Isabel Quintero is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. She lives and writes in the Inland Empire of Southern California, where she was born and raised. Her debut novel, Gabi, A Girl in Pieces, was the recipient of five starred reviews and several awards, including the 2015 Morris Award for Debut YA Fiction and the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award. For fun she reads and writes, watches comedies, and eats paletas and chicharrones every chance she gets. Her favorite paleta flavor? Pues coco, of course.