Library & Literary Miscellany

Moxy Maxwell Does not Love Stuart Little by Peggy Gifford photographs by Valorie Fisher

In which a brief review is made regarding the book’s merit as children’s literature and in which the book is not compared to Stuart Little.

For the entire summer, Stuart Little (a mere 144 page mouse of a book) has been the albatross around Moxy Maxwell’s neck. Stuart Little was assigned as Moxy’s summer reading. Moxy’s teacher, Mr. Flamingo, plans to quiz the incoming fourth graders over the book’s content on the first day of school (which, incidentally, is tomorrow…nothing like waiting until the last minute).

Fortunately, Moxy does love to read. Unfortunately, Moxy does not love to be told what to read. While her twin brother Mark finished Stuart Little immediately at summer’s glorious beginning, Moxy has left her own reading for summer’s uncelebrated end (although there does happen to be an impending celebration Moxy is hoping to attend…).

Really, though, Moxy has tried. Her copy has gone with her everywhere. It even looks read (being a little worse for the wear due to contact with pool water and lemonade), but the book remains indubitably unread as the final day to complete the assignment begins.

In Moxy’s purview, she’s not not reading it, it’s just that the book is a perfect fit for those in-between moments (of which her mother points out, Moxy has very few). Moxy is a busy nine-year-old with commitments–she keeps quite busy perfecting her part of the eight flower petal synchronized swimming team, training dogs, and cleaning her room—not to mention finding time for constructing brilliant pay-for-college and establish a career path peach growing plans on the side.

The last straw for her mother is the accidental drowning of her prizewinning Dahlias; the last straw for Moxy is facing her mother’s “consequences”–it’s bye-bye to the “Goodbye to Summer Splash” party for Moxy. Instead of a party and cake, it’s Stuart Little and graham crackers for Moxy on the eve of the new school year. At long last (and in the nick of time), Moxy grits her teeth and opens Stuart Little, and she is pleasantly surprised with what she finds inside (much like readers who pick up Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little will be).

Moxy Maxwell Does Not love Stuart Little takes readers right along through the whole of D-Day and through Moxy’s feelings about mandated reading (something which many young readers will easily relate to). Moxy’s story is a quick read—the chapters are short (some being less than one page long) and numerous photographs with captions are interspersed to break up the text. The photographs are ostensibly the result of Mark’s documentation of Moxy’s struggle with Stuart Little, and they support the story’s action.

The concise text and the generous photographs make this a perfect pick for reluctant or struggling readers. Perhaps Moxy would even enjoy reading her book, that is, at least, if you did not force her to do so. While Moxy Maxwell may not start out loving Stuart Little (and in the end she finds out she does), Peggy Gifford and Valorie Fisher have nonetheless written a paean to reading, children’s literature, and perhaps even to the continued joys of reading classics like Stuart Little (although perhaps not so much to required reading). Plus, Moxy’s great energy and big plans may encourage readers to believe in themselves and their own dreams.

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Clementine by Sara Pennypacker. Illus. by Marla Frazee (2006).

Quite a bit can happen in a week. Just ask third grader, Clementine, who is having not so good of a week. For Clementine, the road to the principal’s office or to her parents’ frustration is paved with her good intentions. Frequently, Clementine tries to fix problems that she encounters with her humorous, one-of-a-kind, logical (albeit sometimes dead-wrong ) solutions.

Pennypacker packs her work with really-could-have-happened-in-the-life-of-a-third-grader problems that Clementine must fix–Clementine “helps” her friend remove the glue from her hair by cutting off her friend’s hair and then coloring it with permanent markers (all in the name of being a good friend), she makes sundry trips to the principal’s office for supposedly not paying attention or other incomprehensible (to Clementine’s mind) reason, and she assists her building supervisor father in his efforts to win the Great Pigeon War.

Clementine’s mind and body prefer constant action, moving so fast that others she encounters find it difficult to keep up but that readers will find delightful. Her theory is that she is allergic to sitting still. She’s constantly being told that she needs to pay attention, but, to her mind, she is paying attention and everyone else’s mind is simply moving too slow. Clementine says, “Spectacularful ideas are always sproinging up in my brain.”

Her spectacularful suggestions for winning the Great Pigeon War against the pigeon’s mess include charging the pigeons for rent or putting diapers on them. Despite Clementine’s best efforts to fix her own and others’ problems, it seems that the world’s rules aren’t quite that logical.

All of her “fixes” gone awry combine with some snippets of conversation she overhears to make Clementine believe that her parents are planning to rid themselves of her since she is the “hard” kid in the family and that her little brother is the “easy” kid (incidentally, Clementine has penchant for calling her brother by vegetable names that she has collected for him, since the only thing worse than being named a fruit is to be named a vegetable such as Spinach, Broccoli, Radish, Rutabaga, Turnip, Zucchini, Lima Bean, Pea Pod, or Celery).

Fortunately for Clementine, her wit and indomitable spirit cause her to persevere until things better. She learns how very special and appreciated she is, even if her fixes do not always pan out. By book’s end, Clementine’s friendships are mended, she is reassured of her parents’ love, and readers are left hoping that stories of other weeks of the never dull Clementine’s life will be forthcoming (see The Talented Clementine for more fruity fun).

In addition to Pennypacker’s charming narration, Frazee’s expressive pen-and-ink drawings capture Clementine’s mercurial emotions and complement both the humorous and poignant vignettes. Clementine is altogether darling, and stories of her life will be felicitous additions to any beginning chapter-book collection.

From the book:

…and nobody could think of anything to do except the regular thing, which is: send me to the principal’s office

See what I mean? Me—paying attention; everybody else—not.

There is a look they teach a person to make in principal school that is not very nice

But I didn’t spin him again, because he throws up on the second ride and somebody has to clean it up which is N-O-T, not me. This is called Being Responsible.

She scrubbed so hard she probably made a hole right through my head skin and my head bone, and now everybody can see right into my brains and I’d better not do any more cartwheels.

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