Muggie Maggie

Another j-fiction book I have because my kid discarded it. Another author I knew when when I was younger, and this book I’d never heard of. It’s much shorter than the Ramona books. Maggie is a third-grader who resents having to learn cursive handwriting. She’s adamant that her printing is very legible and she can type faster on the computer, so why does she have to learn cursive? It’s hard. She doodles curves and squiggles on her paper instead of making proper letters, and outright refuses to practice properly. Before long the entire class is ahead of her, and now the other kids are starting to point and whisper “that’s the kid who won’t do cursive.” Now she feels like she can’t give in. But she starts to notice there’s certain things she can’t read without knowing cursive. And her pride starts to falter when the class progresses further, as she’s also got a reputation for being smart. The teacher sends her to deliver notes and she’s dying to know what they say (who can resist sneaking a peak?) She’s also very preceptive, and just happens to notice that her father’s cursive is a bit untidy and her mother’s writing leans the wrong way- which she is quick to criticize (ha). I thought the teacher’s method of convincing Maggie to practice and learn the handwriting was fairly clever and let the girl save face. It was a nice story, just very short and didn’t do a whole lot for me. I’m sure for the age group and any kids also reluctant to learn an archaic-seeming skill, would appreciate this one.