The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez

LD: Who are the zine and cartoon creators that influenced your work in The First Rule of Punk?ĬP: I’ve been making and reading zines for a long time, so a lot of the influence came from my own experiences as a zine maker and a zine reader. Having her express herself through zines and music made perfect sense. I wanted her to have creative ways to express herself, and I wanted readers to be able to get into her mind and learn more about her. Zines have always been a part of punk, so it was a natural fit. Malú is a girl who gets a lot of her sense of identity from her dad and their shared connection to music, specifically punk music. What inspired you to bring all of these elements together?Ĭelia Pérez: Those are some of my favorite things in the world, too, so it was it wasn’t especially difficult figuring out how to weave them all into this story. Laura Delaney: My favorite things in the world are music and story, and The First Rule of Punk combines music, story, and cartoons in a way that I love. Here, Delaney and Pérez discuss the author’s passion for art, music, and writing and how she worked these themes into Malú’s story. Her work has been included in El Andar, The Horn Book Magazine, Latina, Venus Zine, and elsewhere, and in 2014 she served on the Pura Belpré Award Committee. She loves punk music and making her own zines, themes that feature prominently in her book.

Pérez is a second-generation Cuban-Mexican-American who grew up in Miami and currently works as a community college librarian in Chicago.

I loved this blend of music, art, and family.” “When she lands at Posada Middle School, she finds herself on the outside again and takes on the school’s culture by starting her own punk band.

“Malú (short for María Louisa) straddles two worlds: punk music and record stores on her dad’s side, and academic achievement and Mexican culture on her mother’s side,” said Laura Delaney of Rediscovered Books in Boise, Idaho, who was a member of the panel that selected the book for Indies Introduce. Pérez is the author of The First Rule of Punk (Viking Books for Young Readers), a debut middle-grade novel selected for the Summer/Fall 2017 Indies Introduce program and an Autumn 2017 Kids’ Indie Next List pick.

The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez