Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little
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Authors: Peggy Gifford
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2007 by Peggy Gifford
Illustrations copyright © 2007 by Valorie Fisher
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The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition of this work as follows:
Gifford, Peggy Elizabeth.
Moxy Maxwell does not love Stuart Little / Peggy Gifford; photographs by Valorie Fisher.
p. cm.
Summary: With summer coming to an end, about-to-be-fourth-grader Moxy Maxwell does a hundred different things to avoid reading her assigned summer reading book.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89107-6
[1. Books and reading—Fiction. 2. Summer—Fiction. 3. Family life—Fiction. 4. Twins—
Fiction. 5. Humorous stories.] I. Fisher, Valorie, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.G3635Mo 2007
[Fic]—dc22
2006016869
Reprinted by arrangement with Schwartz & Wade Books
Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
v3.1
This story is for my mother,
Mary Elizabeth Morris Gifford Hearley.
—P.G.
For Theresa
—V.F.
A Note About
This Story
Most of this happened in one way or another. But because I am the first to write it down, you will have to accept my version of the astonishing and tragic events that befell Moxy Maxwell last August 23.
In Which
Moxy Maxwell
Begins to Read
STUART LITTLE
Her name was
Moxy Maxwell and she was nine and it was August and late August at that. It was so late in August that tonight was to be the “Goodbye to Summer Splash!” show at the pool. Moxy was one of eight petals in the water-ballet part. She and the other seven petals were going to form a human daisy at the deep end while carrying sparklers in their left hands.
Next year Moxy planned to do a rose solo. Moxy Maxwell was just that sort of girl—the sort of girl who even at nine had big plans. In fact, last April when Miss
Cordial asked the class to write a list of Possible Career Paths, Moxy had needed a third piece of paper. Moxy was going places, all right.
She was going to her room. And she was going to stay there until she read every word of
Stuart Little
. Mr. Flamingo, who was going to be Moxy’s fourth-grade teacher this fall, had assigned the book for summer reading. They were going to have a quiz on it too—on the very first day of school. And tomorrow was the very first day of school.
Now, Moxy loved to read books. She loved books so much that sometimes she would stay up all night and read. It’s just that Moxy liked to read what she wanted to read and not what someone told her to read.
And it wasn’t as if Moxy hadn’t tried to read
Stuart Little
. She had not been exaggerating (very much at all) when she had explained to her mother earlier today that the
reason she hadn’t finished reading
Stuart Little
had nothing to do with the fact that she had spent too little time with the book.
“We’ve been practically like best friends all summer,” she said. “Inseparable.”
It was true. Moxy had taken Stuart Little with her everywhere. If
Stuart Little
wasn’t in her backpack, Stuart Little was in her lap. When Moxy was in the car on her way to rehearse her daisy routine, Stuart Little was beside her or somewhere behind her or nestled under the windshield swelling up with sun.
It was also true that Moxy’s mother had found Stuart Little on the porch under the broken leg of the wicker coffee table more than once. But that was a discussion for another day.
“In fact, last Monday
Stuart Little
fell in the pool,” said Moxy. “That’s how close we are.”
This is a photograph taken by Moxy’s twin brother, Mark. You can see that Stuart Little spent a considerable amount of the summer soaking up sun and water
.
In Which We Are Very
Briefly Introduced to
Moxy’s Twin Brother,
Mark Maxwell
Except for the
fact that they were twins, Mark and Moxy were different in so many ways I could spend all day listing them. For example, Moxy had not yet read
Stuart Little
, while Mark had read
Stuart Little
on the first day of summer vacation. Moxy was always talking about something she planned to do. Mark was always teasing her about something she’d
done
. Moxy had spent her summer at the pool (except Sundays) practicing her part as a petal for the water-ballet show. Mark had spent his
summer teaching himself photography. He wasn’t very good yet. But he was very much like Moxy in one way—he never gave up once he decided to do something.