Vicious Is My Middle Name

Two years after her father’s death, a can-do punk rock enthusiast moves with her mother from Rochester, N.Y., to Beaver Dam, N.C. Sporting purple Doc Martens and an asymmetrical haircut, outspoken Sydney Vicious Talcott, 13 and white, initially feels out of place but quickly makes friends with two fellow book-loving misfits: Shawn, “the only Black kid in our entire grade,” and Guatemalan American Rita. When a wealthy landowner partners with a corrupt development company to build a potentially harmful asphalt plant near the middle school, and speaking out at a public hearing doesn’t work, Sydney uses the power of punk rock–style DIY—zines, music, and community outreach—to fight back. Though it’s her love of her favorite girl group, Lite Brite, that inspires action, she gradually begins to broaden both her taste in music and her worldview, learning about Appalachian history and culture, and, around a retaliatory immigration raid and other plot elements, recognizing her privilege as a rebel and outcast by choice. Despite one-note villains and underdeveloped plot elements, Sydney’s distinct, often humorous first-person voice (interspersed with inspirational art and letters from Lite Brite’s lead singer) and her celebration of inclusive resistance make this a socially conscious read from Dunn (Global Punk, for adults). Ages 9–12. (Nov.)