Celia C. Pérez

"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...

How do strangers become friends? Ofelia Castillo is searching for a story. While her friends leave their boring Florida town for summer camps and family vacations, she braces for zero excitement. Lane Disanti would like her whole family to kick rocks. Especially her parents, who sent her to live with her grandmother for the summer while they finalize their divorce. Aster Douglas has one summer to figure out how to be a kid. She's been homeschooled...

After María Luisa O'Neill-Morales moves with her Mexican-American mother to Chicago, she violates her school's dress code with her punk rock aesthetic and spurns the school's most popular girl to start a band with like-minded friends.