Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass: The Graphic Novel

Newbery Medalist Meg Medina returns to her powerful YA novel about school bullying with a dynamic graphic-novel edition adapted and illustrated by Mel Valentine Vargas.

It’s the beginning of sophomore year, and Piedad “Piddy” Sanchez is having a hard time adjusting to her new high school. Things don’t get any easier when Piddy learns 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. Rumor has it that Yaqui thinks Piddy is stuck-up, shakes her stuff when she walks, and isn’t Latina 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 learning about the father she’s never met, navigating her rocky relationship with her mom, and staying in touch with her best friend, Mitzi. But when the harassment escalates, avoiding Yaqui and her gang takes over Piddy’s life. Is there any way for Piddy to survive without closing herself off from those who care about her—or running away? More relevant than ever a decade after its initial publication, Mel Valentine Vargas’s graphic novel adaptation of Meg Medina’s ultimately empowering story is poised to be discovered by a new generation of readers.

Vargas adapts Medina’s Pura Belpré Award winner into graphic-novel form. . . . This graphic adaptation is a fast-paced page-turner. Vargas keeps the text to a minimum and communicates much of Piddy’s inner turmoil wordlessly, proving the effectiveness of this format. . . . A decade on, as relevant as ever and likely to capture the hearts of even more readers.
—Kirkus Reviews

A minimalist color palette consisting of cornflower blue, black, white, and grays reflects the weight and solemnity of Piddy’s difficulties while also softening some of the severity of her experiences. . . . A carefully and skillfully ­approached, modernized adaptation that is sure to introduce Piddy and provide understanding to a new crop of teen readers.
—School Library Journal

Ten years after its original publication, Medina’s award-winning story (BCCB 03/13) gets the graphic novel treatment, bringing new depth to a teen girl’s efforts to navigate adolescence in the face of persistent bullying. . . . An essential addition to young adult and graphic novel shelves alike, this version will get this compelling story of resilience into the hands of a whole new cohort of adolescent fans.
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

In recognition of the 10-year anniversary of Meg Medina's Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, Mel Valentine Vargas has adapted the Pura Belpré Award-winner into an inventive, compelling graphic novel. Vargas creates a new lens through which to view Piedad "Piddy" Sanchez's story by using sparse dialogue and highly emotive, limited-palette illustrations. . . a stirring account of school bullying that remains pertinent a decade after Medina's original release. By offering the story in the graphic novel format, Vargas makes Piddy a superhero as well as a protagonist who can teach bully victims that they can be the superheroes of their own stories.
—Shelf Awareness

Award-winning Medina’s Pura Belpré Honor Book gets the graphic treatment in this straightforward adaptation. . . . Vargas’ gray scale and soft blue artwork utilizes body language and facial expression to convey some of the emotional depth of the source material.
—Booklist

Originally published as a YA prose novel, the graphic novel adaptation of Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass brings a new dimension to the much-lauded story of Piddy Sanchez as she deals with extreme bullying at her new high school. . . Piddy's story is just as relevant as ever, and it's really special to see her world brought to visual life in this graphic novel adaptation.
—The Popverse

Meg Medina is the author of the Newbery Medal–winning Merci Suárez Changes Gears and its sequels, Merci Suárez Can’t Dance and Merci Suárez Plays It Cool, as well as the young adult novels Burn Baby Burn and the Pura Belpré Award–winning Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass. She is also the author of several award-winning picture books. The daughter of Cuban immigrants, Meg Medina lives in Richmond, Virginia.

Mel Valentine Vargas is a Queer Cuban-American graphic novelist based in Chicago. They hope to draw the kind of illustrations that their younger self, and others like them, could have seen to feel less alone. Mel Valentine Vargas loves singing in Spanish, playing farming video games, and eating lots of gyoza with their friends.

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