Private School Punk($16.99Value)

Description

THE STORY London in the year 1976, a place and a time desperate for change. Chris, a 17 year old expat American Air Force brat is shoved into the alien world of a British private (public) school. A gifted classical cellist, Chris struggles to reconcile the focus on form, control and technique with being increasingly drawn into the vortex of raw, rebellious energy that is the punk movement. It allows him to let out pain that has been held in too long. He meets Johnny Rotten and is inspired to start his own band. When Chris is drawn into a deadly conflict with an abusive teacher, his only weapon is his music. He used to think music changed nothing, but now he discovers that music changes everything. THE BOOK Includes over 160 black and white illustrations. Also check out the AUDIOBOOK on Audible and the ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK , 16 original songs the tell the story of the (fictitious) band 'Rabble Rousers' and their climb to something less than glory. Available on Bandcamp or on snot-green vinyl from privateschoolpunk.com ADVANCE PRAISE: "Chris Valentine will rip your heart out. Between every line of this novel, the pulsing rhythm of punk rock blasts down the streets of London. This is a story of the power of art and the courage of one person to wield that power so that justice is won." KATHI APPELT National Book Award Finalist. “Private School Punk is riotous and wise, the writing as sharp as Johnny Rotten’s dead hedgehog hairdo. It’s a mad, punk-drunk pogo dance, hilarious and deeply moving when it counts. It’s also a pitch-perfect musical history, in all its chaotic splendor. I loved it!” TIM WYNNE-JONES Two-time Boston Globe Horn Book Award-winner The Audiobook is now a 2026 SOVAS (Society of Voice Arts and Sciences) Award Nominee for Outstanding Narration - Teen! ADVANCE PRAISE: "Chris Valentine will rip your heart out. Between every line of this novel, the pulsing rhythm of punk rock blasts down the streets of London. This is a story of the power of art and the courage of one person to wield that power so that justice is won." KATHI APPELT National Book Award Finalist. "Private School Punk is riotous and wise, the writing as sharp as Johnny Rotten's dead hedgehog hairdo. It's a mad, punk-drunk pogo dance, hilarious and deeply moving when it counts. It's also a pitch-perfect musical history, in all its chaotic splendor. I loved it!" TIM WYNNE-JONES Two-time Boston Globe Horn Book Award-winner The Audiobook is now a 2026 SOVAS (Society of Voice Arts and Sciences) Award Nominee for Outstanding Narration - Teen! THE PUNK HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE The universe began as an eternal, formless void where nothing was happening on a Saturday night.  If there was a Big Bang, then that was the very first punk act. A rejection of the status quo; a willingness to try something new without worrying about upsetting the neighbors. The mother of all guitar chords - BBBRRAAAAAANGG!! - still echoing down to this day. Yet, since then, no human creative or social movement has begun in just one place or at one time. It is always building on or reacting to what has come before. So it is with punk. The wild flowering of music and action that burned so brightly in the U.K. in 1976 and 1977 was just one episode in a seething continuum of musical and social history.  Let me give a tiny example. 1976 Punks would spit at the band to show that audience and performer were both equal.  Was this their invention? Or did it go back to June 14th 1381, a particularly hot London day? The Peasant's Revolt was in full swing. Crowds marched on London to complain about unfair taxes and harsh conditions. The leader of the revolt, Wat Tyler, was granted audience to speak to King Richard II. He demanded a flagon of water to wet his dry mouth. He proceeded to spit the water contemptuously near the king (There is no historical record as to whether he was pogoing at the same time). What is recorded, is that Tyler was summarily decapitated.  Was Wat Tyler the first punk?  Or was he just one more Johnny Rotten in a long line through history, who paid a heavy price for calling out the world around them? Wat's head ended up at the southern gatehouse of London Bridge, on top of a twenty-foot pike, dipped in tar and boiled to preserve it against the wind and rain, so as to remind the peasants of their place. Nearly 600 years later, on June 7th 1976, the Sex Pistols would boat down that same river, bringing the angry sounds of Anarchy in the UK to the Houses of Parliament that towered above them. No heads rolled that day, though the police forced their boat to dock and arrested everyone they could get their hands on. The punk rock that emerged in the mid-1970s was a raw response to mainstream music and societal norms. Initially gaining traction in both New York and London, punk rejected the polished, extravagant rock music of the era in favor of fast, aggressive, and stripped-down sounds. Bands like the Ramones, Sex Pist