Yaqui Delgado wants to kick your ass

摘要

Bullying in children and youth has become excessively widespread and aggressive in the 21st century (Brohl, 2014). According to the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center, 30% of U.S. teenagers are estimated to be involved in bullying in some way. The young adult novel, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina, the winner of the Pura Belpre Book Award for 2014, relates the story of one such teenager, Piedad Sanchez, daughter of a Cuban mother and an absent father from the Dominican Republic. Piedad finds herself in a new school in her sophomore year when her mother insists on moving from an apartment building that is literally crumbling down around her family. Piedad, nicknamed Piddy, is an honors student and a helpful daughter to her single mother who struggles to financially support her. Piddy is apprehensive of her new school which she describes as being "painted the pale green of disinfectant with barred windows" (p. 14). She is correct in her misgivings about the new place when early in the school term she is abruptly warned by another student, Yaqui Delgado, who wants to kick her ass. Piddy quickly discovers from a girl who works in the school guidance office that Yaqui Delgado was suspended the year before for fighting.