Cleary, Beverly. Muggie, Maggie. Avon Books, 1990, illust. Life, Kay, p. 70.
Brief plot description:
Did you learn cursive in elementary school and did you like it? In this book Maggie Schultz, a third grader, is learning to write in cursive for the first time. Maggie doesn’t want to learn to write in cursive because she believes it is dumb. Maggie says that everything can be written in print. The teacher begins to teach the children how to do cursive and says that it is like a roller coaster, so Maggie only does roller coasters. Maggie’s other argument is that she has a computer that she can write on and doesn’t need to learn cursive. Maggie tries cursive again but copies what her parents do which is untidy. In school Maggie is asked to read something in cursive, but Maggie can’t. What will happen to Maggie and her cursive?
Brief review:
I like this book because it shows the difficulties of teaching a child how to write cursive and how a child will eventually change their mind. I think that this book is for third through fifth grade students. I think it could be used when talking about handwriting or about a child’s goal to achieve something. The main idea is that Maggie’s teacher came up with a good idea to get her to write and read cursive and that Maggie once her mind was on writing and reading cursive she did it. The book includes some illustrations, and they are in black and white and look like sketches. There are also samples of Maggie’s handwriting and her parent’s handwriting. These look like adult handwriting or child’s handwriting.
Genre label:
Modern Fiction
Reading level/interest level:
3rd - 5th grade
Character names/descriptions:
Maggie Schultz- 3rd grader
Kisser – dog
Mrs. Leeper- teacher
Jo Ann- Maggie’s best friend
Similar materials in style content, theme or characters:
Nothing’s Fair in Fifth Grade by Barthe DeClements
Tales from a Not-So- Popular Party Girl by Rachel Renee Russell
Awards:
IRA/CBC Children’s Choice
Garden State Children’s Book Award (New Jersey)
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