A review by anbar
Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina

3.0

3.5 stars. Wow, this vivid depiction of a girl who gets targeted by a mean girl through no fault of her own really got a strong emotional response from me. Piddy switched schools when her mom moved them to a better apartment, but from her first week at her new school, a girl she doesn't even know is out to get her (and when you find out why, it's just infuriating). The stress of the resulting bullying campaign makes Piddy's grades suffer, which gets the adults on her back, which gets her more stressed--a good depiction of that vicious cycle. Piddy's too scared to risk making things worse by snitching, so she becomes increasingly isolated, especially since her best friend has also moved to a different neighborhood, and her other old friend is dealing with his own family troubles. There is also the sub-plot of Piddy's mother never telling her anything about her father (she knows his name and nothing else, not even a photo), and the identity angle of strangers sometimes counting Piddy out of the Latinx community despite both parents being Latina/Latino because she's light-skinned. I don't agree with all of Piddy's decisions (why not at least vent to Lila?), but they were understandable. I dock a half-star because I really wanted/needed one thing to be shouted in a certain person's face in the climax, but it never was (AAGH!).