The First Rule of Punk is Celia C. Pérez’s 2017 debut YA novel. It was a 2018 Pura Belpré Author Honor Book, a 2018 ALSC Notable Children’s Book, and a 2018 Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award Winner. Pérez, as a long-time punk zine author and Mexican Cuban woman, drew from her adoration of “outsiders” and “weirdos” to craft her first novel. Pérez then penned her second YA novel, Strange Birds: A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers, in 2019.

Content Warning: A character in the novel uses the term “coconut(s)” as a disparaging term for individuals with Mexican heritage who are perceived as conforming to white or mainstream society. The protagonist names her band “the Co-Co’s” as a subversion of this term. This guide encases the term in quotation marks throughout.

Plot Summary

The book’s protagonist, 12-year-old María Luisa O’Neill-Morales, who goes by Malú, is about to move with her mom from Gainesville, Florida to Chicago, in order for her mom to take a teaching position in the latter city. Malú’s mom is Mexican American, and her dad is white. Her father owns Spins & Needles, a record shop, and it’s through him that Malú inherits her love of music, and especially punk rock.

Malú is not looking forward to the move, or starting seventh grade at José Guadalupe Posada Middle School. Her first days in Chicago are fraught with anxiety, as she attempts to adjust to life in a new city and being away from her dad. Malú’s mom, whom Malú has nicknamed “SuperMexican,” wants Malú to embrace her Mexican heritage and does not support Malú’s punk aesthetic. Prior to school starting, the two go to Calaca Coffee, a nearby café and consistent setting in the novel. The shop is owned by Mr. and Mrs. Hidalgo; their son, José, who goes by Joe, will be a classmate of Malú’s. Further, Oralia Bernal, Mrs. Hidalgo’s mother, is also Malú and her mother’s neighbor.

Malú navigates the social mores of middle school, where she encounters her chief antagonist, Selena Ramirez, a popular girl who is part of the Candy Crew; the clique is identified by the candy necklaces they wear. Malú gets a dress-code violation on her first day for wearing copious amounts of eyeliner; her punk aesthetic is a consistent form of rebellion throughout the book. With time, she meets Joe, Benny, and Ellie—the three classmates with whom she will eventually form a band, the Co-Co’s. The band auditions for the middle school’s annual Fall Fiesta; while the audition is supposed to merely be cursory, the Co-Co’s are left off the list of performing acts.

This omission elicits a response from Malú in the form of planning and implementing an anti-talent show, which the band decides to call the Alterna-Fiesta. The Co-Co’s continue to practice—Malú has never sung in front of anyone before, and Ellie has never played the drums prior to joining the band—while Malú continues to struggle with homesickness and her mom’s urgings to further embrace her Mexican heritage. Malú and her mother attend a Mexican folk dance class offered by Selena’s mother, where Malú learns of Selena’s own desire to try Irish dancing—a desire disallowed by her mom.

Through both Mrs. Hidalgo and Oralia, Malú, as she matures, begins to learn how to synthesize her Mexican heritage with her punk identity. The band decides to do a punk cover of a song by Latina singer Lola Beltrán, transforming the tune from mournful to fast-paced and loud. When Selena finds out about the Alterna-Fiesta, which is scheduled for the same night as the Fall Fiesta, she tells Principal Rivera, who attempts to put a stop to the event. Joe and Malú get in a fight, and for a short while, the band breaks up. They reform, however, just days before the Fall Fiesta, and go on to play a searing and well-received rendition of the Beltrán tune. Malú’s dad flies in from Florida for the event, and the book concludes with Malú, her family, and her friends eating tacos from a food truck.