The First Rule of Punk [Hardcover]

A 2018 Pura Belpré Author Honor Book

The First Rule of Punk is a wry and heartfelt exploration of friendship, finding your place, and learning to rock out like no one’s watching. 

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 (María Luisa, if you want to annoy her) inadvertently upsets Posada Middle School’s queen bee, violates the school’s dress code with her punk rock look, and disappoints her college-professor mom 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!

Black and white illustrations and collage art throughout makeThe First Rule of Punka perfect pick for fans of books like Roller Girl and online magazines like Rookie.A 2018 Pura Belpré Author Honor Book
A 2018 ALSC Notable Children’s Book
A 2018 Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award Winner
A 2017 ABA Indies Introduce Title
A Kids’ Indie Next List Pick
An E.B. White Read-Aloud Middle Reader Award finalist
A 2018 Boston Globe-Horn Book Fiction and Poetry Honor Book
An Amelia Bloomer List Book
CCBC Choices 2018
A 2018 Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year
A Junior Library Guild Selection
Publishers Weekly Flying Start
NPR Best Books of 2017 
Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction lƒ-