I really liked how Sal had a good relationship with his stepmom (she was called American Stepmom) because usually, stepmother’s are portrayed as evil (maybe this is because we all grew up on those gruesome Grimm brothers fairy tales) and/or always trying to replace the mom (which thankfully the American Stepmom decided to not do and made it clear to Sal) Sal’s dad is a calamity physicist and while I am not good at math or science, the whole “Sal can rip holes in the universe and pull things out” thing was explained quite easily.

I really loved the Spanish bits even though, half the time I didn’t understand anything (I speak French, not Spanish but they’re both romance languages so not far off). I really liked the diabetes rep because Sal has diabetes and my best friend does too and every time he mentioned him having to check and carrying around his diabetes bag, it reminded me of how my friend would always bring candy to class (or something sweet like grapes). I thought the characters were really awesome. Here’s my review (which is frankly, a little longer haha) He liked Sal more than Gabi (not surprising) Then when I started reading it and told him how much fun I was having, he agreed (which made my reader heart very happy that he liked a chapter book!) and asked me to change his rating from 4 stars to 5 stars! I honestly didn’t even blink twice because what more do you expect from a 9-year-old kid than one laughing about the poop joke.Īfter my little brother read it, he told me his rating would be 4 stars (which is up on my Goodreads!). The funny thing is, I got the book on my Kobo and gave it to my little brother and he instantly comes to me sayingĪ) He really really liked the book and I should also buy him the second one right away and “can you please get me a physical copy of this one? I will read it much faster” (which he did, he finished the book in 9 days)ī) He then comes to me and the first thing he says about the book is “there’s a funny word here that they use instead of BS” and proceeds to show me the word “cacaseca” which, you guessed it, means “dry poop”. Seeing as I have read 4 beforehand Sal and Gabi Break the Universe is my 5th and probably tied with City of the Plague God by Sarwat Chadda in terms of favourites. This is book #1 for my little brother and book #5 for me out of the 18 Rick Riordan Presents books! Basically, to get my little brother to read chapter books, although he does read comic books and while that’s great, I want to challenge his brain a little bit and he has agreed on the deal that after we finish all 18 RR presents books, we do a YT video to rank them, he has to read an RR presents books and I have to read it as well. *Featuring my little brother’s review as well!

Gabi and sal break the universe