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  Published by Yearling, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books a division of Random House, Inc., New York

  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

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law. For information address Schwartz & Wade Books.

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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.

  Contents

  Cover

  Other Yearling Books You Will Enjoy

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  A Note About This Story

  Chapter 1 - In Which: Moxy Maxwell Begins to Read Stuart Little

  Chapter 2 - In Which We Are Very Briefly Introduced to Moxy’s Twin Brother, Mark Maxwell

  Chapter 3 - In Which We Get Back to the Point

  Chapter 4 - “Just in Case of In-Between” Explained

  Chapter 5 - In Which the Word “Consequences” First Appears

  Chapter 6 - Regarding Her Mother’s Errands

  Chapter 7 - In Which Moxy’s Mother Says No

  Chapter 8 - In Which Moxy Considers Actually Reading Stuart Little

  Chapter 9 - In Which Another Reason Moxy Has Not Yet Read Stuart Little Is Uncovered

  Chapter 10 - The Problem with Training Mudd

  Chapter 11 - The Part Where the Story Really Starts to Heat Up

  Chapter 12 - In Which the Word “Consequences” Reappears

  Chapter 13 - Moxy’s Amazing Idea

  Chapter 14 - In Which Moxy Decides Not to Turn Her Cell Phone Off After All

  Chapter 15 - In Which Moxy Finds the Note on the Refrigerator

  Chapter 16 - What Moxy Did Not Do Next

  Chapter 17 - In Which We Learn What Moxy Was Thinking

  Chapter 18 - In Which Moxy Has the Most Brilliant Idea of Her Life

  Chapter 19 - Moxy’s Fabulous, Stupendous, Near-Genius Idea

  Chapter 20 - In Which Moxy Snaps into Action

  Chapter 21 - In Which Moxie Solves the Problem of World Hunger

  Chapter 22 - In Which Impending Doom Comes in the Front Door

  Chapter 23 - In Which Moxy’s Mother Slams the Door Behind Her, Which Is Very Unlike Her

  Chapter 24 - In Which Moxy Realizes Her Mother Is Home

  Chapter 25 - In Which It Dawns on Moxy That Stuart Little Is Not with Her

  Chapter 26 - The Dahlia Garden Is Gone

  Chapter 27 - In Which Rosie Growls at the Garden and Mudd Starts Barking

  Chapter 28 - The Last Three Dahlias in Moxy’s Mother’s Prize Dahlia Garden Get Swallowed Alive

  Chapter 29 - The Great Quicksand Scare

  Chapter 30 - Mudd’s Madness

  Chapter 31 - What Moxy Had Known All Along But Hadn’t Wanted to Think About

  Chapter 32 - In Which Moxy’s Mother Sees a Dahlia Fall from the Sky

  Chapter 33 - In Which Moxy Sees the Dahlias Fly

  Chapter 34 - In Which the Screen Door Slams and Dum … da dum-dum …

  Chapter 35 - Mrs. Maxwell’s Unfortunate Appearance

  Chapter 36 - The Breath of Ajax Is Felt upon Moxy

  Chapter 37 - In Which Moxy Needs a Glass of Water

  Chapter 38 - In Which Mrs. Maxwell Asks How Her Prizewinning Dahlias Happened to Drown

  Chapter 39 - In Which the Age-Old Question “What Do You Have to Say for Yourself, Young Lady?” Is Asked

  Chapter 40 - In Which Moxy Forgives Her Mother

  Chapter 41 - The Great Daisy Routine

  Chapter 42 - In Which Moxy Maxwell Finally Meets Stuart Little

  Acknowledgments

  Excerpt from “Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Writing Thank-you Notes”

  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.

  chapter 1

  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 firs
t 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.

  chapter 2

  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.

  chapter 3

  In Which

  We Get Back

  to the Point

  “The point is,” Moxy said to her mother, “Stuart Little has been with me all summer just in case of in-between.”

  chapter 4

  “Just in Case of

  In-Between”

  Explained

  “Just in case one thing ends before the next thing begins, I can pick up Stuart Little and get some reading in, is what ‘just in case of in-between’ means,” said Moxy.

  Now, Moxy’s mother was not wrong when she pointed out how rare cases of “in-between” were for her older daughter. To the best of her knowledge, she had never witnessed Moxy in between anything: while Moxy was eating lunch, for example, she was already asking what was for dinner. The day she got her puppy, Mudd, she wanted to know if she could get another to keep him company. Before she could finish one sentence she had often started another.

  “Exactly,” Moxy said, agreeing with her mother. “My in-betweens are always interrupted by other things.”

  Moxy’s mother stared at her.

  “Remember the time I got settled on the porch swing with Stuart Little and a glass of lemonade and a yellow highlighter just in case I read something important, remember that?”

  Moxy’s mother shook her head. “Refresh my memory,” she said.

  “You don’t remember how Pansy practically kicked the swing with her foot when she asked me to tie her shoe and then the lemonade spilled all over Stuart Little and ruined my new yellow highlighter and then Pansy didn’t clean it up well enough and a billion ants came the next day?”

  Moxy’s mother remembered that.

  (Pansy was Moxy’s four-year-old sister, and instead of reading Stuart Little this summer she was learning to tie her shoes.)

  Here is a photograph Mark took of Pansy’s foot after she asked Moxy to tie her shoe.

  And here is a picture of almost a billion ants.

  “That’s what I mean about being interrupted every time I have an in-between,” explained Moxy.

  chapter 5

  In Which the Word

  “Consequences”

  First Appears

  If Moxy did not stay in her room and read all of Stuart Little, there were going to be “consequences,” Moxy’s mother made clear before she left to do her errands.

  Moxy loved errands. Today her mother was going to the bakery to pick up the great daisy cake for the after-show party tonight. Then she was going to pick up Rosie from the groomer. Rosie was one of the Maxwells’ dogs. Mudd was the other. He was part black Lab and part German shepherd and part himself. Rosie was a terrifying terrier mix with long hair that needed to be done often.

  Finally, it would be off to the nursery to buy a fabulous new and improved fertilizer for the dahlias, which is the name of the flowers Moxy’s mother grew in her famous dahlia garden.

  This is a not-very-good photograph of Moxy’s mother’s dahlia garden. It was taken by Mark Maxwell very early this morning.

  chapter 6

  Regarding

  Her Mother’s

  Errands

  How Moxy longed to go! It was the perfect sort of errand outing—there was no dry cleaning involved. No stopping at boring places to pick up boring things, like resoled shoes. Waiting for fertilizer would be boring, but—thought Moxy, who was really beginning to think now—I could use the extra time to really dig in and begin Stuart Little.

  “But Mother, don’t you see—it’s the perfect in-between. I’ll stay in the car with Stuart Little while you go in and buy fertilizer.”

  chapter 7

  In Which Moxy’s Mother

  Says No

  “No.”

  chapter 8

  In Which

  Moxy Considers

  Actually Reading

  STUART LITTLE

  There had been a certain something in the tone of her mother’s “no,” so even before the car backed down the driveway, Moxy went to her room and moved a few things off her bed and sat down and began to consider the possibility of actually reading Stuart Little.

  First, of course, she would have to clean her room. A book of this magnitude—144 pages—required a great deal of space.

  Just as Moxy was about to roll her sleeves up and get down to business and really dig in, Sam called.

  This is a fabulous photograph Mark Maxwell took of Moxy’s room after she’d answered her phone and before she’d started cleaning.

  “I’m sorry but I can’t talk now,” said Moxy. “I’m very busy.”

  “It’s Sam. What are you doing?”

  Even though Sam was only six and Moxy was already nine, Moxy considered Sam her best friend. That’s because Sam did whatever Moxy said: when Moxy wanted to practice being a ballet star, Sam would catch her like that! in his arms. When Moxy read aloud from the list of 211 Career Paths she was considering, Sam added suggestions of his own. Moxy had never, for example, considered being a shepherd or writing an advice column for senior citizens. Without Sam she never would have thought of either one.

  The truth was, Sam had a little crush on Moxy, though Moxy pretended not to notice and Sam didn’t really understand it. All Sam knew was that Moxy always had a plan and when Moxy had a plan something always happened. Like last summer when they had picked up golf balls from the seventh green of the Forest Hills golf course and washed them off and sold them back to golfers for twenty-five cents apiece. It was always interesting to be with Moxy.

  “I’m cleaning my room,” Moxy explained. “It’s a bit messy. Which is the main reason I haven’t been able to get around to reading Stuart Little yet.”

  chapter 9

  In Which Another

  Reason Moxy Has

  Not Yet Read

  STUART LITTLE

  Is Uncovered

  “Anothe
r reason is because I’ve been trying to train Mudd,” Moxy continued. She was speaking to Sam from her new shocking pink cell phone. “Do you think I should call Mom and remind her of that?”

  “But training Mudd is number two on your list of stuff you wanted to get done,” said Sam. “Reading Stuart Little is number one.”

  “Oh, Sam! If we don’t hurry and train Mudd, he will never become a show dog,” said Moxy.

  “No, he won’t,” said Sam. Though Sam wasn’t sure of the cutoff date for turning regular dogs into show dogs.

  “And you know what that means?” asked Moxy.

  Sam couldn’t remember.

  “It means I will never get to run-walk Mudd around Madison Square Garden in a pair of cute flats on national television. I might just as well cross it off my list of Possible Career Paths.”

  chapter 10

  The Problem

  with Training

  Mudd

  Though Moxy had not gotten around to actually training Mudd, thinking about training Mudd had consumed a fair amount of her time this summer. One thing she had figured out was that to train Mudd, someone needed to train Rosie first. That’s because Mudd did whatever Rosie said. If Rosie barked, “We will now eat pillows,” Mudd ate pillows.

  The other problem with training Mudd was that Mudd had a serious barking problem. Mudd barked at everything that moved. He barked at a leaf blowing down the street and a butterfly beating its wings and the UPS man delivering packages to Mr. Cloud’s house five blocks away. In fact, most of the time he was so busy barking he couldn’t hear Moxy when she told him to stop barking.