Muggie Maggie

Written by Beverly Cleary

Narrated by Kathleen McInerney

In this humorous and relatable novel from Newbery Medal-winning author Beverly Cleary, a girl must overcome her rebellious attitude toward learning cursive.

At first, Maggie is just feeling stubborn when she declares she won't learn cursive. What's wrong with print, anyway? And she can easily type on a computer, so why would she need to know how to read those squiggly lines? But soon all her classmates are buzzing about Maggie's decision, especially after her teacher, Mrs. Leeper, says Maggie's cursive is so sloppy that her name looks like ""Muggie.""

With ""Muggie Maggie"" ringing in her ears, Maggie absolutely, positively won't back down...until she's appointed class mail messenger. All the letters that Mrs. Leeper sends to the office are in cursive, and Maggie thinks they are written about her. But there's only way to know for sure...so what's Maggie going to do?

For generations, Beverly Cleary has captivated readers of all ages with beloved characters such as Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, Ribsy, and Ralph S. Mouse. Muggie Maggie follows suit with what School Library Journal calls ""a likable, funny heroine whom readers will want to know.""

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Apr 21, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061744693

Beverly Cleary

Beverly Cleary is one of America's most beloved authors. As a child, she struggled with reading and writing. But by third grade, after spending much time in her public library in Portland, Oregon, she found her skills had greatly improved. Before long, her school librarian was saying that she should write children's books when she grew up. Instead she became a librarian. When a young boy asked her, "Where are the books about kids like us?" she remembered her teacher's encouragement and was inspired to write the books she'd longed to read but couldn't find when she was younger. She based her funny stories on her own neighborhood experiences and the sort of children she knew. And so, the Klickitat Street gang was born! Mrs. Cleary's books have earned her many prestigious awards, including the American Library Association's Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, presented to her in recognition of her lasting contribution to children's literature. Dear Mr. Henshaw won the Newbery Medal, and Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and Ramona and Her Father have been named Newbery Honor Books. Her characters, including Beezus and Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, and Ralph, the motorcycle-riding mouse, have delighted children for generations.

Reviews for Muggie Maggie

[dgadkins88 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Maggie is a young girl who leads an average life. She goes to school, and plays with her friends. Normally she does well in school, but then comes the day her third grade class is expected to learn to write. Try as she might Maggie can not seem to learn to write, while the other kids make fun of her, Maggie's mom is very supportive.of her although Maggie gets frustrated and for a period refuses to try. Eventually she is baited into learning when a teacher tricks her into wanting to be able to read hand writing.

[agrudzien_5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Maggie's class is learning cursive and Maggie just doesn't see the point. When her teacher points out that her name looks like "Muggie" when she writes it, Maggie decides she will never learn cursive...after all, what is the point when she can write and read in printing? Cute story, though do would this generation of non-cursive writers get it? Sad, but true. It reminded me of an Andrew Clements book.

[theexiledlibrarian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this aloud to my 2nd graders. They are excited over the prospect of learning cursive next year. It's a Beverly Cleary book I had never read before.

[nadeanmercier · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Muggie Maggie by Beverly Cleary is the story of a young girl in grade two who is about to learn cursive. As a result of her parents teasing she decides that she is not going to learn handwriting after all. The story is written at an early elementary level and details the efforts of her parents and teachers to get her to learn cursive. Throughout the story, when things are in cursive they appear that way in the story which is a unique way of encouraging the readers themselves to learn cursive. There are several illustrations throughout the chapters that give you an idea of what the characters look like. Despite any unique touches the writer has added, the story is still poor. The plot is unexciting and simple with the author taking on a didactic tone at points. I would not recommend this title.

[loeb001 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A little girl named Maggie has just started the 3rd grade. She is very unexcited since she will have to learn how to write cursive. She believes that she does not need to learn cursive because she knows print and uses the computer. She refuses to learn cursive ad her teacher is clueless on how to get her to try. One day in class the teacher passes out sheet with each persons name so that they can practice their signatures, but Maggie doesn't know how to write cursive, so she ends up writing Muggie and gets coined the nickname of Muggie Maggie. Her teacher is out of ideas and come up with another monitor for the class, which is a letter monitor that Maggie gets put in charge of. She has to send letters to other teacher and bring them back, but when she tries to snoop it is in cursive and she can't read it, except for her name. This motivates her to finally learn cursive, so that she can read it.

[lppeters · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I chose this book because I talked with my focus student and he told me that in class, they had just learned how to write cursive. This is story tells us about how Maggie refuses to learn, practice, or write anything in cursive because she doesn't like the challenge. I wanted to be able to share this story with my student because he currently feels the same way about learning cursive and if he can learn the same lesson Maggie does, I think this book would be a great encouragement to not only him- but his whole class!

[alebarbu · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Maggie Schultz is starting third-grade, and after some teasing by her parents, she decides that she will not learn cursive. However, what starts more as a dare turns complicated when Maggie (who is normally a good student) realizes that she cannot read cursive, and her classmates are making fun of her. Just as Maggie is not sure how she will get out of her self-caused predicament without losing face, her teacher comes up with a clever way of having her learn cursive without confronting Maggie directly about it, or causing embarrassment to her. This short book is cleverly written because it is about learning to read and write cursive (or rather not to want to do it), and since there is cursive writing in the book, that actually encourages readers to learn how to read cursive. The “third-grade girl” of the dedication (see “Common Knowledge”) got the book she was asking for. The decision Maggie makes at the beginning of the book, and the difficulties that ensue for her (and her parents and teacher) are realistically portrayed, and young readers will find in Maggie an authentic character they can identify with. They will also empathize with her struggles to learn cursive when she has finally understood the importance of it. The illustrations are not the best around, but they do give specific ideas about what the characters look like (at least, from the illustrator’s point of view), and they depict scenes from the book, which can help with comprehension if needed. Recommended for grades 3 (or any grade that children start learning cursive writing) to 5.

[meadert · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A cute little quick read, an inspiration to third-graders... all these describe the book Muggie Maggie.

[fuzzi_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Maggie is eight, and excited about third grade...why does she have to learn to write in cursive?This is a short but fun book about a contrary student.

[ferrisscottr · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Huge Beverly Cleary fan but I did not think this was one of her best BUT when I read this to my daughter and finished the last page the first thing she said was "Can you read it again"....Nuff Said!