Peggy Gifford_Moxy Maxwell 02
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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
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 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.âIn 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 17
In Which (Quite Unexpectedly) Pansy Makes a Wise, Though Somewhat Muffled, Suggestion
chapter 19
Moxy's Brilliant-Beyond-Belief Idea
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 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 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 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 57
In Which Mrs. Maxwell Asks What That Noise Is
chapter 58
The Case of the Flying Thank-you Notes
chapter 62
In Which the Unasked Questionâ”How could things get worse?”âIs 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
For Jack
âP.G.
For Harriet and Margret
âV.F.
Acknowledgments
I am indebted to Anne Schwartz, Lee Wade, and Valorie Fisher, whose talent and seamless collaboration made this book possible.
âP.G.
        Â
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.
âV.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”âever 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.