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The Meaning of Maggie: A Novel
This “humorous, fast-paced” middle-grade novel is “a remarkable story of a working-class family pulling together in the face of a serious illness” (School Library Journal). As befits a future President of the United States of America, eleven-year-old Atlanta resident Maggie Mayfield has decided to write a memoir of the past year of her life. And what a banner year it’s been! During this period she’s Student of the Month on a regular basis, an official shareholder of Coca-Cola stock, and defending Science Fair champion. Most importantly, though, this is the year Maggie has to pull up her bootstraps (the family motto) and finally learn why her cool-dude dad is in a wheelchair, no matter how scary that is . . . Author Megan Jean Sovern, herself the daughter of a dad with multiple sclerosis, writes with the funny grace and assured prose of a new literary star. A portion of the proceeds of the sale of this book will be donated to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. “Does for middle-grade fiction what John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars did for teen Both portray coping with serious illness as one aspect of a complex character, not as the single issue that defines them.” —BookPage “Smart, sensitive, sad and funny.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review “Maggie is a firecracker character, one who sparkles with wit, cynicism, love and potential.” —Shelf Awareness
226 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 18, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 438 reviews
June 3, 2014
I'm reading this book because it came in as a YA novel but so far reads like a J novel. I get that it's supposed to take place in the late 1980's (someone said 1988 but I'm not certain at this point in my reading) but I am finding that the MC is referencing things that I'm pretty sure were not part of the late 1980's world. I will keep reading...
UPDATE: I still don't know where this book belongs. I think the language--there isn't anything bad, but the level of the language--makes it YA but the content is really middle grade. This would be a hard sell for any teen I know, but I would hesitate to give it to a middle grade student. And I had A LOT of issues with references that I REALLY don't think were mainstream in 1988--TMI, Take Your Daughter to Work Day, Spanglish (I know the language itself has been around for years, I meant the general person being aware of it), the "Proud to be an American" song (again, I know it came out in the late 80's but it didn't really gain in popularity until years later), medical marijuana (it was around back then, but I don't think it was something that many people were considering at that time). The worst part is that not one of these things added to the story but because they seemed so out of place in the story they became the main focus for me.
UPDATE: I still don't know where this book belongs. I think the language--there isn't anything bad, but the level of the language--makes it YA but the content is really middle grade. This would be a hard sell for any teen I know, but I would hesitate to give it to a middle grade student. And I had A LOT of issues with references that I REALLY don't think were mainstream in 1988--TMI, Take Your Daughter to Work Day, Spanglish (I know the language itself has been around for years, I meant the general person being aware of it), the "Proud to be an American" song (again, I know it came out in the late 80's but it didn't really gain in popularity until years later), medical marijuana (it was around back then, but I don't think it was something that many people were considering at that time). The worst part is that not one of these things added to the story but because they seemed so out of place in the story they became the main focus for me.
July 2, 2016
One of the best voices in middle grade books. This book was impossible to put down.
June 4, 2014
Great middle grade novel that's a portrait of a family. It's narrated by Maggie, who gets a journal for her 12th birthday and decides to use it to write a memoir of the past year, starting with her 11th birthday. Maggie's super bright and super-focused, the kind of girl who asks for stock for her birthday and is convinced she's going to be POTUS. She's so focused she's a bit oblivious to what's going on around her: her dad's MS has gotten worse, so he's left his job to stay home with Maggie and her two older sisters, and her mom has to go back to work as a housekeeping manager at a hotel. Maggie's family is engaging and believable -- her two older sisters are lip-gloss loving, boy-crazy high schoolers who make fun of Maggie's giant granny panties, and her parents are aging hippies, very much in love but struggling with their new roles in the family.
There are some classic middle school moments: the gym teacher who makes them run the mile; the science fair; the cute boy; the popular girl who isn't quite what she seems. It's all pretty standard stuff, but Maggie's voice is so strong, so refreshing that it's a pleasure to read.
There are some classic middle school moments: the gym teacher who makes them run the mile; the science fair; the cute boy; the popular girl who isn't quite what she seems. It's all pretty standard stuff, but Maggie's voice is so strong, so refreshing that it's a pleasure to read.
March 27, 2014
Terrific character and voice in this middle grade novel. Eleven-year-old Maggie is a focused achiever who is a bit oblivious to what's going on with her dad (he has MS). Nicely weaves together a school story (and a boy crush), siblings driving each other crazy, and the tenderness of family members getting through some tough times. I'd love this book no matter what, but the connection to Multiple Sclerosis took me over the top with it. Done very well. Maggie's inner dialogue is hilarious.
February 22, 2015
I'm only about 1/3 through this book, so I reserve the right to change my rating in the future, but so far, I'm not that impressed. I'm getting a little tired of the "super-smart, quirky, ridiculously well-spoken-beyond-their-years little kid" character that seems to be in EVERY "literary" middle-grade book nowadays. I also agree with other reviewers that it's a difficult book to place age-wise, a little too mature in terms of language and some themes for juvenile but too young to be interesting to teens. I almost feel it should have been published for the adult market, like Flavia de Luce. My main issue, however, are the anachronisms given the 1988 setting, the biggest one for me so far being Take Your Daughter To Work Day, which (according to Wikipedia anyway) didn't start until 1993. That stuff always really bothers me because it's so easy to fact-check and fix. Where are the editors? Okay, rant over. I do like how the issue of the father's MS is handled, so I'm going to keep reading for now, but I don't know that I'll finish this one.
July 3, 2016
What an emotional book. Megan does an amazing job of giving voice to each of her characters. This is one of those stories that takes you on an emotional Rollercoaster ride and makes you feel as though you are in the same room experiencing the story along with Maggie and her family.
I really appreciated the humor and all the places that you truly felt you could close your eyes and visualize. A nerdy friend of mine is totally right when she said you literally could have a discussion about something from every page.
The greatest struggle for me throughout this novel is that my best friends father, really my 2nd father, battle the same affliction that Maggie's father battles with. He basically raised me. Taught me to play sports, took me to sporting events, and was my coach and role model. So this story will also hold a special connection for me.
I highly recommend reading this book.
I really appreciated the humor and all the places that you truly felt you could close your eyes and visualize. A nerdy friend of mine is totally right when she said you literally could have a discussion about something from every page.
The greatest struggle for me throughout this novel is that my best friends father, really my 2nd father, battle the same affliction that Maggie's father battles with. He basically raised me. Taught me to play sports, took me to sporting events, and was my coach and role model. So this story will also hold a special connection for me.
I highly recommend reading this book.
June 1, 2016
This was a fabulous story and a giant slice of nostalgia all rolled into one.
Other than the fact that my dad didn't have MS and I had an older brother instead of older sisters, I felt like this book was written about my childhood. I grew up in the 80's, the child of former hippies who partied hard when they were young and loved us to pieces. I grew up listening to records with my dad (I never got scared of Black Sabbath like Maggie, though) and pretty much thought he hung the moon. Also like Maggie, I tended to throw sass at my mom, but we were usually quick to make up. I was also a bit of a know-it-all.
I laughed so much throughout the story, not only because the frequent footnotes are actually just hilarious jokes that add to Maggie's story, but because her voice is just priceless.
"Mom never let me read the pamphlets while we waited for Dad at the doctor's office either. She'd say they were filled with propaganda and then I'd say, "Geez hippie, calm down." And then she'd take my M&M's away and then I'd say I was sorry and then she'd give me the M&M's back and then we'd take quizzes in magazines to find out if we were summers or falls."
Hilarious. (And by the way, I'm a winter.)
Other than the fact that my dad didn't have MS and I had an older brother instead of older sisters, I felt like this book was written about my childhood. I grew up in the 80's, the child of former hippies who partied hard when they were young and loved us to pieces. I grew up listening to records with my dad (I never got scared of Black Sabbath like Maggie, though) and pretty much thought he hung the moon. Also like Maggie, I tended to throw sass at my mom, but we were usually quick to make up. I was also a bit of a know-it-all.
I laughed so much throughout the story, not only because the frequent footnotes are actually just hilarious jokes that add to Maggie's story, but because her voice is just priceless.
"Mom never let me read the pamphlets while we waited for Dad at the doctor's office either. She'd say they were filled with propaganda and then I'd say, "Geez hippie, calm down." And then she'd take my M&M's away and then I'd say I was sorry and then she'd give me the M&M's back and then we'd take quizzes in magazines to find out if we were summers or falls."
Hilarious. (And by the way, I'm a winter.)
February 22, 2015
This review is taken from my blog at http://dickenslibrary.blogspot.ca/
Maggie is precocious, self absorbed, and completely loveable. From the first lines, her voice drew me in and held me in thrall till I finished the book.
If only this book had been available when I was eleven or twelve. Aside from Pipi Longstocking, who lived a life free of crazy parents, everyone in my literary world lived in perfect families. Mine was not. Maybe that's why I lived so much of my life in books. If Maggie had been here then, I wonder if I might have been braver in my own life.
Maggie's father has multiple sclerosis. This book is her memoir of the year leading up to her 12th birthday. It's heartbreaking, but at the same time, life affirming. It's a kind of coming of age narrative. In this one year, Maggie comes to understand the magnitude of her father's illness.
My father used a wheelchair after being injured in a logging accident the year I was five. He returned home three years later, in so many ways, a changed person. Living in a family with someone who is chronically ill, (my father's kidneys were damaged as well) is challenging for everyone, and everyone deals with it in different ways.
All of this resonates in this book. As I read, I wept buckets. I wept for Maggie and her family. At the same time I wept for that little girl in me and my family. I can't remember when I last made this kind of profound personal connection to any novel.
Megan Jean Sovern's portrait of a family in the midst of crisis, is full of impeccably real characters. There are three girls. Maggie is the youngest. Tiffany is the middle child and Layla is the eldest. The older girls have a better grasp of what is going on than Maggie. There is the usual sibling squabbling, but also a coming together when they have to. When the father was forced, by his illness, to quit his job, their mother went out to work. She was tired all the time, and her absence, both physically and emotionally, leaves a void in their lives. Their father, who was once an unknown entity, is suddenly forced to take on the major caregiver role, a role he isn't equipped for.
I know Maggie's family intimately, because our families lived through, and survived, a similar reality. I found my mother in Maggie's mom. After my father came home, she went out to work. Especially in the early days, she was exhausted all the time from trying to do two jobs, the one of Mother, and the one of nurse in the hospital she worked in. I found my father in Maggie's father. When my father came home it wasn't easy for him to adjust to his changed role from family provider, to caretaker of a passel of small children. Although I empathise with Maggie, as the oldest of five children, I understand Layla best. Shouldering responsibility, and even taking on a parenting role, is what the eldest do at times like this.
There are many examples in this book that ring true for me about living in a family dealing with this kind of situation. Not the least is the magical thinking we try to hold onto. Maggie wondered if they went to church, God might fix her father. I remember when this kind of hope was part of my life. My father, like Maggie's, cured me of this.
Thank you Megan Jean Sovern for telling your story and helping me to understand that there are many families like ours. I'm so glad your novel will be there for kids dealing with similar realities today.
Maggie is precocious, self absorbed, and completely loveable. From the first lines, her voice drew me in and held me in thrall till I finished the book.
If only this book had been available when I was eleven or twelve. Aside from Pipi Longstocking, who lived a life free of crazy parents, everyone in my literary world lived in perfect families. Mine was not. Maybe that's why I lived so much of my life in books. If Maggie had been here then, I wonder if I might have been braver in my own life.
Maggie's father has multiple sclerosis. This book is her memoir of the year leading up to her 12th birthday. It's heartbreaking, but at the same time, life affirming. It's a kind of coming of age narrative. In this one year, Maggie comes to understand the magnitude of her father's illness.
My father used a wheelchair after being injured in a logging accident the year I was five. He returned home three years later, in so many ways, a changed person. Living in a family with someone who is chronically ill, (my father's kidneys were damaged as well) is challenging for everyone, and everyone deals with it in different ways.
All of this resonates in this book. As I read, I wept buckets. I wept for Maggie and her family. At the same time I wept for that little girl in me and my family. I can't remember when I last made this kind of profound personal connection to any novel.
Megan Jean Sovern's portrait of a family in the midst of crisis, is full of impeccably real characters. There are three girls. Maggie is the youngest. Tiffany is the middle child and Layla is the eldest. The older girls have a better grasp of what is going on than Maggie. There is the usual sibling squabbling, but also a coming together when they have to. When the father was forced, by his illness, to quit his job, their mother went out to work. She was tired all the time, and her absence, both physically and emotionally, leaves a void in their lives. Their father, who was once an unknown entity, is suddenly forced to take on the major caregiver role, a role he isn't equipped for.
I know Maggie's family intimately, because our families lived through, and survived, a similar reality. I found my mother in Maggie's mom. After my father came home, she went out to work. Especially in the early days, she was exhausted all the time from trying to do two jobs, the one of Mother, and the one of nurse in the hospital she worked in. I found my father in Maggie's father. When my father came home it wasn't easy for him to adjust to his changed role from family provider, to caretaker of a passel of small children. Although I empathise with Maggie, as the oldest of five children, I understand Layla best. Shouldering responsibility, and even taking on a parenting role, is what the eldest do at times like this.
There are many examples in this book that ring true for me about living in a family dealing with this kind of situation. Not the least is the magical thinking we try to hold onto. Maggie wondered if they went to church, God might fix her father. I remember when this kind of hope was part of my life. My father, like Maggie's, cured me of this.
Thank you Megan Jean Sovern for telling your story and helping me to understand that there are many families like ours. I'm so glad your novel will be there for kids dealing with similar realities today.
July 7, 2014
Maggie, a super-smart, very organized, overachieving 11-year-old, was shocked. Her dad had quit his job after his legs “fell asleep” (as Maggie calls it), and their mom had gotten a job. Her dad stays at home, in a wheel chair, working around the house. It is a new scenario for Maggie. She isn’t used to her dad being around all the time, and her mom working. When her science project approached, she decided to do it on what had made her dad’s legs fall asleep – multiple sclerosis. Maggie is determined to find a cure for her dad’s disease. What she finds out is how great her family really is and she can survive getting a ‘B’ in school.
First of all I’ll say I am a bit bias on this book. The “super-smart, very organized, overachieving 11-year-old” in my description above – sounds a lot like me (only I’m 12 – but just go back a year). Speaking as a “precocious” kid (as I am tired of being called), Ms. Sovern has gotten Maggie’s personality down pat. I felt like I was with her the whole entire time, cheering her on! I like the sibling rivalry between Maggie and her sisters. It felt like a real situation and the characters were believable. I think this is another one of those “Crossover” books – one written on a YA reading level but the story is more for advanced middle-grade readers (as an advanced middle-grade reader, this makes me more bias ;) ). The book ends extremely well, and although there are some loose ends, they are the right kind that leaves you thinking about what happens next, but you know the characters will be okay. I think that Ms. Sovern has a very distinct writing voice. I would read other books by her.
*NOTE I got an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review
First of all I’ll say I am a bit bias on this book. The “super-smart, very organized, overachieving 11-year-old” in my description above – sounds a lot like me (only I’m 12 – but just go back a year). Speaking as a “precocious” kid (as I am tired of being called), Ms. Sovern has gotten Maggie’s personality down pat. I felt like I was with her the whole entire time, cheering her on! I like the sibling rivalry between Maggie and her sisters. It felt like a real situation and the characters were believable. I think this is another one of those “Crossover” books – one written on a YA reading level but the story is more for advanced middle-grade readers (as an advanced middle-grade reader, this makes me more bias ;) ). The book ends extremely well, and although there are some loose ends, they are the right kind that leaves you thinking about what happens next, but you know the characters will be okay. I think that Ms. Sovern has a very distinct writing voice. I would read other books by her.
*NOTE I got an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review
September 22, 2016
I think I may need to step away from juvenile fiction, or at least anything like the last 20 books I have read in the genre. All the female protagonists in this category seem to be the same. They are sarcastic, full of attitude, super smart, and say the brattiest things and the parents shrug it off. They are able to ace all the their schoolwork and use adult words and ways of thinking but can't fathom the most basic things when it comes to family or friendship dynamics. When it comes to that stuff they resort to acting 6 years old.
This book also supposedly was written to take place in the 80s which I just discovered by browsing other reviews. Could of fooled me. There were only two instances that I can remember anything that suggested an 80s setting.
The saving grace: the realistic portrayal of a family grappling with a father's crippling condition. I liked the parents and the dad's mostly positive attitude despite his condition. Didn't like that Maggie acted like a brat over it.
This book also supposedly was written to take place in the 80s which I just discovered by browsing other reviews. Could of fooled me. There were only two instances that I can remember anything that suggested an 80s setting.
The saving grace: the realistic portrayal of a family grappling with a father's crippling condition. I liked the parents and the dad's mostly positive attitude despite his condition. Didn't like that Maggie acted like a brat over it.
July 30, 2014
I loved a lot of this book. But when I stop and really think, what I love most is the stuff that I inferred rather than read through Maggie's eyes/voice. I love her parents - her brave dad and her doing everything necessary and more mom.
I love the fact that this is what would be considered a "quiet" book, but it is extremely impactful without benefit of a big plot.
I have to admit that I didn't love Maggie as much as I wanted to. Her self-centeredness, while somewhat expected for an 11-year-old grated a bit. If she was as smart as she herself told the reader repeatedly, she had to have seen how the situation at home was deteriorating. Yet her behavior was largely unchanged until the end crisis.
All in all I'd say I liked this a LOT, but stopped short of loving it completely.
I love the fact that this is what would be considered a "quiet" book, but it is extremely impactful without benefit of a big plot.
I have to admit that I didn't love Maggie as much as I wanted to. Her self-centeredness, while somewhat expected for an 11-year-old grated a bit. If she was as smart as she herself told the reader repeatedly, she had to have seen how the situation at home was deteriorating. Yet her behavior was largely unchanged until the end crisis.
All in all I'd say I liked this a LOT, but stopped short of loving it completely.
January 6, 2015
My daughter's media specialist asked her to read and review this as a possible addition to the school library's collection, so we read it together, and I'm so glad that we did. It's a warm, funny family story about a young protagonist with two older sisters who are different from her in every possible way, as well as a mom who has to go back to working outside the home because their dad has multiple sclerosis. Maggie struggles with all of these issues but is positive in her outlook and eventually comes to some important conclusions. A good book for late elementary/early middle school readers.
July 26, 2015
Maggie and her family are funny, funny, funny. Maggie is Maureen Johnson smart-girl funny, and her parents and sisters are carefully drawn individuals whose strengths reveal themselves gradually over the course of this fast-paced middle grade novel. The author's light touch makes Maggie and her family's journey all the more moving.
July 10, 2020
Poignant, hilarious, and deeply emotional; Maggie's "memoir" about the year she turned 11 is an absolute joy. Extremely book smart and filled with big plans for the future (she will be president!), Maggie is happy that she's one year closer to voting and to college. There's only one thing in her life that's not great - her dad (well and her two older sisters - honestly they're more obsessed with lip balm than with grades!). Her dad's legs have gone pretty much all numb and he relies on his family to wheel him about and move him from place to place. Maggie is sure she can find a way to fix him - she just needs to get a hold of the M encyclopedia to see what he actually has. This is a charming and heartfelt coming of age story that features the most adorably naive and nerdy 11 on the planet (she even has footnotes in her memoir/journal!). An eye opening look at how children react to illness and big family changes.
Read
August 9, 2024A children’s book I read for work/research. The writing was not great and seemed to miss the mark on trying to pretend to be 11 years old but it’s one of the only books that includes a character with MS, which was interesting.
August 9, 2018
This was a happy find at my favorite used bookstore. I laughed a lot and only cried a little. 4.75 stars.
October 18, 2018
This book was really good. Maggie was a strong girl and never gave up. This book is very good.
March 23, 2019
This book was amazing! I honestly do not know how to put the thought and my opinion about this story into words.
February 15, 2023
This book is simply delightful. So tender and funny and just pure. Cannot recommend it highly enough. Love love love love.
September 12, 2015
It's easy to fall into a reading rut, which isn't so bad when unread novels by your longtime favorites are stacked next to your bed in teetering piles, small monuments to the nights of your childhood when you were first introduced to the characters by the glow of a flashlight beneath the blankets. At this moment, recently published books by Lynne Rae Perkins, Cynthia Kadohata, and Rebecca Stead lie within armsreach of my pillow, but as eagerly as I anticipate diving into their pages, I felt the desire several weeks ago to bring home from the bookstore something I was unfamiliar with, by a writer I'd never heard of, as kind of an injection of newness into my reading life. This is why I picked up The Meaning of Maggie by Megan Jean Sovern.
I carried it around for three weeks before getting through chapter two, seriously regretting my moment of spontaneity. Its setup was interesting enough: a fifth-grade girl sits at her ailing father's bedside in a hospital room, explaining in her tween voice how they both got there. She quickly introduces us to her older, hotter sisters ("So I called Tiffany and Layla and they opened their doors at the same time because they're pretty much the same person. With the same brain. And the same bra size"), her classic-rock-loving, wheelchair-bound father, and her no-nonsense, ex-hippie mother, and leads us through a recollection of her tenth birthday exactly a year ago.
Maggie's voice is instantly recognizable as that of a smart, inquisitive, overachieving pre-adolescent girl, eager to satisfy her own lofty ambitions despite very little urging by her parents or teachers, one of those self-driven, self-centered young people who hasn't yet discovered her own limitations, except those limitations imposed on her by the grownups (and sisters) in her life. My problem with getting from chapter one to chapter two had everything to do with that voice. So well does it represent the mannerisms of typical (smart) fifth-grade girlspeak that it was just about unbearable in large doses, at least near the beginning of the book. I love listening to children tell me their stories, but not for four hours, which is what I predicted would be necessary to read this to the end.
When I finally got tired of carrying the book around, and when the call of those other unread books shifted into urgency, I made up my mind to power through, and before I reached the midpoint, I discovered that I had not only gotten used to Maggie's voice, but I had grown fond of it. I was amused by the (certainly intentional) anachronisms, Maggie's keen (yet naive) attention to detail, and her ability to let us see situations from other character's points of view even while she, as narrator, is completely oblivious to them herself. I stopped noticing how many of Maggie's sentences begin with conjunctions, and I started noticing how skillful the author is in painting one picture for young readers and a different picture for older readers.
Maggie's father is seriously unwell in a way that makes this story an easy tear-jerker of sorts, but Sovern doesn't earn sentiment with greeting-card syrupiness. Instead, she gives us flashes of revelation as we see how his condition affects each member of his family. Maggie is being kept largely in the dark when it comes to details of his illness, but when Maggie describes for us how her sister, not her mother, comes to an awards breakfast at school, we see a bigger picture that Maggie herself hasn't opened her eyes to.
The Meaning of Maggie should appeal to a pretty wide range of tweeners, but it will be special to overachieving students who feel alienated because of their love for learning. I was won over by Maggie's cluelessness with social situations and by the author's great skill in creating her narrator's self-centered view while giving her readers a wider angle.
I carried it around for three weeks before getting through chapter two, seriously regretting my moment of spontaneity. Its setup was interesting enough: a fifth-grade girl sits at her ailing father's bedside in a hospital room, explaining in her tween voice how they both got there. She quickly introduces us to her older, hotter sisters ("So I called Tiffany and Layla and they opened their doors at the same time because they're pretty much the same person. With the same brain. And the same bra size"), her classic-rock-loving, wheelchair-bound father, and her no-nonsense, ex-hippie mother, and leads us through a recollection of her tenth birthday exactly a year ago.
Maggie's voice is instantly recognizable as that of a smart, inquisitive, overachieving pre-adolescent girl, eager to satisfy her own lofty ambitions despite very little urging by her parents or teachers, one of those self-driven, self-centered young people who hasn't yet discovered her own limitations, except those limitations imposed on her by the grownups (and sisters) in her life. My problem with getting from chapter one to chapter two had everything to do with that voice. So well does it represent the mannerisms of typical (smart) fifth-grade girlspeak that it was just about unbearable in large doses, at least near the beginning of the book. I love listening to children tell me their stories, but not for four hours, which is what I predicted would be necessary to read this to the end.
When I finally got tired of carrying the book around, and when the call of those other unread books shifted into urgency, I made up my mind to power through, and before I reached the midpoint, I discovered that I had not only gotten used to Maggie's voice, but I had grown fond of it. I was amused by the (certainly intentional) anachronisms, Maggie's keen (yet naive) attention to detail, and her ability to let us see situations from other character's points of view even while she, as narrator, is completely oblivious to them herself. I stopped noticing how many of Maggie's sentences begin with conjunctions, and I started noticing how skillful the author is in painting one picture for young readers and a different picture for older readers.
Maggie's father is seriously unwell in a way that makes this story an easy tear-jerker of sorts, but Sovern doesn't earn sentiment with greeting-card syrupiness. Instead, she gives us flashes of revelation as we see how his condition affects each member of his family. Maggie is being kept largely in the dark when it comes to details of his illness, but when Maggie describes for us how her sister, not her mother, comes to an awards breakfast at school, we see a bigger picture that Maggie herself hasn't opened her eyes to.
The Meaning of Maggie should appeal to a pretty wide range of tweeners, but it will be special to overachieving students who feel alienated because of their love for learning. I was won over by Maggie's cluelessness with social situations and by the author's great skill in creating her narrator's self-centered view while giving her readers a wider angle.
June 22, 2015
Reading children's books as a child is definitely a different experience from reading them as an adult. This is one of those stories that inspires mixed feelings in me as a grown-up, but would be perfect for a middle-school-kid who needed to learn about a difficult topic in a roundabout way.
Maggie's just turned eleven, and she's super-excited about this because that means she's one year closer to her goal of becoming President. Maggie is a bona fide genius who has no idea she's a genius and just kind of sails through her life soaking up book knowledge mad like woah. She's incredibly naive about real-life smarts, however, and she doesn't pick up on the context clues that indicate her dad's multiple sclerosis is getting worse. You can't really fault her, however, because her mom and older sisters haven't even told her what MS is, much less that her dad has it; they're trying to keep Maggie's childhood as normal as possible. Well, as normal as possible for an eleven-year-old genius.
Maggie is straight-up hilarious. She's SO SMART, and yet at the same time, there's so much common sense / everyday life stuff she just doesn't "get," which makes you just want to give her a big hug. Up to now everything Maggie's learned in life she's learned from books. She doesn't even realize what her dad's disease is all about until she looks it up in the library encyclopedia (her mom hid the "M" volume at home). When she finally realizes what MS is all about, she's kind of at a loss, because, for the first time, here's something all the book smarts in the world can't fix. She'll have to learn a whole different set of skills to be a good team player as her dad's condition grows slowly worse.
I'm dinging this book one star for having the most VAGUE ENDING EVER. As an adult, I get the impression that the dad dies, and the author just didn't want to traumatize her audience by writing a death scene and ending the book on a sad note. The story ends with Maggie starting to write the story of her eleventh year in the new journal she got for her 12th birthday, while the machine her dad is hooked up to slowly beeps. I almost flung the book across the room myself, so I can't even imagine what a tween would make of it. Although I suppose that's what's called a discussion-starter: does he die, or not? Which is fine for middle school homework, but damnit, I wanted closure!
[Why yes, I did get a little emotionally involved here - why do you ask?]
But no, seriously: it's kind of obvious, from an adult perspective, that it's not looking good for dad, and yet Maggie remains hopeful and cheerful. And I don't know how I feel about that. There's some character development here, certainly, but either she remains naive, or she's clinging to denial for dear life, and there's just something unsettling about that. Or maybe that's the point: dad dies, but bright, vibrant Maggie is still very much alive. Given how often throughout the book we hear that Maggie looks just like her father, that might be closest to the "correct" interpretation: parents die, leaving their legacy behind in their children.
Jeez, this book. I laughed, I cried, I thought way too much about dads dying on Father's Day. Call it lousy timing. Recommended for tweens and their adults, esp if this particular shoe happens to fit.
Maggie's just turned eleven, and she's super-excited about this because that means she's one year closer to her goal of becoming President. Maggie is a bona fide genius who has no idea she's a genius and just kind of sails through her life soaking up book knowledge mad like woah. She's incredibly naive about real-life smarts, however, and she doesn't pick up on the context clues that indicate her dad's multiple sclerosis is getting worse. You can't really fault her, however, because her mom and older sisters haven't even told her what MS is, much less that her dad has it; they're trying to keep Maggie's childhood as normal as possible. Well, as normal as possible for an eleven-year-old genius.
Maggie is straight-up hilarious. She's SO SMART, and yet at the same time, there's so much common sense / everyday life stuff she just doesn't "get," which makes you just want to give her a big hug. Up to now everything Maggie's learned in life she's learned from books. She doesn't even realize what her dad's disease is all about until she looks it up in the library encyclopedia (her mom hid the "M" volume at home). When she finally realizes what MS is all about, she's kind of at a loss, because, for the first time, here's something all the book smarts in the world can't fix. She'll have to learn a whole different set of skills to be a good team player as her dad's condition grows slowly worse.
I'm dinging this book one star for having the most VAGUE ENDING EVER. As an adult, I get the impression that the dad dies, and the author just didn't want to traumatize her audience by writing a death scene and ending the book on a sad note. The story ends with Maggie starting to write the story of her eleventh year in the new journal she got for her 12th birthday, while the machine her dad is hooked up to slowly beeps. I almost flung the book across the room myself, so I can't even imagine what a tween would make of it. Although I suppose that's what's called a discussion-starter: does he die, or not? Which is fine for middle school homework, but damnit, I wanted closure!
[Why yes, I did get a little emotionally involved here - why do you ask?]
But no, seriously: it's kind of obvious, from an adult perspective, that it's not looking good for dad, and yet Maggie remains hopeful and cheerful. And I don't know how I feel about that. There's some character development here, certainly, but either she remains naive, or she's clinging to denial for dear life, and there's just something unsettling about that. Or maybe that's the point: dad dies, but bright, vibrant Maggie is still very much alive. Given how often throughout the book we hear that Maggie looks just like her father, that might be closest to the "correct" interpretation: parents die, leaving their legacy behind in their children.
Jeez, this book. I laughed, I cried, I thought way too much about dads dying on Father's Day. Call it lousy timing. Recommended for tweens and their adults, esp if this particular shoe happens to fit.
November 10, 2020
Note: this is a largely edited review because I realized that the previous version both exaggerated and missed the point in many ways (it was my first published review and I just wanted to get it out there).
Enjoyable but rather lukewarm in some ways.
If you’ve read any middle grade fiction at all, you should be able to list a few titles of books in which the mother is dead. Very rarely, the mother is ill. (I mean very. The only thing that comes to mind is The Same Stuff as Stars.)
Far rarer is the unwell father in a book written somewhat recently, as in before the 90s. Besides Savvy, nothing comes to my mind. You can rack your brain all you like, but the point is, in middle-grade fiction, unwell fathers are weirdly, enormously uncommon.
This book helps fill a gap. Or rather, creates a contrast to the increasingly populated dead-mother-fiction realm.
I disagree with other reviewers saying Maggie’s narrative reads as YA rather than MG. It might sound YA (I wouldn’t know), but it also sounds distinctly eleven. And I should know; I am a middle-grader and know other middle-graders. As for the multiple reviews that don’t know what age to recommend this to, I’d say easily eleven to fourteen.
Because she doesn't know much about her father's illness until halfway through, the plot feels disjointed. It also means that Maggie doesn't have any big motivations until halfway through - all that time when she doesn't is valuable in some ways, but it's the time when most characters get their first big ideas and begin to grow emotionally. Because that process largely begins so far into the book, there's about half the growth there could have been, and I found that lack disorientating as I neared the end.
Maggie's interests are amusing but never annoying: she has quirky ways of putting things, reads newspapers and loves Latin and geometry. What did annoy me was that she rarely thinks about them. I like books, art and science and I know that I think about them a lot.
Tiffany and Layla are entertaining enough, but personally, I always have preferred books where siblings offer at least a little support. When there is a moment of it, it's stilted and awkward simply because it's so hard to believe that these characters could even be not-bratty.
Maggie’s father is, I found, lacking in qualities easy to root for: he cares about good looks more than his intelligence, or at least acts that way lightheartedly. He’s the one Maggie comes to for advice, but I wasn't ever pleased like Maggie was.
The 70s setting aids the plot only in a few minor ways, but even if it might be less confusing to have it set in the present-day I don't think it was a poor choice. Just a quirky one.
Enjoyable but rather lukewarm in some ways.
If you’ve read any middle grade fiction at all, you should be able to list a few titles of books in which the mother is dead. Very rarely, the mother is ill. (I mean very. The only thing that comes to mind is The Same Stuff as Stars.)
Far rarer is the unwell father in a book written somewhat recently, as in before the 90s. Besides Savvy, nothing comes to my mind. You can rack your brain all you like, but the point is, in middle-grade fiction, unwell fathers are weirdly, enormously uncommon.
This book helps fill a gap. Or rather, creates a contrast to the increasingly populated dead-mother-fiction realm.
I disagree with other reviewers saying Maggie’s narrative reads as YA rather than MG. It might sound YA (I wouldn’t know), but it also sounds distinctly eleven. And I should know; I am a middle-grader and know other middle-graders. As for the multiple reviews that don’t know what age to recommend this to, I’d say easily eleven to fourteen.
Because she doesn't know much about her father's illness until halfway through, the plot feels disjointed. It also means that Maggie doesn't have any big motivations until halfway through - all that time when she doesn't is valuable in some ways, but it's the time when most characters get their first big ideas and begin to grow emotionally. Because that process largely begins so far into the book, there's about half the growth there could have been, and I found that lack disorientating as I neared the end.
Maggie's interests are amusing but never annoying: she has quirky ways of putting things, reads newspapers and loves Latin and geometry. What did annoy me was that she rarely thinks about them. I like books, art and science and I know that I think about them a lot.
Tiffany and Layla are entertaining enough, but personally, I always have preferred books where siblings offer at least a little support. When there is a moment of it, it's stilted and awkward simply because it's so hard to believe that these characters could even be not-bratty.
Maggie’s father is, I found, lacking in qualities easy to root for: he cares about good looks more than his intelligence, or at least acts that way lightheartedly. He’s the one Maggie comes to for advice, but I wasn't ever pleased like Maggie was.
The 70s setting aids the plot only in a few minor ways, but even if it might be less confusing to have it set in the present-day I don't think it was a poor choice. Just a quirky one.
March 27, 2018
This book was good because it showed a real-life problem a character went through. The author did well showing how her family's problems affected Maggie's life. The characters were realistic and had their own personalities but they were stereotypical.
June 2, 2014
Maggie's father won't quit beeping. He's in the hospital because his legs seem to have fallen asleep permanently, and Maggie is sitting with him while her mother and two older sisters are in the hospital cafeteria. And Dad just keeps beeping. So it feels like a good time for Maggie to start writing her memoirs, and that's what we get to read, everything she's written while her dad beeps.
11-year-old Maggie is entertaining to get to know, that's for sure. She's super-smart--she adores school, loves doing research, and asks for Coca-Cola stock for her birthday--and yet incredibly naive at the same time (which I found a little annoying, but understandable when you realize how much her family has sheltered her from the truth). Her narrative is funny and made me laugh out loud a time or two.
It also becomes clear that Maggie also has a weight problem; she'd rather eat a Little Debbie than recognize what is staring her in the face: her father's health is rapidly deteriorating due to Multiple Sclerosis. She thinks his legs have just "fallen asleep", and like a naive child, believes he will get better. One day those legs will just "wake up" and he'll be fine again.
Maggie's relationships with each family member are realistic and healthy. Her older sisters at times do battle with her, but it's clear they all love each other. I found Layla especially responsible and caring, working in ways Maggie never even saw. Mom is extremely overworked now that Dad has been forced to quit working, but she is caring and patient in the face of daily difficulties. Dad...well, I think Dad would like to be back in the 70's smoking weed and listening to Clapton. His standard answer to Maggie's questions about his past behaviors is, "I'll tell you in 10 years." He's funny and seems to always have a good attitude despite his debilitating disease. And Maggie loves him and her mom to the moon and back.
I enjoyed this book, I liked Maggie's voice, it just took me a while to get into it. That's possibly entirely my own fault, as this was the first book I read after getting a cancer diagnosis of my own. The desire to read was completely gone for over a month, and this was the book that started me reading again.
11-year-old Maggie is entertaining to get to know, that's for sure. She's super-smart--she adores school, loves doing research, and asks for Coca-Cola stock for her birthday--and yet incredibly naive at the same time (which I found a little annoying, but understandable when you realize how much her family has sheltered her from the truth). Her narrative is funny and made me laugh out loud a time or two.
It also becomes clear that Maggie also has a weight problem; she'd rather eat a Little Debbie than recognize what is staring her in the face: her father's health is rapidly deteriorating due to Multiple Sclerosis. She thinks his legs have just "fallen asleep", and like a naive child, believes he will get better. One day those legs will just "wake up" and he'll be fine again.
Maggie's relationships with each family member are realistic and healthy. Her older sisters at times do battle with her, but it's clear they all love each other. I found Layla especially responsible and caring, working in ways Maggie never even saw. Mom is extremely overworked now that Dad has been forced to quit working, but she is caring and patient in the face of daily difficulties. Dad...well, I think Dad would like to be back in the 70's smoking weed and listening to Clapton. His standard answer to Maggie's questions about his past behaviors is, "I'll tell you in 10 years." He's funny and seems to always have a good attitude despite his debilitating disease. And Maggie loves him and her mom to the moon and back.
I enjoyed this book, I liked Maggie's voice, it just took me a while to get into it. That's possibly entirely my own fault, as this was the first book I read after getting a cancer diagnosis of my own. The desire to read was completely gone for over a month, and this was the book that started me reading again.
April 28, 2014
Everything changed in Maggie’s life when she turned eleven. She was one year closer to college and one year closer to finding out the things that her father said he’d explain in ten years. Though she knew she’d never be closer to understanding her two gorgeous, leggy older sisters who were mostly interested in boys and ignoring Maggie. But something else happened that year too. Maggie’s father had arms and legs that were falling asleep, and now his arms and legs were starting to stay asleep for longer and longer periods of time. Then Maggie’s mother got a job and her father stayed home. Now Maggie’s mother was always tired and not around and her father was always around but not able to help with much. As Maggie steadily figures out what is really happening to her father, this book reveals the impact a serious medical condition can have on even the strongest of families.
Sovern has written a smart and intriguing heroine into the heart of her book. Maggie is very bright, gets nearly perfect grades, asks for Coca-Cola stock for her birthday present, and loves to study ahead in her classes. But she is also wonderfully flawed with her addiction to sugar and her ability to look past what is right in front of her until she is forced to see it. Sovern excels at family dynamics. Refreshingly, Maggie relates to each of her parents very differently and the two older sisters in different ways as well. There is room in this brief book for all of the family members to be individuals.
Sovern also makes sure that though the book deals with serious issues to inject just enough humor into the story. Maggie doesn’t manage to get everything she wants in the classroom or in life. She has to learn that there is much outside the scope of her own determination to solve it. Throughout the book there is clear and organic growth in both Maggie and in her entire family as they all come to terms with her father’s illness.
A book about having a parent with multiple sclerosis, this is also a book about one amazing young woman and her strong family that is filled with love. Appropriate for ages 8-12.
Sovern has written a smart and intriguing heroine into the heart of her book. Maggie is very bright, gets nearly perfect grades, asks for Coca-Cola stock for her birthday present, and loves to study ahead in her classes. But she is also wonderfully flawed with her addiction to sugar and her ability to look past what is right in front of her until she is forced to see it. Sovern excels at family dynamics. Refreshingly, Maggie relates to each of her parents very differently and the two older sisters in different ways as well. There is room in this brief book for all of the family members to be individuals.
Sovern also makes sure that though the book deals with serious issues to inject just enough humor into the story. Maggie doesn’t manage to get everything she wants in the classroom or in life. She has to learn that there is much outside the scope of her own determination to solve it. Throughout the book there is clear and organic growth in both Maggie and in her entire family as they all come to terms with her father’s illness.
A book about having a parent with multiple sclerosis, this is also a book about one amazing young woman and her strong family that is filled with love. Appropriate for ages 8-12.
September 29, 2014
Why would I read a book about an 11-12 year old girl named Maggie? Well of course, that's my daughters name and age so I really bought it for her. As I read this book I wrote notes in the margins to my Maggie about how this Maggie was similar and different as well general comments/memories the story evoked. This made me feel clever (and a little naughty- writing in a book? Hey I spent my own grown up 10 dollars for the privilege !) so I believe this made me enjoy the book more. I have to say the voice of Maggie was much too young. While I'd like today's 11 year olds to be so naive, I find that they are much more well spoken and better able to inference than this girl. Yes they are egocentric,as this character was. Perhaps Maggie is supposed to be a bit quirky and maybe socially delayed? Getting past this, I loved her father and how he tried to maintain his coolness factor. And I felt for the mom who was trying to keep it all together and wasn't perfect. At the same I got so angry with everyone treating Maggie like she was five and the fact that no one would face the reality of the disease they all let be the center of their universe without talking about it. I appreciated the full circle ending and that we don't get a glimpse of the future. It makes the reader interested in learning more about MS and gives some perspective on living with a disability. For those reasons this book is a worthwhile read for young middle grades.
May 22, 2015
The Meaning of Maggie by Megan Jean Sovern is a book about Maggie Mayfield, her sisters, Layla and Tiffany, her mom, and her dad. The book is mainly about Maggie growing up and all the disasters that happen along the way. One of which includes her father having a disease that she has not yet been told the name of or any details of what is happening or what will happen all she knows is that his legs and arms are “falling asleep” again but this time it's going to be permanent. Maggie thinks there is some sort of cure or way to fix this horrible disease and is always fussing about it but all her sisters want her to do is to shut up and go away. She is not pleased about this and tries to do a whole report on it. On her 12th birthday she is heading off to a writing camp. A few minutes after arriving her sister shows up and is impatiently talking to the instructor. When Maggie first spotted Layla she was shocked she was there. As soon as Maggie was excused Layla rushed off to the hospital explaining something horrible happened to dad and the only person around was Tiffany so she called 9-1-1. Maggie thought this was a horrible thing to happen on her birthday. All she could think about was what if dad doesn't make it?!
I really loved this book and couldn’t put it down. It was a heartwarming story. I would recommend this to any of my friends who can handle a slightly mature book. It may look like a girls book but I would say it's definitely not and everyone should read this book.
I really loved this book and couldn’t put it down. It was a heartwarming story. I would recommend this to any of my friends who can handle a slightly mature book. It may look like a girls book but I would say it's definitely not and everyone should read this book.
March 13, 2015
The Meaning of Maggie by Megan Jean Sovern
Scholastic edition, 2014
Realistic Fiction
220 pages
Recommended for grades 5+
A year in the life of Maggie, a girl that is brainy, up front, dedicated to school and FOOD, and totally unaware of the serious health issues her father is dealing with. Maggie, the youngest of three, is protected by her parents and older sisters, allowed to obliviously live her youth without the burden of worrying about her father's declining health. She's real, she's hilarious, she's addictive.
I loved this book so much that I immediately decided to mail it to one of my best friends. I called her and told her I was sending her a middle grade novel that I had just finished. Then I let her know that she would either LOVE it, or think I am a weirdo for mailing it to her... Over the course of the next few days I got texts letting me know how funny she found the book. Days later, she asked if the book could be mailed on to a friend of hers-a friend that was given Coca-Cola stock* for one of her birthdays. What's my point? My point is that this book might be written for middle grade readers, but that's its clever disguise. Meagan Jean Sovern, why was this book only 220 pages? I miss Maggie!
*If you would like to understand this reference to Coca-Cola stock, well, read the book.
Scholastic edition, 2014
Realistic Fiction
220 pages
Recommended for grades 5+
A year in the life of Maggie, a girl that is brainy, up front, dedicated to school and FOOD, and totally unaware of the serious health issues her father is dealing with. Maggie, the youngest of three, is protected by her parents and older sisters, allowed to obliviously live her youth without the burden of worrying about her father's declining health. She's real, she's hilarious, she's addictive.
I loved this book so much that I immediately decided to mail it to one of my best friends. I called her and told her I was sending her a middle grade novel that I had just finished. Then I let her know that she would either LOVE it, or think I am a weirdo for mailing it to her... Over the course of the next few days I got texts letting me know how funny she found the book. Days later, she asked if the book could be mailed on to a friend of hers-a friend that was given Coca-Cola stock* for one of her birthdays. What's my point? My point is that this book might be written for middle grade readers, but that's its clever disguise. Meagan Jean Sovern, why was this book only 220 pages? I miss Maggie!
*If you would like to understand this reference to Coca-Cola stock, well, read the book.
August 25, 2014
Another very quick read that I did not want to put down until I had finished the very last word. Maggie is intelligent and self-absorbed. The world always seems unfair to poor Maggie. Her sisters are mean to her, her classmates don't understand her, and she is always told to pull up her "bootstraps" and be strong and brave. But how can Maggie be brave when the world around her as she knew it is crumbling. Her father is wheelchair bound and her mother must go back to work. Her sisters are perfect and beautiful and have no idea how difficult it is to be brilliant. And how does the world not see that she needs a 15-day birthday celebration?! More than just a book about tween angst, this book is about Maggie's journey from a self-centered genius to a member of a family suffering through a devastating illness. Well-written and easily felt with the heart, this book is one I highly recommend for everyone tween age and up.
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