Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass - Iridescent Reads for Aotearoa Bookwyrms

library binding, 359 pages

Published April 1, 2020 by Thorndike Striving Reader.

ISBN:: 9781432874216

(1 review)

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 …

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.

10 editions

Alex Cabe reviewed Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina

Slow Start with an Unexpectedly Strong, Complex Finish

4 stars

Content warning Ending Spoilers

This book felt like a three star through most of it, but it finished very strong and a complex, ambiguous, but ultimately happy resolution. Good books will have that hook where I can't wait to read the rest, and this didn't really hit that until 80 or 90 percent through.

I thought it was an interesting choice that, while Yaqui had a little dialogue toward the end, she never got to speak substantively, and the reader saw her exclusively through Piddy's point of view. I expected them to do the humanize-the-bully thing where they talk about her bad home situation, and that was glanced at, but never really carried through. We saw Yaqui only through Piddy's view and, to Piddy, Yaqui is just a monster. And the book tells you it's okay to feel like that, but at the same time has the character of Joey, who comes from similar or worse circumstances that Yaqui, but manages to be a caring person.

It also teaches kids that it's okay to leave a bad situation, and I think that's a good lesson.

The cover blurb says "complicatedly true", which nails it.