Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little

This is a delight! The misadventures and skewed logic of Moxy Maxwell put her in the same category with Ramona and Clementine. The photographs, too, provide an excellent touch.

Hilarious! From the cover to the photos to the chapters with one sentence, this feisty heroine with a million ideas is perfect.

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Sunny Lea does not love Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little. I mean, I liked it, but love isn't quite the word I could apply to a book that gives so little to love. I don't mean that there's nothing to love about it, or even that everything that is there isn't love-able. Well, to keep it short, I'm trying to say that Moxy Maxwell (etc, etc) is short. Very. There aren't a lot of short stories in this world that inspire deep feelings from me. I like big, meaty novels in my "grown up" reading for instance, that give me a lot to work with. Multi-generational sagas are always bound to catch my attention. And, once you reduce the font, work out the whitespace, and get rid of the adorably illustrative, show more but not particularly necessary photographs, Moxy M. (etc, etc) reveals itself to be something like a short story. Add the photos back in, and it might be fair to call it a picture book for middle-graders.

Moxy Maxwell is facing the immanent return to school after a nice summer break, and she has just one last task to do: read Stuart Little -- all 144 pages of it. Of course, Moxy means to get down to business right away. Her mother promises, if she does not, there will be consequences. Like not getting to perform as a daisy petal in her water ballet. So, Moxy gets to work right away... cleaning her room. She can't be expected to settle in and read Stuart Little -- all 144 pages of it -- in a messy room, can she? One thing leads to another, and Moxy does have an awful lot of things she needs to do (train the dog, plant a peach orchard), and she never quite actually begins reading Stuart Little. Uh-oh. Will she now have to face the consequences?

Moxy is a charming little girl. Spunky and full of ideas -- not the she ever completely follows through on any of them. As a character, despite the grandeur of her delusions, she rings very true. Readers will snicker at Moxy, and probably squirm a bit in self-recognition. After all, who among us has never put off a task? The photos are great, supposedly taken by Moxy's twin brother Max, and document the story in a way that is probably more interesting than the usual small line drawings.

However, because Moxy is so charming, because she rings so true, and because the whole package was so delightful, I am left a little disappointed. Perhaps I'm greedy, but I just couldn't help wanting more. So while I cannot Love Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little, I can like it. And I do... a lot.

Girl-heroine and daisy swimsuit aside, Moxy could actually have very broad appeal, and is best for procrastinating middle-schoolers like Moxy herself. The relative shortness of the story should appeal to those ever-elusive reluctant readers. Ages 8 - 11 or so. show less

Narrated by Clea Lewis. Does Moxy have ADHD? I'd say so because she gets supremely distracted from her assigned summer reading of "Stuart Little" which she's been putting off all summer. Her plan to read during the time-between-activities never gets off the ground because she always comes up with another activity for in-between. Bouncing slapstick comedy read in a girlish, idealistic tone (Moxy is always confident about her elaborate plans) by Clea Lewis.

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 show more 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. show less

It's the day before the start of fourth grade and Moxy Maxwell has been putting off reading her assigned book, Stuart Little. She's got one day to do it... but other things keep coming up that are much more interesting. Find out the lengths this young lady will go to to avoid doing her homework.

An easy chapter book, perfect for reluctant readers with super short chapters (42 chapters in a 92 page book!) and photo illustrations. I thought the illustrations were really neat because I'd never really seen that in a chapter book before. To be honest, Moxy's plight frustrated me because I just wanted her to READ THE BOOK, but it's funny and spunky and a great choice for fans of Clementine, Ramona, etc.

Nine-year-old Moxy Maxwell has too many activities going on this summer to waste time reading an assigned book! Excited about appearing in a water ballet as a petal in a Great Daisy swim routine, Moxy's mother decides to use the event as a means to lower the boom and make Moxy finish the book, Stuart Little. Down to her last day of reading, Moxy has too many interruptions to succeed. Gifford's humorous story portrays a young girl who discovers that assignments may not be so bad after all. Photographs taken by Moxy's twin brother add to the delight of this read.