The First Rule of Punk

Roller Girl meets School of Rock in this illustrated middle-grade novel about identity, friendship, and riot-grrrl power by librarian and debut author Celia C. Perez. There are no shortcuts to surviving your first day at a new school - you can’t fix it with duct tape like you would your Chuck Taylors. On Day One, twelve-year-old Malú inadvertently upsets Posada Middle School’s queen bee, violates the school’s dress code with her punk-rock look, and disappoints her college-professor mum in the process. Her dad, who now lives a thousand miles away, says things will get better as long as she remembers the first rule of punk: be yourself. The real Malú loves rock music, skateboarding, zines, and Soyrizo (hold the cilantro, please). And when she assembles a group of like-minded misfits at school and starts a band, Malú finally begins to feel at home. She’ll do anything to preserve this, which includes standing up to an anti-punk school administration to fight for her right to express herself!