The Reinvention of Moxie Roosevelt

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