A Latina girl, Piddy Sanchez, is targeted by a bully at her new school. She tries to handle things on her own but as the bullying escalates Piddy doesn't know where to turn for help. She has to learn to trust and to reach inside herself to find a strong girl within.
Bullying is a big problem in high schools today. Two years ago we had a young man at my school who committed suicide. The day after his death dozens of kids were racked with guilt. You see, the boy was a victim of bullying and the students who participated in it finally had a mirror held up to see what it looks like when bullying goes to far. The end result was the leadership of the student council and several teachers put together a program that seems to have a positive result on the problem. But we have to stay ever vigilant.
In Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina we meet Piddy, a Latina girl who has to change schools. Prior to getting to the new school she likes science and enjoys her friendships with other teens and relationships with adults at the beauty salon where she works on Saturdays. She is a happy girl. All this changes once Yaqui Delgado starts bullying her. Piddy doesn't know how to respond. She tries to avoid Yaqui. She skips classes and school. She hides. Nothing helps. She shuts down. She isolates herself from friends and adults who would actually help if given a chance. Finally, finally school officials get involved and a solution is found that works for everyone.
As an adult reading this book I finally saw the problem with a lot of our school policies concerning bullying. If a student goes to a school official for help, the bullying will likely increase. I am not sure how popular this book will be with students but I hope that other teachers read it to gain an understanding of the reality of the serious issue. I have never read a book which gives me such insights into the seriousness of bullying. I highly recommend it.
30 books this Summer Reading Challenge
33 / 30 books. 110% done!
I apparently was rather unobservant as I had no idea bullying went on in my school, and have only recently discovered that I was very, very wrong and I had friends who were bullied and never told anyone about it until recently. Because of this, I'm always really interested in books that highlight bullying issues - particularly books that explore different solutions (unfortunately most of the books I come across either sort of magically disappear the problem, or they don't suggest any sort of realistic solution) so this book is definitely going into my TBR pile!
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