Sydney Vicious Talcott is happy to be named after the infamous singer and to live up to the punk credo, but that was easier in New York than it is now in Beaver Dam, North Carolina. Her purple hair, Doc Martens, and outspoken sensibilities become an immediate target, and Sydney longs for her former life and deceased musician father. She finds solace in two new bookish friends and the beauty of the Appalachians, and when that environment is threatened by plans for a hazardous asphalt plant, Sydney decides to speak against it. The powers that be refuse to take her seriously, but with some inspiration from the punk world (including interspersed letters from her favorite female singer) and a few surprising allies, Sydney sparks a movement to combat the unfeeling authorities. Sydney makes for a terrific and inspiring protagonist, confident in many aspects but also open to expanding her worldview along the way, and music fans and budding activists will find much to learn and love here. A rousing affirmation of both personal and community power.

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.)