The Reinvention of Moxie Roosevelt

by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel

Overview

Moxie Roosevelt Kipper is an ordinary girl with an extraordinary name, but that is about to change. She's starting boarding school, and it's time to reinvent herselfÑto become worthy of a name like "Moxie." So she tries a bunch of personalities to try to figure out which one suits her best. But she quickly loses track of who she actually is and who she's supposed to be at any given moment! And as Moxie deals with new friendships and new situations, she comes to realize that boarding school is not what it seems and she's not the only one who isn't what she claims to be.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101427507
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	06/10/2010
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	531 KB
Age Range:	10 Years

About the Author

Elizabeth Cody Kimmel lives in Cold Spring, New York.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 5–8—Moxie Roosevelt Kipper, 13, has always felt too ordinary for her extraordinary name, and she plans to reinvent herself now that she has gone away to boarding school on a music scholarship. At the Eaton Academy for Girls, she tries out several personas, including Mysterious Earth Goddess (MEG), Hale and Hearty Sports Enthusiast (HHSE), and Detached, Unique, Coolly Knowing Individual (DUCKI). Moxie keeps a logbook just to remember which personality she's been using with whom. It's exhausting, but she's holding it together, just barely, until she realizes that her journal is missing. She's terrified it might land in the wrong hands. Moxie is every young teen who believes that other people's lives are more exciting than her own and wants to make herself special, too. While her misadventures are hilarious, Moxie is an endearing, complex character with whom young adults can easily identify. In the end, she realizes that true friends like you for who you are and enjoy differences as well as similarities. This great book has a good message without ever becoming preachy.—Nancy P. Reeder, Heathwood Hall Episcopal School, Columbia, SC

School Library Journal

Thirteen-year-old Moxie is fully cognizant of the burdens attendant upon being named after two presidents and an obscure soft drink. Feeling that she has failed to live up to her moniker, the burgeoning pianist longs to shed her perceived bland persona. A music scholarship to an all-girls boarding school provides Moxie with the opportunity for change. Like a human chameleon, Moxie adjusts her personality to reflect the intriguing people she meets. Her reluctant participation in a confidence-building comedy workshop provides Moxie with the tools to overcome her insecurities. Ultimately she learns to test her mettle, musically and personally, leading to her recognition of the parallels between her musical endeavors and the development of her identity. Kimmel's sharply observed novel reflects a keen understanding of the agony of self-definition that is adolescence. Readers will cheer for Moxie as she charts her path toward self-acceptance. (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews