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A review by jwinchell
Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina
4.0
Oooh, I really liked this one!
I've been thinking a lot about my frustration with my teen students--why don't they care about x? Why does it take them so long to do y? All of this is classroom stuff, of course, and those questions make me realize that I am very firmly AN ADULT and that I quite often lose touch with adolescent perspectives. In that sense, this was the perfect book for me to read.
I read YA because it helps me... to remember the turmoil of adolescence; to feel again that sense of being totally stuck and alone even when adults are saying they can/want to help you; to realize that what to adults seem like small problems with simple solutions are might actually be life-changing situations that are rife with decisions that are slowly/quickly helping you take steps toward who you are; to see with fresh eyes how tricky some life situations can be and that most teens are in the process of either letting them define who they are/what they can do or are using them to rise up and do what they determine what they think is important.
This isn't great literature, but it does all of the above. It also means that I still will be one of those adults who constantly remind kids to focus on their education and that help is right here; it just also means that while I'm doing all of that (which is often exhausting and frustrating), I will do my best to remember that bildungsroman is all-consuming and is usually ugly.
I also really love that the POV is a 1st generation Cuban immigrant living in Queens, surrounded by strong women, involved with a boy who is only a small part of the story and is not part of the solution. I also love how there are multiple solutions to Piddy's problem, and that she thinks about the pros/cons of them in order to make her own decision.
I've been thinking a lot about my frustration with my teen students--why don't they care about x? Why does it take them so long to do y? All of this is classroom stuff, of course, and those questions make me realize that I am very firmly AN ADULT and that I quite often lose touch with adolescent perspectives. In that sense, this was the perfect book for me to read.
I read YA because it helps me... to remember the turmoil of adolescence; to feel again that sense of being totally stuck and alone even when adults are saying they can/want to help you; to realize that what to adults seem like small problems with simple solutions are might actually be life-changing situations that are rife with decisions that are slowly/quickly helping you take steps toward who you are; to see with fresh eyes how tricky some life situations can be and that most teens are in the process of either letting them define who they are/what they can do or are using them to rise up and do what they determine what they think is important.
This isn't great literature, but it does all of the above. It also means that I still will be one of those adults who constantly remind kids to focus on their education and that help is right here; it just also means that while I'm doing all of that (which is often exhausting and frustrating), I will do my best to remember that bildungsroman is all-consuming and is usually ugly.
I also really love that the POV is a 1st generation Cuban immigrant living in Queens, surrounded by strong women, involved with a boy who is only a small part of the story and is not part of the solution. I also love how there are multiple solutions to Piddy's problem, and that she thinks about the pros/cons of them in order to make her own decision.