A Pura Belpre Author Honor Book
A ALSC Notable Children's Book
A Tomas Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award Winner
An ABA Indies Introduce Title
A Kids' Indie Next List Pick
An E.B. White Read-Aloud Middle Reader Award Finalist
A Boston Globe-Horn Book Fiction and Poetry Honor Book
An Amelia Bloomer List Book
A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year
A Junior Library Guild Selection
A Publishers Weekly Flying Start
An NPR Best Book
A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction
A School Library Journal Best Book
A Horn Book Fanfare Selection
A Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature Best Book
An NYPL Best Books for Kids
A Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best Book
An Evanston Public Library 101 Great Books for Kids
A Seattle Public Library Top 10 Children's Chapter Book
A UPenn Graduate School of Education Best Book
A Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Nominee
A Sunshine State Young Readers Award Nominee
A Great Lakes, Great Reads Award Winner
A Nerdy Book Award Winner
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 Malu (Maria 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 Malu 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, Malu 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!
Age Range: 9-12 | Grade Level: 4-7 | Lexile Measure: 670L