Peggy Gifford_Moxy Maxwell 02

Read Peggy Gifford_Moxy Maxwell 02 Online

Authors: Does Not Love Writing Thank-You Notes

Tags: #Social Issues, #Family, #Juvenile Fiction, #Family Life, #Fiction, #Humorous Stories, #General, #School & Education, #Christmas & Advent, #Brothers and Sisters, #Holidays & Celebrations, #Readers, #Christmas Stories, #Behavior, #Siblings, #Christmas, #Twins, #Thank-You Notes, #Parents

Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Acknowledgments

chapter 1
We Begin

chapter 2
Numbers 1 Through 12 on Moxy's List of 13 Things to Do Before Tomorrow

chapter 3
5 Reasons Why Moxy Had to Exchange the Evening Gown

chapter 4
In Which Mrs. Maxwell Begins a Sentence with “If you don't stop dreaming and start writing your thank-you notes right now…”

chapter 5
A Brief Word About the Word “Consequences”

chapter 6
In Which Mark Says Something

chapter 7
In Which Moxy Has a Really Good Idea (Really)

chapter 8
In Which Pansy Begins to Cry

chapter 9
Divorce and the Problem of Last Names

chapter 10
60 Words About Mark and Moxy's Stepfather, Ajax

chapter 11
2:01 p.m.—In Which Moxy Looks at Her Clock

chapter 12
Introducing Granny George

chapter 13
Why Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Crafts

chapter 14
In Which Mrs. Maxwell Says, “Come into the hall this minute, young lady.”

chapter 15
In Which Mrs. Maxwell Gives Moxy One More Thing to Think About (As If Moxy Didn't Have Enough on Her Mind)

chapter 16
In Which Mrs. Maxwell's 1989 Volvo DL with the Three New Tires and the 2002 Transmission and the Once-Heated Seats and the Broken Back Windshield Wiper Vibrates down the Driveway

chapter 17
In Which (Quite Unexpectedly) Pansy Makes a Wise, Though Somewhat Muffled, Suggestion

chapter 18
Moxy Gets Organized

chapter 19
Moxy's Brilliant-Beyond-Belief Idea

chapter 20
The Genius of Moxy

chapter 21
The Sample Thank-you Note Moxy Wrote to Copy on Ajax's New Copier (Which He Just Got from Mrs. Maxwell for Christmas, by the Way)

chapter 22
In Which Mark Happens to Wander by Moxy's Room and Say “I wouldn't use Ajax's new copier if I were you.”

chapter 23
In Which the Author Offers 5 Reasons Why It Might Not Be a Good Idea for Moxy to Use Ajax's New Christmas Copier

chapter 24
In Which Moxy Offers 3 Reasons Why It Is a Good Idea to Use Ajax's New Christmas Copier

chapter 25
In Which Mark Says No

chapter 26
In Which Moxy's Cell Phone Plays the First Two Notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony

chapter 27
In Which Rosie and Mudd Start Barking Like Mad Dogs

chapter 28
In Which Moxy Comments That She Is the Only One Who Ever Does Anything Around Here

chapter 29
In Which Pansy Without Her Shell and Mark and Granny George and Mudd and Rosie Come Downstairs to Wish Uncle Jayne a Merry Christmas

chapter 30
In Which Moxy Brings Mark Up to Speed Regarding the Situation Between Their Father and Noah's Wife

chapter 31
In Which Moxy Says, and Not for the First Time in Her Life, “Everybody follow me!”

chapter 32
In Which Moxy Sighs Rather Loudly

chapter 33
In Which Mark Maxwell Accidentally Backs into Ajax's Copier and Turns It On

chapter 34
Moxy's Well-Deserved Rest

chapter 35
In Which Moxy Announces That It's Time to Get Organized

chapter 36
In Which Uncle Jayne's Cell Phone Plays the Entire First Verse of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”

chapter 37
In Which We Learn That Uncle Jayne's Christmas Turkey Has Finally Thawed and He Has to Dash Home and Pop It in the Oven, but He'll Be Right Back

chapter 38
In Which Moxy and Uncle Jayne Have the Same Exact Thought at the Same Exact Time

chapter 39
In Which Moxy Thinks the Unthinkable

chapter 40
In Which Uncle Jayne Finds the Place on the Copier Where Moxy's Sample Thank-you Note Should Go So It Can Be Copied

chapter 41
In Which Pansy Pushes the Big Red Start Button Before Sam Is Ready

chapter 42
The Really Big Mess Begins

chapter 43
Moxy Suddenly Remembers What She Almost Forgot

chapter 44
In Which Moxy Takes Action

chapter 45
In Which Moxy First Says the Words “Gold Spray Paint”

chapter 46
In Which Pansy Wanders into the Kitchen and Asks Granny George Where Moxy Is

chapter 47
In Which Moxy Says the Words “Gold Spray Paint” Again

chapter 48
5 Reasons Moxy Isn't Allowed to Touch Another Can of Spray Paint Until She's Twenty-one

chapter 49
In Which Moxy Keeps On Shaking the Can

chapter 50
3 Things Experience Has Taught Moxy About Gold Spray Paint

chapter 51
In Which Moxy (Once Again) Saves the Day

chapter 52
In Which Moxy Is Forced to Stop What She's Doing and Look for Pansy

chapter 53
In Which Pansy Starts to Sort of Cry

chapter 54
The First Shot

chapter 55
The Big “HANK YOU”

chapter 56
In Which Mrs. Maxwell Walks in the Door Carrying a Cute Little Pink Dress with Gobs of Glitter for Moxy to Wear to the Big New Year's Eve Star-Studded Hollywood Bash Her Father Is Taking Her To

chapter 57
In Which Mrs. Maxwell Asks What That Noise Is

chapter 58
The Case of the Flying Thank-you Notes

chapter 59
In Which Mrs. Maxwell Calls Out (and Not for the First Time in Her Life), “Moxy Anne Maxwell!”

chapter 60
In Which We Linger with Mrs. Maxwell to Give Moxy a Chance to Think of an Explanation for This Mess

chapter 61
In Which We Take a Chapter Off to Give Moxy a Little More Time to Think of an Explanation for This Mess

chapter 62
In Which the Unasked Question—”How could things get worse?”—Is Answered

chapter 63
In Which Ajax Walks in the Front Door

chapter 64
Mrs. Maxwell Asks an Obvious Question

chapter 65
In Which the Copier Stops and Ajax Sits in His Broken La-Z-Boy

chapter 66
In Which Ajax Takes the Temperature of His New Christmas Copier

chapter 67
In Which Ajax Uses His Powers of Observation

chapter 68
The Greater Good Explained

chapter 69
In Which Moxy Maxwell Learns What the Phrase “Saved by the Bell” Means

chapter 70
A One-way Phone Conversation

chapter 71
In Which Moxy Forgives Her Mother

chapter 72
In Which Mrs. Maxwell Ruins Moxy's Life

chapter 73
In Which Moxy Realizes Her Life Is Over

chapter 74
In Which Moxy Doesn't Stop Crying

chapter 75
In Which Mark Knocks on Moxy's Door

chapter 76
A Marvelous Thing

chapter 77
Mrs. Maxwell Has Christmas Again

About the Author

About the Illustrator

Copyright

For Jack

—P.G.

For Harriet and Margret

—V.F.

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to Anne Schwartz, Lee Wade, and Valorie Fisher, whose talent and seamless collaboration made this book possible.

—P.G.

         

I would like to thank my exceptionally talented and hardworking cast of characters: Elinor, Charlie, Aidan, Olive, Anne, David, Matt, Buster, and Granny.

And I am enormously grateful to Peggy for her hilariously inspirational world of Moxy.

—V.F.

chapter 1

We Begin

It was the
day after Christmas and Moxy Maxwell had a List of 13 Things to Do Before Tomorrow. Tomorrow she and her twin brother, Mark, were flying to Hollywood to spend the last week of vacation with their father.

Moxy had been looking forward to this trip for, as she put it, “ages and ages”—ever since her mother called her dad and told him that
this year
he
had
to take the twins for the last part of Christmas vacation.

Mark and Moxy's father's name was Rock Hunter, and he was a Big Mover and Shaker out in Hollywood. But Moxy and Mark hadn't seen him for almost three years. Two years ago he canceled their Christmas visit at the last minute because he had to fly to the Dead Sea to help a Major Star who was having a breakdown on the set of a made-for-TV movie called
Noah's Wife: The Untold Story.
And last year he was so busy establishing himself in his new career as a Big Mover and Shaker in Hollywood that he had forgotten about Christmas altogether. But this year he was finally a Big Man Behind the Scenes out there.

“Behind the scenes is where the real action is” was what he'd told Moxy when she had asked why she'd never seen his picture in
People
magazine or
Us Weekly
magazine or
Star
magazine or any magazine.

chapter 2

Numbers 1 Through 12 on Moxy's List of 13 Things to Do Before Tomorrow

Numbers 1 through
12 on Moxy's List of 13 Things to Do Before Tomorrow were to write twelve thank-you notes. Last year she hadn't finished writing the thank-you notes for her Christmas presents until the day before Easter. This year, she promised her mother, they'd
all
be finished by the day
after
Christmas. And today was the day after Christmas.

“Dear Nonnie, Thank you for the fabulous money. Love, Me,” read Moxy. She was resting on her bed, her new thank-you-note stationery balanced on her knees, while her mother folded Moxy's baby blue petal-patterned swimsuit into her suitcase.

“Tell Nonnie how you're going to spend the money,” said Mrs. Maxwell. “And be sure to wish her a happy New Year.”

“But that will take
forever,
” said Moxy. “And I have eleven more thank-you notes to go.”

“A thank-you note isn't something you
have to do,
it should
mean something.
It should come from your heart,” said Mrs. Maxwell.

“But my heart hasn't got time,” Moxy replied. “It has to go with my body to the mall to exchange the evening gown Aunt Margaret and I picked out for me to wear to the Big New Year's Eve Star-Studded Hollywood Bash Dad's taking me and Mark to. He said Madonna might even be there.”

“I heard Shrek might be there too,” said Mark. Mark wasn't “thrilled to death” (as Moxy put it) about the Big New Year's Eve Star-Studded Hollywood Bash.

Not only was Mark Maxwell the second-most-famous photographer on Palmetto Lane, he was also packed for their trip tomorrow, which was why he had time to take this picture of the inside of Moxy's half-packed suitcase. He called it “California Dreamin'.”

“California Dreamin',” by Mark Maxwell.

Exchanging the evening gown Moxy and Aunt Margaret had picked out for Moxy to wear was number 13 on Moxy's List of 13 Things to Do Before Tomorrow.

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