Yeny and the Children for Peace Read Online Free PDF

was sitting on a low wall with a few other scruffy-looking kids. They were laughing, and that made Yeny madder still.
Dumb city kids
, she thought. Joaquin was terrible, and it seemed as if Juan didn’t care enough about peace to help organize the carnival. Yeny would never understand city kids.
    Joaquin tossed another pebble at her. She clenched her fists and marched over to him. Juan could do whatever he liked, but she wasn’t going to let these boys bully
her
. She wished she had something to throw at them, to knock them off that wall and to knock those silly grins off their faces. But just as she spotted a stone on the street, Juan called out, “Hey!”
    Yeny turned, and the boys looked up. Juan seemed tiny standing there in the middle of the road, tugging on his backpack straps and shifting from one foot to the other. “What are you doing next Saturday night?” he asked, his voice a little squeaky. “There’s a party on the soccer field, and you’re invited.”
    Yeny stared at him. Her cousin was braver than she had thought, and the looks on the boys’ faces made her want to laugh. As laughter bubbled up inside, she didn’t feel so mad anymore. In fact, she felt a little embarrassed. She’d spent the whole day thinking about peace and friendship, and now she’d almost got into a fight.
    She smiled at Juan, and he smiled back, but he didn’t come any closer.

    â€œThe party’s going to be great,” she told the boys, who looked suspicious. “There’ll be games, and food, and maybe a dancing contest with prizes and stuff.”
    Joaquin hesitated, but then he jumped off the wall and landed in front of her. “I’m not going to any stupid girl’s party, Banana Girl.”
    Yeny shrugged. “Suit yourself,” she said. “Let’s go, Juan.”
    They headed home. And the annoying boys stayed where they were, joking and snickering about something that had nothing to do with Yeny.
That
at least was a relief.
    That evening, Yeny’s parents and Aunt Nelly were out late, helping a neighbor, and Yeny didn’t have a chance to talk to them about the Peace Carnival.
    Long after she fell asleep, she awoke with a start beside Elena on their mattress on the floor. Her chest was tight, as if she’d been running, and her dream came rushing back: Joaquin had gathered her whole class in the schoolyard and given them big armfuls of bananas, and he had told everyone that if they didn’t throw their bananas at her, he would make them sorry. “Ready,” he said. “Aim . . .”
    Yeny woke up just before he called out,
Fire!

    It took a long time for Yeny to get back to sleep, but she did, and when she woke up, she knew what she had to do.
    When Mamá pulled back the curtain around her bed and kissed her good morning, Yeny pulled on her clothes and gathered her thoughts. At breakfast, she would talk to the adults.
    â€œPapá, will you be busy on Saturday morning?” she asked, as soon as she came to the table. She stood next to him. Mamá was feeding Carlitos, and Aunt Nelly kept cooking. Juan, Elena, Sylvia, and Rosa were hurrying through their
arroz con frijoles
, the thick, meaty-tasting beans and rice that they often ate for breakfast. Most of the
plantano
, plantains, were already gone, and Yeny glanced back at her aunt to see if she was making any more. She was happy to see the frying pan full of crisp, sizzling slices.
    Yeny turned to her father, who was frowning at her question about the weekend. Of course, Yeny already knew that her father would be busy on Saturday. No matter what, every day, he went out to look for work. Most days, a few people at the market paid him to unload fruits and vegetables from supply trucks early in the morning. (Once she had gone along with him to see the rows of stalls with piles of every imaginable kind of fruit. Later in the day, Papá said, the aisles between the