Gabriela Gonzalez has not hit her double-digit birthday yet, but she can already add author to her resume.
Gabriela, a third-grader at Kemp-Carver Elementary School in Bryan, published her first book this year and had a book signing Wednesday afternoon in the school’s library.
Positive Girls is a compilation of stories with the underlying message that girls and women can do and be anything from star athletes to artists to scientists. Not only is Positive Girls Gonzalez’s first published book, but each page features her handwriting and hand-drawn illustrations.
“It makes me proud that I’m sending a message to girls because if I didn’t write this book they could’ve just given up immediately, and I didn’t want that to happen to people that I knew,” the 8-year-old said before signing books for school and district employees who had reserved copies.
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Gabriela got emotional talking about the support she received from her family and friends, who also inspired her when writing the book.
Michel Gonzalez — Gabriela’s dad and a second grade teacher at Kemp-Carver — said his favorite part about the book is how she included her family in the stories and illustrations, such as her cousin as a mathematician. He said he also likes how the detail in the drawings “reflects the mind of a child.”
Gabriela said she is proud and happy to have a published book, recognizing it is an opportunity most other kids do not get to experience.
Alison Boggan, principal at Kemp-Carver, called Gabriela a leader in the school and a role model for others.
She said she hopes other students see Gabriela’s accomplishment and read her book and know they also can do anything.
“They can accomplish any goal that they ever set for themselves, and that it doesn’t matter your race, your ethnicity, your gender; you can be anything you want to be,” she said.
The concept began as a project in Gabriela’s gifted and talented class in the spring, but the coronavirus pandemic made it so the class could not complete the project as expected, Michel Gonzalez, said. Once summer began, Gabriela started working to complete her book and spent most of the summer writing and drawing, he said.
Everything in the book, he said, is Gabriela’s idea, and all he and his wife could do was support her.
Marcela Hernandez, Gabriela’s mom and pre-K teacher at the school, said it was inspiring to see the entire process from her daughter putting the ideas down on paper in draft form to developing those ideas into a finished book.
“She was very excited about giving the message to little girls and not just in our school but everywhere, which is great, I think,” she said. “She’s very young, and she has this mentality of being and try and give the best of her on everything she does.” Through the process, Gabriela said, she learned that writing a book is hard.
“It took me a lot of time, and we had some trouble losing it in the mail, but I got it back and now it’s published,” she said.
Michel Gonzalez said he is proud of his daughter for completing the project, publishing the book and continuing despite those setbacks and difficulties.
“I think the best thing as a parent that I learned in here is that she struggled, and she learned that nothing is granted and it’s hard,” he said.
“It feels really good,” Gabriela said — emphasizing the “really” — about adding author to the list of things girls can do.
Gabriela said she hopes the book reminds people — adults and children — that they can begin again, to do what is right and to stay , “even if it doesn’t mean always being happy.”
On the last page of the book, Gabriela writes, “Hi I am Gabriela. I wrote this book because I think it’s important that girls know that we can do whatever we want if we study hard. Whether it’s a karate champion to a scientist. I think we can do anything.”
Gabriela’s next step is writing a Spanish version of Positive Girls and then writing a book about her experience of creating the story, from writing it, losing it in the mail and then getting it published.