Rod's life is going well until his rich, prankster cousin, Blake, moves in for three months--moving into his room and moving in on his girlfriend and band--ruining everything.

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...

"Soho, London, 1967. Folk-rock-psychedelic quartet Utopia Avenue is formed. Guitarist Jasper de Zoet, a shy, half-Dutch public-school musical prodigy, was hearing voices long before he dropped acid. Keyboardist Elf Holloway must defy the prejudices of her bank manager father, her housewife mother, and her age to forge her own career. Bassist Dean Moss cannot, will not, spend his life on the factory floor like everyone else in Gravesend. Band manager...

From the days she banged her rattle in the crib, Violet has been looking for friends to share her love of music.

Illustrations and simple, rhyming text invite the reader to try various instruments and join a band.

"The band is assembled and the band director is ready to tell you all about the instruments, but an enthusiastic little drummer girl keeps interrupting"--

When her band's drummer and fellow guitarist start dating, life gets awkward for eighth-grader Bina, a talented musician and songwriter, whose discomfort only multiplies when her best friend Austin develops a crush on her.

Keyboardist Jasmine, age eight, tries to convince her bandmates, Maggie, Becca, and Scarlet, to prove themselves in a Battle of the Bands competition, despite their poor equipment.

Just before a big show, Jasmine breaks her arm causing the Major Eights to ask Leslie to stand in, but Jasmine worries the band will like Leslie better.

The fame the Major Eights experience after the Battle of the Bands competition goes to Scarlet's head and she signs up for the school's talent show as a solo artist.