Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina

Title: Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass
Author: Meg Medina
ISBN:
Publisher:
Copyright Date:
Genre: Fantasy

About the Author:
Meg Medina is an award-winning Cuban American author who writes picture books, middle grade, and YA fiction.
She is the 2016 recipient of the Pura Belpré honor medal for her picture book, Mango, Abuela and Me, and the 2014 Pura Belpré Award winner for her young adult novel, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass , which was also the winner of the 2013 CYBILS Fiction award and the International Latino Book Award. She is also the 2012 Ezra Jack Keats New Writers medal winner for her picture book Tía Isa Wants a Car.
Meg’s other books are The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind , a 2012 Bank Street Best Book and CBI Recommended Read in the UK; and Milagros: Girl from Away.
Meg’s work examines how cultures intersect, as seen through the eyes of young people. She brings to audiences stories that speak to both what is unique in Latino culture and to the qualities that are universal. Her favorite protagonists are strong girls.
In March 2014, she was recognized as one of the CNN 10 Visionary Women in America. In November 2014, she was named one of Latino Stories Top Ten Latino Authors to Watch.
When she is not writing, Meg works on community projects that support girls, Latino youth and/or literacy. She lives with her family in Richmond, Virginia.
Meet Meg. https://megmedina.com/about/.

Curriculum Ties:

• Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
• Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.

Plot Summary:
When Piddy Sanchez moves to a new school, she finds that she is in trouble. Yaqui Delgado has decided that she does not like Piddy, and has chosen to make Piddy’s life miserable. Yaqui starts to emotionally and physically bully Piddy, making her grades drop and afraid to leave her house because of bullies. During this time, Piddy has other problems. Her father left her mother, and she is trying to find out more about him, but can’t because her mother refuses to tell her anything. She also is developing feelings for one of her friends, Joey, who admits that his father beats his mother. Piddy begins to confide in Lila, a woman at the salon that she works at. Lila encourages her to fight Yaqui, which Piddy feels like is a bad idea. Soon, the choice is taken out of Piddy’s hands, as someone takes a video of her getting beaten, and it comes to the attention of the authorities, bringing all of these problems to a head.

Critical Evaluation:

The story works very hard to develop Piddy as a deep and complex character. This largely works, as it does portray her in the beginning of the story as a smart and strong student. Over the course of the book, she becomes less confident, with her grades dropping, being indecisive and worrying about who she will meet as she goes out. Even when she confides in those she trusts, she is hesitant to take their advice, worrying about the consequences. This focus does take away from other characters, with Yaqui never really being introduced as a character other than as a bully. However, this does not take away from the story and was a conscious decision by the author. The ending of the book gives the assurance that even when terrible things happen, you can overcome them and move on, as is evidenced by Piddy’s success in school once the bullying ends. 

Readers Annotation:
What do you do about a bully? This is a question that Piddy will have to answer as she moves to a new school and is immediately picked out by Yaqui Delgado as a person to beat up.

Book Talking Ideas:

• Discuss the bullying that Piddy endures. Have readers look for what effects it has on her over time. 
• Talk about some of the reasons Yaqui gives for not liking Piddy. Think about some of the real reasons Yaqui might have become a bully.

Reading Level/Interest Age: 13-18

Challenge Issues:

• Consistent violence and abuse throughout the book.
• Minor sexual themes.
• Swearing and insults occur regularly in the story.
• Some drinking and smoking by adults.

Defense Collection:

• Grades 8-11 When Piedad “Piddy” Sanchez hears that Yaqui Delgado is going to crush her, she has no idea why she has become a target of one of the roughest girls in her new Queens school. But Yaqui tells everyone Piddy is a skank who shakes her ass when she walks, and as the bullying escalates from threats to physical attacks, Piddy finds herself living in constant fear. A strong student with a bright future at her old school, Piddy starts skipping school, and her grades nosedive. After a truly upsetting attack on Piddy is uploaded to YouTube, she realizes this isn’t a problem she can solve on her own. Medina authentically portrays the emotional rigors of bullying through Piddy’s growing sense of claustrophobic dread, and even with no shortage of loving, supportive adults on her side, there’s no easy solution. With issues of ethnic identity, class conflict, body image, and domestic violence, this could have been an overstuffed problem novel; instead, it transcends with heartfelt, truthful writing that treats the complicated roots of bullying with respect. -- Hutley, Krista (Reviewed 04-15-2013) (Booklist, vol 109, number 16, p59)
• Gr 7 Up — Piedad Sanchez moved at the beginning of her sophomore year, and a few weeks into classes at her new school a girl comes up to say that "Yaqui Delgado wants to kick your ass ." As a first line, it sets the focus for Piddy, who has always had friends, gotten good grades, and managed quite well in her old school. There's no real reason for the enmity, but the threat is more than real and begins to permeate Piddy's life. Gradually readers see that her mother's best friend, who works at a hair salon and has been her support, is the only adult who even has a clue about what is going on. The Queens, New York, neighborhood is solidly Hispanic and the language reflects the culture. Piddy does a downward spiral as the torment gets increasingly worse. The school reaction and the dilemma she faces are realistically portrayed. Yaqui can get to her in and out of school, and she is vulnerable to being terrorized by a whole group of Yaqui supporters. The way that the abuse and threats impact Piddy to try to become a bad girl herself is logically presented. The plight of a pair of abandoned kittens parallels her own loneliness and loss. The Latino cultural milieu adds a richness and texture that lifts this up above many problem novels. The plot points are dexterously intertwined, and the characters are distinct. A real bonus for those looking for a bullying book  for older readers that is not simplistic.—Carol A. Edwards, Denver Public Library, CO --Carol A. Edwards (Reviewed April 1, 2013) (School Library Journal, vol 59, issue 4, p168)
• Awards:
• ALA Notable Children's Books - Older Readers Category: 2014
• Pura Belpre Award (Narrative)
• School Library Journal Best Books: 2013
• Westchester Fiction Award (California)
• YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults: 2014
• YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers: Fiction: 2014
• YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers: Top Ten: 2014
• Reconsideration Policy
• Freedom to Read Statement
• ALA Library Bill of Rights
• Springville Public Library Collection Development Policy
• The Library Director and designated staff actively evaluate and select materials. The Springville Public Library Board, acting under the authority given to it by Title 4, Chapter 6 of the Springville Municipal Code and Title 09 of the Utah State Code, has the ultimate responsibility for the determination of the policies for selection and acquisition of materials.
• Library materials are selected based on the following (not necessarily in order of priority):
• Local public demand and usage potential
• Popularity
• Subject coverage
• Relevance
• Accuracy and currency
• Presentation, readability and format
• Point of view (all sides)
• Cost
• Local connection
• Social values
• Collection balance
• To assess the item based on the above criteria, staff utilize:
• Nationally recognized and relevant pre-publication reviews
• Staff expertise
• Bestseller lists

Purpose in Collection:

This book discusses the harmful affects of bullying in a an award winning story. The book also features a Latina female main character, written by a Latina female author, which adds some important diversity to the collection.