I live with two people who procrastinate in a big way. Both my husband and my daughter like to put things off until the last possible moment. The more I remind them of the things that they have to do, the more they try to get out of doing them. My daughter still thinks that I might forget that she needs to brush the dogs or tidy her room, but I never do.
In today's book you will meet a girl who takes procrastination to a whole new level. Her adventures are deliciously funny, and grownups will be hard pressed not to laugh at the various tricks that she comes up with to get her out of trouble.
Peggy Gifford
Photographs by Valorie Fisher
Fiction
For ages 7 to 10
Random House, 2008, 978-0-440-42230-3
It is August 23rd, and tomorrow is the first day
of school. Moxy Mawell is in dire trouble because she has not read Stuart Little, the book that her teacher
assigned his students to read over the summer vacation. Moxy’s teacher, Mr.
Flamingo, will be quizzing the students about the book tomorrow, so Moxy cannot
just pretend to read the book, she actually has to do it.
The reason why Moxy
has not read the book is quite simple; she does not like reading books that
some one tells her to read. She only likes to read book that she chooses to
read. All summer long she has carried Stuart
Little around with her, and though it has had lemonade spilled on it, and
it has fallen in the pool, and it has been used to prop up a table, it has not
been read at all.
Now Moxy’s mother
has announced that there will be “consequences” if Moxy does not read the book.
In fact, Moxy’s mother even goes so far as to say that Moxy will not be able to
perform in the water-ballet show that afternoon if the book is not read by five
o’clock. The very idea of having such a consequence imposed on her makes Moxy
feel positively unwell.
One would think
that this threat would be enough to finally get Moxy to read those one hundred
and forty-four pages. Unfortunately, it does not inspire Moxy to read the book.
Instead, it inspires her to find new ways to avoid reading the book, which
brings about a disaster of monumental proportions.
Readers who struggle
with their own procrastination tendencies will find it not to smile (or even
laugh) as they read about Moxy’s end-of-the-summer battle. Her deliciously
funny personality comes through beautifully, and one cannot help liking the
nine-year-old who has a list of potential careers, a list of things she hates
to do, and who has the tendency to “go to extremes.”
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