The First Rule of Punk
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4.2 • 37 Ratings
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
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 by award-winning author Celia C. Pérez are featured throughout.
"Malú rocks!"
—Victoria Jamieson, author and illustrator of the New York Times bestselling and Newbery Honor-winning Roller Girl
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After Mar a Luisa O'Neill-Morales Mal for short and her divorced mother move from Florida to Chicago, the 12-year-old struggles with having her music-loving father so far away and with living up to a mother she has nicknamed SuperMexican. "Admit it, Mom," Mal says during one of their squabbles. "I'm just your weird, unladylike, sloppy-Spanish-speaking, half-Mexican kid." Mal takes solace in punk music and in creating handmade zines, which appear throughout; she also begins to make friends, forming a band the Co-Co's that blends punk and Mexican music. (It also reclaims the slur "coconut," which one of Mal 's classmates calls her.) P rez's debut is as exuberant as its heroine, who discovers that there's real overlap between her Mexican heritage and the punk ethos she so admires. The relationships between children and parents are handled especially well: Mal chafes at her mother's traditionalism while idolizing her friend Joe's mother, a cafe owner who represents a merging of Mexican and punk cultures in a way that impresses Mal . A rowdy reminder that people are at their best when they aren't forced into neat, tidy boxes. Ages 9 12.)
Customer Reviews
Really Good
I was reading this through a book club, and we had to read a GIANT amount of chapters very Quickly, so I felt more pressured to finish it than to think about it, so if I went back and read it more, I think it would be a Really Great Book! I totally recommend it!
For Brown Weirdos
As a Chicano who got into punk at 12 years old, I really connected to this book. Even some of the conversations Malú had with her mother were very similar to ones I had with my own mom. I highly recommend this book. Even if you’re not that into punk, it’s still a good read.
It was okb
The main character was kinda mean to her mom and it was not really the best book I have read I don’t rly recommend it