Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass Author: Meg Medina | Language: English | ISBN:
B00BMVO1N8 | Format: PDF
Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass Description
Winner of the 2014 Pura Belpré Author Award! In Meg Medina’s compelling new novel, a Latina teen is targeted by a bully at her new school — and must discover resources she never knew she had. One morning before school, some girl tells Piddy Sanchez that Yaqui Delgado hates her and wants to kick her ass. Piddy doesn’t even know who Yaqui is, never mind what she’s done to piss her off. Word is that Yaqui thinks Piddy is stuck-up, shakes her stuff when she walks, and isn’t Latin enough with her white skin, good grades, and no accent. And Yaqui isn’t kidding around, so Piddy better watch her back. At first Piddy is more concerned with trying to find out more about the father she’s never met and how to balance honors courses with her weekend job at the neighborhood hair salon. But as the harassment escalates, avoiding Yaqui and her gang starts to take over Piddy’s life. Is there any way for Piddy to survive without closing herself off or running away? In an all-too-realistic novel, Meg Medina portrays a sympathetic heroine who is forced to decide who she really is.
- File Size: 503 KB
- Print Length: 270 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0763658596
- Publisher: Candlewick (March 26, 2013)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00BMVO1N8
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #256,361 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
This excellent novel features Piddy Sanchez, a Latina girl who starts high school in a different area thanks to her single mother's determination to get her into a good school. Sadly, Piddy unwittingly incurs the wrath of Yaqui Delgado, a fierce bully. Yaqui sends her emissary Vanesa to warn Piddy of her impending a** kicking. Yaqui sadly believes that Piddy struts her stuff and is "not Latina enough," and is on the make for Yaqui's boyfriend. This is later disproved as Piddy doesn't even know Yaqui or her boyfriend and would not recognize him if he walked right in front of her.
This is a very serious topic. Racial pride is one thing. Race is a matter of inherited bloodlines. Race is not about acting or talking a certain way or playing the part of a stereotype. Race is something a person is born into and is not acquired. How a person talks and acts is secondary. Sadly, there are many people who believe in inflicting racial stereotypical expectations and behaviors on members of their race. There is also the gross misperception that a person is not "(fill in the racial blank) enough" because they for whatever reason do not conform to the stereotype. What makes me personally angry is when others impose a dictum of behaviors on people simply because they belong to a certain group. Not everybody is willing to go along with these stereotypes.
Another problem that rears its ugly head is the Jim Crow mentality. (Jim Crow is generally associated with the black population, but any laws discriminating against certain groups or group members who treat other members of their group badly based on race fall under the Jim Crow umbrella.) There is no such thing as "not black/Asian/Native/Latino/Latina/any group you can think of enough.
Talk about a provocative title! YAQUI DELGADO WANTS TO KICK YOUR ASS grabs teen readers' attention in a hurry. As you might infer, it is a book about bullying -- not "another" book about bullying, but "a" book about it. Meaning? I think it stands above the others I've read. Strong, strong characterization. And, in a book curiously devoid of male characters (spare two minor players), Medina's book speaks to the power of women, especially when they work together.
The protagonist here is Piddy Sanchez, a Latina girl who lands in a new high school when her single mother tries to improve their living quarters. Piddy's arrival draws notice from the wrong person in a hurry. In fact, the first line of the book is the title of the book. The words come from Vanesa, a friend of Yaqui's. It takes another girl to explain the threat more clearly. The mysterious (but not for long!) Yaqui has decided that Piddy is stuck up, shakes her booty too much, and has eyes for her boyfriend. Of course, Piddy wouldn't know Yaqui's boyfriend if she fell over him, but that, apparently, is beside the point.
From this simple beginning, a psychological net begins to close on the mind of Piddy. She begins to feel like prey, an innocent creature that can hear but not see the trouble that stalks her. Later, Yaqui appears with a bang (think Piddy's head, maybe), and the intimidation takes on a whole new dimension. Piddy is so traumatized that she fears going outside, never mind to school. She becomes the hunted, the haunted, and the hated through no fault of her own.
As a bigger than life help to Piddy, there's Ma's best friend, Lila, who sells Avon products and keeps men guessing. Piddy's mother has personality in spades, too.
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