And Maggie Makes Three [Hardcover]

Joan Lowery Nixon (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up

Twelve-year-old Maggie, living with her grandmother in Houston, joins the drama club at school, wins a part in a play, begins to make friends, and learns to deal with feelings of loneliness, selfishness, being in love, and having an unusual family life and background.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Nixon's larky sequel to Maggie, Too jets into action when the motherless girl settles at home in Houston with her grandmother. Maggie is angry because her father, a famous filmmaker, has married a young "starlet" in Italy. The girl starts as a newcomer in the sixth grade and immediately gets into a fight with Jerico and Carter, impish boys. They vow vengeance and, in self-defense, loner Maggie befriends another new girl, Lisa. But the girls' rivalry as members of the drama club breaks them up while Jerico and Carter become good buddies. The misunderstandings are finally cleared up, friendships mended and happily restored. Maggie's dad and stepmother come to see her and Lisa's performance on stage, and Maggie even likes the "starlet," sort of. The best part of the story, though, is when Jerico and Carter keep the promise to get even, a hilarious scene.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8 Twelve-year-old Maggie lives with her librarian grandmother in Houston, Texas. She resents her famous father, who has just remarried and is in Europe directing a new film. Maggie is full of doubts about herself and her ability to make friends, but by the end of this fast-moving novel, she has demonstrated her talents as an actress in a school musical, made a close friend, and accepted her father's frequent absences and the presence of his 20-year-old wife. Maggie was first introduced in Maggie, Too (HBJ, 1985); here she seems a more self-aware person. Readers meeting her for the first time will find her and her grandmother well-developed and easy to understand characters, but the same cannot be said for Maggie's extended family, introduced in Maggie, Too but too quickly thrown at readers here. Also difficult to accept are Maggie's two classmates who give her a hard time; the fact that they are black is revealed only through their dialect and their depiction on the homely jacket. The novel closes with loose ends so suddenly and neatly tied up in the last chapter that readers will have a difficult time believing it. Ellen Fader, Westport Public Library, Conn.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books (J); 1st edition (April 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152503552
• ISBN-13: 978-0152503550
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,367,314 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Not too fluffy, not too grim, March 8, 2003

By 

Ann E. Nichols (Sierra Vista, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: And Maggie Makes Three (Hardcover)

This is book two of Ms. Nixon's books about a girl named Margaret Ledoux. The first is MAGGIE, TOO and the third is MAGGIE FOREVERMORE. I checked all three books out of my local library yesterday and read them today. I'm hoping that Ms. Nixon wrote more books about Maggie because I like her.

Maggie is 12, going on 13. Her beautiful mother died when she was two. Her movie director father has sent her to many boarding schools over the years because Maggie keeps getting into trouble. In the first book, Maggie's father married a beautiful young woman only 8 years older than Maggie. Kiki didn't think she could be a mother to Maggie, so Maggie was sent off to spend the summer with her mother's mother, Margaret Landry.

This book opens with young Maggie still living with Grandma in Houston, Texas. Her father and stepmother are in Europe. School is starting and it's Maggie's first time in a public school. She meets her friend, Lisa, and her sort-of enemy, Jerico, on the first day. (Jerico thought he was one tough guy, but when he picks on Maggie, he soon finds out that she's no wimp.)

Maggie joins the Drama Club and finds that she enjoys it. Her teacher was her mother's teacher, too, but Maggie doesn't tell Mrs. Finch that -- not even when Maggie and Lisa are trying out for the same part in the same play Maggie's mother was in when she was in school. Maggie doesn't know if she wants to get the part or not. Lisa is the first friend she's ever had. Oh, well, there's also the Junior High School Musical Review if Lisa wins.

If Maggie gets a part in either one, will her father come to see her peform? Maggie wants that so much she can taste it. On the other hand, Jerico has promised her he's going to get back at her -- sometime -- and it's going to be good. What has Jerico got in mind? Should Maggie worry?

By the way in the first chapter we learn that Maggie spent sixth grade at Miss Haversham's School for Girls. I think the author is having a little fun there because there's a famous character with that name in a book called GREAT EXPECTATIONS. Miss Haversham's fiance left her at the altar, which means he never showed up at their wedding. She got the news while she was getting into her wedding dress. By the time we meet her in the book, it's years and years later, but Miss Haversham is still wearing her wedding dress. She has only one shoe on because she hadn't put the other one on when she got the bad news. The stocking on the foot without a shoe is really ragged, but she still wears it. I'm not sure she ever took a bath after she heard. Miss Haversham went crazy and keeps her house the way it was then. The wedding feast is still on the table. That was a spooky scene in the movie. I think there were cobwebs and mice or rats all over what was left of the food.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It wasn't the greatest, April 29, 2000

By 

"pooppoop" - See all my reviews

This review is from: And Maggie Makes Three (Hardcover)

And Maggie makes three is a book about a girl who joins a drama club and Maggie gets a part along with those feelings of jealousness of her best friend getting a different part in a play, and being confused of her dad being far away and missing her big part, but coming for the small parts. I didn't like this book that much, because the author focused too much on little aspects.