a Billion Followers by Angela Dominguez is such a fun, fast-paced read! Gabby is a relatable, hilarious character who’s just trying to navigate the world of social media, fame, and staying true to herself. I loved how the book explores the ups and downs of being an influencer, while also diving into themes of friendship, identity, and what it really means to connect with others. It’s a perfect mix of humor, heart, and modern-day challenges. I think our library patrons, especially younger readers, will really enjoy this one—it’s a great pick for anyone interested in social media, big dreams, and finding your own voice!

Lee a graphic novel and more of.a heavily illustrated children's book (think Wimpy Kid), Gabby Torres Gets a Billion Followers is about a nine year old girl whose tendency to function like a bull in a china shop gets her into a number of scrapes. The story focuses on her membership in a kid's ocean protection club. Gabby is the youngest member and proud of it, so proud she schemes to keep her two best friends from joining. She is eventually appointed the head of the club's social media account, but quickly spirals out of control when she encounters a vaguely negative comment on her first post and becomes obsessed with finding out who the anonymous poster is. This leads to more problems with her friends and, ultimately, just about everyone she knows. The story is largely silly and enthusiastic, which makes the sudden info dump on online safety feel out of tenor with the rest of the book as well as preachy.

Big thanks to both Netgalley and Angela's publisher at ALSC for an ARC of this book

You wanna know what this book reminded me of? Do you remember those Amelia's Notebook from American Girl back in the 90s. That what Gabby Torres reminded me of and I am very excited to recommend it to younger middle grade readers.

Gabby is likeable and her life situations in school are relatable. Additionally, I really appreciate the message about caring more about the people in front of you than the internet followers (or the haters.) Kids younger and younger need that memo!