Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your A** by Meg Medina

We all have known someone like Yaqui Delgado.  We may never know what we have done to attract her attention.  We might actually have done nothing that merits her attention.  But we have it.  And the attention is something we would rather not have.

Sometimes it happens in elementary school, but most often it occurs in middle school and high school. In middle school, it was because I went to the same bathroom every day between the last period of the day and dismissal so I wouldn't have to use the restroom while I was on the bus ride home.  In high school it was because I shared a birthday with a boy that I had known since I was a small child.

While my experience was not as violent as Piddy's experience, nor was social media a threat, reading Meg Medina's book sent me back to middle and high school and caused me to remember what it was like to be bullied. Taunted.  Threatened. Helpless.  Frightened.

Piddy is new to Daniel Jones High School, and she finds it is difficult to fit in.  She is becoming a woman, and a girl at her new high school decides that she wants to make Piddy's life a misery.

Anyone who has ever been bullied - or has bullied anyone - needs to read this book.  Even though we may be "grown up." it never hurts to be reminded what it is like to be bullied.  It reminds us that we need to stand up to bullies and not let them win.

*This book is a 2015-2016 Rosie book.

The Other Boleyn Girl - Phillipa Gregory

"Henry the VIII, I am, I am.  I got married to the widow next door.  She's been married seven times before. And everyone loves Henry.  Henry the VIII I am."  Herman's Hermits







The time is spring 1521.  The Boleyn girls have just returned from France and are being introduced at the English court of Henry Tudor, King of England.  There is much at stake.  Henry is married to his deceased brother's wife, Katherine, and thus far, she has been unable to provide the King of England with a son and heir.

Thus sets the stage for a revolution of sorts.  Both Boleyn girls, Anne and Mary, are beautiful young ladies.  Anne is dark, and Mary is fair-skinned and light.  Both have been educated in France, but Anne is trilingual, well read, and highly intelligent.  The girls' father and uncle want power, and they believe one way to achieve that power is to place one or both of the Boleyn girls under the nose of the king.  If either girl can entice the king to cast off his wife and marry her, then the Boleyn-Howard family will be the most powerful family in the land.

This book is rich with details of what a life at court would be like in the 16th century.  Women were used as bait for men to get the power and lands they wanted.  Life at court was never dull, but everyone was expected to make the king happy - no matter the cost.

Mary Boleyn takes center stage in the book and tells her story.  As the Boleyn girl who was cast aside, she is able to see what life might be like outside of court as a "nobody."

I know the historical aspects of this story.  I know that a great monarch will come in the late 16th century.  This great monarch will change the course of history forever.  This is part of her story as well.

If you like history and are especially intrigued by the life and wives of Henry the VIII, then you will enjoy this book.  It is not completely historically accurate, but it isn't terribly off course.  Now I am off to play some tennis - a sport that Henry dearly loved.


  Cheerio!