Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00BL0JT5U | Format: PDF
Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass Description
"Yaqui Delgado wants to kick your ass." That's what some girl tells Piddy Sanchez one morning before school. Too bad Piddy doesn't even know who Yaqui Delgado is, let alone what she's done to piss her off. All Piddy knows is that Yaqui hates her - and she better watch her back because Yaqui isn't kidding around. At first Piddy just focuses on 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 and running away from her problems?
In this poignant and all-too-realistic story from award-winning author Meg Medina, Piddy is forced to decide exactly who she is versus who others are trying to make her become - and ultimately discovers a rhythm that is all her own.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 6 hours and 50 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Candlewick on Brilliance Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: March 12, 2013
- Whispersync for Voice: Ready
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00BL0JT5U
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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