First Rule of Punk by Celia Perez
The Hook:
What’s punk rock? It is more than loud music, spiked hair, and ripped clothing. It is a radical, original, in-your-face attitude and the first rule is…. Be Yourself.
12-year-old Malu—short for Maria Luisa—and her mom are moving to a new town without their dad and Malu will be attending a new school. Malu’s mom is divorcing her dad. Malu is not happy. She loves her rock-n-roll dad AND she loves the record store where he works. Afterall, her dad is the one who introduced her to punk rock music.
But Malu IS determined to be herself and that means NOT to blend in with the crowd. She is going to wear her ripped up clothes and spiky jewelry. She is going to shave one side of her hair if she wants to, and she will play her loud punk rock music and not worry about what people say about her.
Will this new school accept her the way she is? Will her mom? Malu cannot bring herself to tell her mom that her passion for punk is not just a rebellious phase-it is who she is.
Things gets even more complicated when she quickly makes an enemy of mean girl Selena who labels her a coconut—brown on the outside, white on the inside—and warns her not to fall in with the class “weirdo-s.” True to Malu’s style though, she DOES befriend the school outcasts and enlists them to form a band. This book reminds us that people are at their best when they are not forced into neat, tidy boxes.
This book is in our library. It is also in Sora and Axis 360 as an eBook. It is 7 AR points.
My Thoughts and Recommendations (Careful! There Could Be Spoilers):
Love this riot girl, Malu! She is not afraid to be herself and she does not worry about what others say about her. She stands up for the outcasts and herself. Honestly, she is the girl I wish I had been back in middle school and readers will be encouraged and inspired by her attitude!
Malu likes to make “zines” --little collages made from magazines of pictures and words that inspire her and throughout the book these zines are shown which I think readers will enjoy.
Malu’s mom would rather her be more “senorita” than punk and I believe many of our readers will relate to tensions with parents on how they want to present themselves. This is a self-discovery, coming of age novel that will be a big hit with middle schoolers. 4.8 stars.
