Yaqui Delgado Want to Kick Your Ass: First Read

Our newest book, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, has been interesting thus far. When I first started reading, I felt that it was going to be similar to Eleanor & Park, seeing that this has an aspect of high school bullying. However, this is different. Both Eleanor and Piddy are growing up in poor circumstances, however, Piddy is not bullied for this reason. Piddy is being targeted for apparently catching the eye of Yaqui Delgado’s boyfriend. This problem and the question of who Yaqui’s father is have been the main two issues of the story so far. Piddy has never seen her father, and it is clear that she thinks, or more so dreams of him often. When she talks about imagining strangers as her father, it breaks my heart, and I feel terrible for her. This has clearly had a major impact on her. Growing up without a father can have tons of negative effects on a child. I can only imagine how upset she would feel to hear that her father had already been married and her mom had an affair with him.

In Chapter 12, we see Piddy get an argument with her mom and storm off to try and find Lila. It almost seems as though Piddy resents her mom at times. Maybe she was just in the heat of the moment, but there have been other times I thought this as well. She clearly loves her mom, but it seems that her mom is extremely tough on her. This is one difference I also see between Piddy and Eleanor. I think that Piddy has more support from her family in her mom, Lila, and her friend Mitzi. Eleanor had almost no one except Park. These first eighty-eight pages were a pretty entertaining read, and I hope that the story continues to get good!