Middle Grade book review on Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu.
Fed up with the way girls are being treated in her school, Vivian inadvertently starts a revolution after she distributes leaflets expressing her opinion.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is really easy to get into. What is happening in Vivian’s school is so unfair I had no trouble rooting for her and her mission. What the boys in the school are doing – the sexist comments and disrespectful treatment of girls – it’s like stepping back forty years.
The author has made a realistic portrayal of the initial acceptance of the girls on how they are being treated. They took courage from her newsletter and made little steps that showed, as a collective, all the girls in the school felt the same way. I love the illustration and the handwriting of the newsletter.
One slightly disappointment was that I correctly predicted one of the character’s role in the story. I would have preferred not to have spotted it as it would have made the story more satisfying read. Perhaps if the author had fleshed out this character more, it might have been less obvious. For this, overall I rate it 3.8*
Goodreads Blurb
It’s time to fight like a girl!
Vivian Carter is fed up. Fed up with her high school teachers who think the football team can do no wrong. Fed up with sexist dress codes, hallway harassment and gross comments from guys during class. But most of all, Viv Carter is fed up with always following the rules.
Viv’s mum was a tough-as-nails, punk rock Riot Grrrl in the ’90s, and now Viv takes a page from her mother’s past and creates Moxie, a feminist zine that she distributes anonymously to her classmates. She’s just blowing off steam, but other girls respond and spread the Moxie message. As Viv forges friendships with other young women across the divides of cliques and popularity rankings, she realises that what she has started is nothing short of a girl revolution.
TIME TO FIGHT LIKE A GIRL
A page-turning read with a feminist message, for anyone who has ever had to deal with #everydaysexism
Justine Laismith 