REVIEW OF YAQUI DELGADO WANTS TO KICK YOUR ASS

A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Medina, Meg. YAQUI DELGADO WANTS TO KICK YOUR ASS. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. ISBN 9780763671648.


B. PLOT SUMMARY
Piddy Sanchez is a 10th grader at her new school, and she recently found out that someone named Yaqui Delgado doesn’t like her. Piddy doesn’t know who Yaqui Delgado is, so she decides to try to find out. She finds her in a school yearbook. Now she knows her full name and what she looks like. One day, in the hall at school between class period, Yaqui steals Piddy’s necklace off her neck. Later, Yaqui and some of her friends catch Piddy walking home. Yaqui beats Piddy up badly. Yaqui’s gang of friends record the beat-down and later post it on the Internet. Eventually, Yaqui gets reported for bullying Piddy. Piddy transfers back to her old school so that she doesn’t have to be around Yaqui or her gang of friends.            

 

C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS (INCLUDING CULTURAL MARKERS)
This book is filled with references to Latino/Latina culture. Although the book is written in English, Spanish language words and phrases permeate the story: planchadita; mi vida; cuerpo; mami; asi; hasta aqui; que es esto; sin verguenza; escandalo; chusma; el senor; champu; Elefantes; champu; and others.

Early in the book, Piddy’s mother’s friend Lila is teaching Piddy how to do a dance called the Meringue. It is a popular dance of some Latino countries, including the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Priddy’s father is from the Dominican Republic.

Lila is “a novela junkie, and Los Diablos y El Amor is her favorite.”  A novela, also known as a telenovela, is a Spanish-language TV show targeted at the Latino community. Basically, it’s a Spanish-language soap opera. While the show in the book is fictional, it may be based on an actual show called “Mas Sabe El Diablo”. Lila works at Salon Corazon, a hair and nail salon that caters to Latina women in the neighborhood.

At one point in the story, Piddy mentions her 15th birthday, and the fact that she did not celebrate a quinceanera for it. A quinceanera is a coming-of-age tradition celebrated in Latin American cultures on a girl’s 15th birthday. On her 16th birthday, Piddy is taken out for dinner at a restaurant. The restaurant caters to the Latin American community. Piddy is taken to this restaurant because her favorite food is roast pork, and this particular restaurant serves exceptionally good “lechon”, as Piddy calls it. At the end of the meal everyone in the restaurant sings Happy Birthday to her, and a tradition Latino birthday song, “Las Mañanitas”.

Piddy discusses her mother adding fried bananas as a side dish to the Thanksgiving Day meal. Fried bananas are a common side dish in many Latino cultures.

At another point in the story Piddy is discussing luck. She mentions that her mother bought her an “ojo de Santa Lucia” charm at a store. In many Latino cultures the charm is said to confer good luck upon the wearer of it.  

Piddy had always been an excellent student, conscientious and hard-working. But after she starts getting bullied by Yaqui Delgado, Piddy’s grades take a turn for the worse. She becomes more concerned with Yaqui and less concerned with her grades. This novel does an excellent job showing what being bullied can do to a person. This book should be available in every high school counselor’s office and every high school library. It’s must-read material for any student who has suffered or suffers from bullying at school.  


D. AWARDS AND REVIEW EXCERPTS
Pura Belpre Award Winner (2014)

Cybils Award Winner (2013)

School Library Journal: “Piddy Sanchez seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her best friend moves away and Piddy’s Mom literally has the floor pulled out from under her as the small staircase in their apartment building collapses, forcing the family to move to another part of Queens. The move does have a bonus. For the first time, Piddy will have her own room, but it comes at a price—she has to start at a new school. Her developing body is starting to attract some unwanted attention from the Latino boys in the school as well as from Yaqui Delgado. Yaqui feels that the teenager is shaking her booty and doesn’t consider her a fellow Latina. Piddy’s skin is too light, she doesn’t have an accent, and she does well in school. The bullying escalates and Yaqui and her crew seem to have it in for Piddy and her blossoming bottom. The teenager also faces some internal struggles as she searches for information on a father she has never known or even seen. Roxanne Hernandez, a fluent Spanish speaker, pronounces the occasional Spanish words nicely and provides a great voice and tone for each character. The Latin music at the beginning and ending of each CD (Piddy is half Cuban and half Dominican) adds a cultural element. With a title that is sure to draw attention and Medina’s great story (Candlewick, 2013) to back it up, this is a definite purchase.”

Booklist: “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.” 

Kirkus: *Starred Review* “A nuanced, heart-wrenching and ultimately empowering story about bullying. When 15-year old Piedad Sanchez's mother moves them to another part of Queens, Piddy is unprepared for the bullying that awaits her at her new school. Yaqui Delgado doesn’t know Piddy but decides she’s stuck-up and shakes her ass when she walks—accusations weighty enough to warrant a full-fledged bullying campaign. As her torments escalate, readers feel the intensity of Piddy’s terror in her increasingly panicked first-person narration. Interweaving themes of identity, escapism and body image, Medina takes what could be a didactic morality tale and spins it into something beautiful: a story rich in depth and heart. Piddy's ordeal feels 100 percent authentic; there are no easy outs, no simple solutions. Displaying a mature understanding of consequences and refreshingly aware (no deducing supporting characters’ feelings before the protagonist, here), Piddy also exhibits an age-appropriate sense of vulnerability. The prose is both honest ("growing up is like walking through glass doors that only open one way—you can see where you came from but can't go back") and exquisitely crafted ("Fear is my new best friend. It stands at my elbow in chilly silence"). Far more than just a problem novel, this book sheds light on a serious issue without ever losing sight of its craft.”

Horn Book Magazine: “A move to a new neighborhood in Queens means a new high school for almost-sixteen-year-old Piddy (short for Piedad) Sanchez. Instead of a welcoming committee, she gets word that someone she doesn't even know has it in for her. Yaqui Delgado turns out to be one of those girls Piddy's mother calls "nobodies," or, as Piddy explains it, "They're her worst nightmare of what a Latin girl can become in the United States. Their big hoop earrings and plucked eyebrows ... their tight T-shirts that show too much curve and invite boys' touches." Yaqui may think she's tough, but it's Piddy and some of the other female characters, namely Piddy's mother and her mother's flamboyant best friend Lila, who make more lasting impressions. Medina's setting stands out as well, especially her portrayal of the bustling Latina-owned beauty salon, Salon Corazon, where Piddy works on weekends, folding towels and sweeping up hair. It's here where Piddy overhears unsettling gossip about her mother and father, a man Piddy has never met--gossip that makes her question whether her mother is as virtuous as she purports to be. As the bullying intensifies, so do Piddy's fear and lack of self-worth, to the point that she's soon spending more time retreating from her life than living it. Is it easier to give up and become a "nobody," or should she fight back? Teens will identify with Piddy's struggle to decide.”


E. CONNECTIONS
This novel describes the experience of trying to negotiate school and life.   

Readers who enjoyed this novel may enjoy these novels, too:

Brande, Robin. EVOLUTION, ME & OTHER FREAKS OF NATURE. ISBN 9780375843495

Hall, Megan K. DEAR BULLY: SEVENTY AUTHORS TELL THEIR STORIES. ISBN 9780062060976

McCall, Guadalupe G. UNDER THE MESQUITE. ISBN 9781600604294

Medina, Meg. MERCI SUAREZ CHANGES GEARS. ISBN 9780062691200 

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