Gripping, Entertaining and Relevant--Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass is a Must Read

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina is a riveting story that doesn't let you walk away until the last page is turned. New girl Piddy is the unfortunate target in the cross hairs of high school bully Yaqui. Survival stakes are on the table, so readers can expect raw tension, high school drama, and relatable, real-life ups and downs. You’ll laugh, cry, cringe, mourn and celebrate with each plot turn. Medina writes authentic, believable characters and handles this story of bullying in an absorbing way. She takes us places and forces us to look at things that make some people squirm. But beyond compelling entertainment, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass is also an important piece of modern literature. It could be shelved next to Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak and would also be enjoyed by the same readers of Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A. S. King.

We all know bullying is a hot button right now. The subject gets center stage on the talk show circuit, in the news and in schools across America. I applaud leaders for no longer brushing bullying aside as a rite of teenage passage. And I applaud Medina for not handling the topic in a preachy way, but instead as an experience from the point of view of the mark. It’s a book that will make readers think long after the story is over.

Every student in every grade at my daughter’s school had to read Dear Bully as one of their summer reading assignments. Ninth graders at my son’s school read Speak. It won’t be long until teachers and librarians start recommending Medina’s work. In the meantime with such an inviting title, teens will gladly pick up a copy of Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass without ever being told to do so.

Jacket flap

"One morning before school, some girl tells Piddy Sanchez that Yaqui Delgado hates her and wants to kick her ass. Piddy doesn’t even know who Yaqui is, never mind what she’s done to piss her off. Word is that Yaqui thinks Piddy is stuck-up, shakes her stuff when she walks, and isn’t Latin enough with her white skin, good grades, and no accent. And Yaqui isn’t kidding around, so Piddy better watch her back. At first Piddy is more concerned with trying to find out more about the father she’s never met and how to balance honors courses with her weekend job at the neighborhood hair salon. But as the harassment escalates, avoiding Yaqui and her gang starts to take over Piddy’s life. Is there any way for Piddy to survive without closing herself off or running away? In an all-too-realistic novel, Meg Medina portrays a sympathetic heroine who is forced to decide who she really is."

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick (March 26, 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0763658596
• ISBN-13: 978-0763658595

If you'd like to read more books featuring diversity in YA, please visit the Diversity in YA blog. 

Thirteen Fast Facts With Jay Asher

After a brief chat with Jay Asher at the SCBWI summer conference, I learned thirteen fast-facts including details on his next project:

13. We all know THIRTEEN REASONS WHY is being made into a movie, but I didn't know the deal happened because Selena Gomez pursued it;

12. Although roles for the film have not yet been cast, Gomez will play Hannah;

11. Asher thinks Gomez is very cool to work with;

10. Asher did not write the screen play, but he served on the committee to interview screenwriters;

9. Asher's next project is called THE FUTURE OF US;
8. He co-wrote THE FUTURE OF US with Carolyn Mackler. Mackler is the author of the Printz award winning book THE EARTH MY BUTT AND OTHER BIG ROUND THINGS.

I interrupt this count-down for a brief Interviewer Intrusion:With this dream-team, THE FUTURE OF US has to be amazing!

7. I asked if the book was written in a similar fashion to DASH AND LILY'S BOOK OF DARES. Asher said that although they took turns writing chapters, they also dug into one another’s work, edited and even revamped chapters;

6. Asher has been a regular at the SCBWI conference for years. Thirteen Reasons Why is no comedy, but according to Lin Oliver, Jay Asher is one hilarious guy; in fact he was the regular winner of the annual joke contest held during the summer conference. It was during one of these SCBWI conferences prior to Asher getting published when he briefly met Carolyn Mackler (he says he was a big fan). After he was published, Asher blurbed Mackler's name and something regarding TANGLED (Mackler's last novel)...hmmm, I met Asher at a conference...I'm blurbing his book...this must mean that Jay Asher and I have a co-authored book in our future!

5. After seeing what Asher wrote, Mackler contacted Asher and initiated the idea to co-write a book. Asher agreed and they began sending chapters back and forth to create THE FUTURE OF US;

4. They met "live" for the first time at the 2010 SCBWI summer conference where they dressed for the theme evening (Along with Rachel Vail) as the ____ Bo Peeps (you'll have to fill in the blank with your imagination);

3. THE FUTURE OF US is set in 1996. When two teens take their AOL disc and toss it into their computer, the 2011 internet page of Facebook pops up hence releasing a crystal ball into the future;

2. THE FUTURE OF US releases in November, 2011;

1. THE FUTURE OF US has already been optioned for a movie deal.

A Quick Quirky Question for Holly Schindler author of PLAYING HURT

KIM: Welcome Holly Schindler. Thank you for visiting my blog to answer one quick quirky question . If you were to have a FREAKY FRIDAY switcharoo moment that lasted just for a day, would it be with your mother, your Pekingese, or with one of your characters (and if so, which character)?

HOLLY:  My knee-jerk reaction is to say my Peke, Jake. That dog should truly be crowned World’s Most Spoiled. He gets the steak while we eat the hamburger. And he’s truly the most loved little thing on the planet. I’m sure everybody thinks that of their animals, though...

If I could switch places with one of my characters, I’d switch with Brandon , Chelsea ’s brother in PLAYING HURT. 

In the first place, I really love the way that Brandon just is who he is…He’s probably the most open of any of my characters. There’s such a joy about him, as he dances onstage in Pike’s to his music. 

… Brandon also never sits on anything, lets anything fester inside. He speaks his mind. He lets Chelsea know exactly what he thinks—when he suspects she’s hurt during her last game, or when he suspects she’s having a love affair with Clint.  

           

He’s also really trustworthy—the kind of person Chelsea knows she can rely on. He’s the person she reaches out to, after Gabe’s learned the truth about Clint and has stormed out of their hotel room. And even though Brandon doesn’t like how Chelsea ’s handled Gabe, he does rush to The Carlyle to help her out...

In a lot of respects, Brandon ’s the kind of person everyone strives to be: honest, dependable, totally unashamed to put himself out there.

So, yeah— Brandon . If I could be anybody, I think I’d be him.

PLAYING HURT Jacket Copy:

Star basketball player Chelsea “Nitro” Keyes had the promise of a full ride to college—and everyone’s admiration in her hometown. But everything changed senior year, when she took a horrible fall during a game. Now a metal plate holds her together and she feels like a stranger in her own family.

As a graduation present, Chelsea ’s dad springs for a three-week summer “boot camp” program at a northern Minnesota lake resort. There, she’s immediately drawn to her trainer, Clint, a nineteen-year-old ex-hockey player who’s haunted by his own traumatic past. As they grow close, Chelsea is torn between her feelings for Clint and her loyalty to her devoted boyfriend back home. Will an unexpected romance just end up causing Chelsea and Clint more pain—or finally heal their heartbreak?

A BLUE SO DARK Jacket Copy:

Fifteen-year-old Aura Ambrose has been hiding a secret. Her mother, a talented artist and art teacher, is slowly being consumed by schizophrenia, and Aura has been her sole caretaker ever since Aura’s dad left them. Convinced that “creative” equals crazy, Aura shuns her own artistic talent. But as her mother sinks deeper into the darkness of mental illness, the hunger for a creative outlet draws Aura toward the depths of her imagination. Just as desperation threatens to swallow her whole, Aura discovers that art, love, and family are profoundly linked—and together may offer an escape from her fears.

BOOK REVIEW: Playing Hurt

Playing Hurt by Holly Schindler will be this summer's YA go-to romance novel.

When broken basketball star, Chelsea, is forced into a Minnesota Lakes boot camp, she discovers her trainer, Clint, has some wounds of his own. The story is packed with enough heat and tension to ignite the hormones, but can greater healing come about? Author Holly Schindler answers this question in her spicy YA novel,  Playing Hurt (Flux, March 2011).  Playing Hurt is not for the feint of heart reader, meaning it's not for the tween/teen just leaving their middle grade reader in search of a juicier read. It's an older YA novel that promises sexual tension.

Schindler has a smooth writing style and can turn a phrase in a clever way. Although I would have preferred that the author use only half the metaphors and similes, I couldn't help but love when I read certain hyperboles like, [we were] "so close our eye lashes almost tangled." Schindler did a fantastic job revving up tension. The summer romance between Chelsea and Clint is so steamy that Playing Hurt could easily become this decade's version of Dirty Dancing.


ISBN-10: 9780738722870


ISBN-13: 978-0738722870

Playing Hurt, Flux (March 2011) Available for $9.99 through independent book sellers, Barnes & Noble, Amazon

DASH AND LILY'S BOOK OF DARES

A YA book review by Kim Tomsic

Sixteen-year-old Dash and Lily find themselves parent-less (or parent-free depending on the perspective)in their hometown of New York City during the Christmas/New Year school break. The teens have never met, but when their worlds collide, they communicate with notes and a series of outlandish cached dares.    Being bibliophiles, they toss around crazy vocab words like quiescent, epigynous, and lascivious, but you can trust the book is not crude, but rather sweet.   Dash's favorite word is a great description for this book-- 

fanciful 1. marked by fancy or unrestrained imagination rather than by reason and experience. 

There are many fun moments of unrestrained imagination in this adventure-packed parade of dares.  I did not enjoy the shout-outs to the many books the character's read (nods would have been fine if not so labored in description) but I loved the faux-Pixar movie, Lily's family, Dash and Lily's personality and notes, the caching, the unexpected twists, and of course the Crimson Alert. 

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohen and David Levithan (also co-authors of Nick and Norah's Infinite Play List) is a YA book appropriate for readers in 9th grade and up.  I give it 3.5 lollipops out of five (and will buy a few copies to give as gifts the next time the holidays roll around).  Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers (October 26, 2010)  $16.99.

ISBN-10: 0375866590

ISBN-13: 978-0375866593
Available at Dash and Lily's favorite book store:  The Strand
or mine:  Boulder Book Store, Tattered Cover, Barnes and Noble, or Borders

I Can't Wait to Get Ditched!

Yes! It's true...I can't wait to get Ditched! Ditched is Robin Mellom's debut YA novel being published by Disney Hyperion (editor Christian Trimmer) with a release date set in 2012. It's about a high school girl who wakes up in a ditch the morning after her prom. She can't remember the past 12 hours, what happened to her prom date, and how she ended up with a tattoo (of a punk Tinkerbell!). If I can base the future of a book on the tone of a blog and a crazy premise, Ditched promises to be energetic, funny, and wildly entertaining. Great job Robin!

p.s. Publisher's Marketplace calls it THE HANGOVER for teens