Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little

It wasn't as if Moxy Maxwell hadn't tried to do her summer reading. She and Stuart Little had been inseparable all summer, like best friends. If Stuart Little wasn't in her backpack, it was in her lap . . . or holding up the coffee table . . . or getting splashed when Moxy went swimming. But now it's the end of August the day before fourth grade. And if Moxy doesn't read all of Stuart Little immediately, there are going to be "consequences."

It may look like Moxy is doing nothing, but actually she is very busy with a zillion highly crucial things like cleaning up her room (sort of) and training her dog and taking a much-needed rest in the hammock. Just look at the pictures her twin brother Mark takes to document it all they're scattered throughout and you'll see why it's so difficult to make time for a book about a mouse.

Of course our heroine does manage to finish her book, falling so in love with it that she finds herself reading under the covers with a flashlight, late in...

Pat LeachCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information. - School Library Journal

Gr 2-4
How many ways can a soon-to-be fourth grader find to avoid reading Stuart Little ? It's the one book that Moxy Maxwell has to read over the summer. Her remarkable imagination, coupled with stubbornness, gets her to the night before school starts. She's kept the book with her, but just couldn't bring herself to dig in. It's not that she doesn't like to read-she just despises being told what to read. It may be no surprise that when she finally picks the book up, she loves it. Gifford's depiction of an overly exuberant nine-year-old may remind some readers of Lois Lowry's Gooney Bird Greene (Houghton, 2002). Moxy is funny, and most readers will empathize with her avoiding something simply because it's required. One might wish for a little more depth from Moxy, more moderation of her self-centeredness, and, after a few chapters, her aevoidance tactics grow a tad stale. But the photographs-touted as having been taken by her twin brother-are fresh. (He read Stuart Little the first day of summer vacation.) Moxy's sarcastic captions for them seize the tone of her day. A dryly observant narration, clever chapter titles, and the spot-on illustrations provide added lift to the story.

Peggy Gifford's original plan was to become a famous (but really nice) actress. But after touring Ohio as Winnie-the-Pooh, she decided to become a writer instead. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writer's Workshop, and her work has appeared in the Iowa Review, the Antioch Review, and women's magazines like Redbook. This is her first novel for children. She lives in New York, New York and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Valorie Fisher is the author-illustrator of How High Can a Dinosaur Count?, which recevied two starred reviews, among other titles. Her first two picture books, My Big Brother and My Big SisterÑboth Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award winnersÑwere, like Moxy Maxwell, illustrated with photographs. She lives in Cornwall, Connecticut.