Give Maggie a Chance

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

It is Maggie’s first day at school and she is eager to show her
reading skills to her teacher and new friends. Unfortunately, stage
fright causes Maggie to freeze up and make a fool of herself in front of
the whole class—much to the delight of Kimberly, the class showoff and
know-it-all. Maggie is devastated, but one nice boy named Sam tells her
that she will do better next time. To make sure, Maggie goes home and
practises reading in front of her stuffed toys. Eventually, Maggie does
get another chance to read in front of the class and, much to the
disgust of Kimberly, Maggie does well.

At first, it was hard to figure out why illustrator Dean Griffiths used
anthropomorphized cats as the characters in the book, when nowhere in
the text does Frieda Wishinsky mention cats or cat-related words. The
answer is in the humor Griffiths is able to inject by putting a cat head
on a human body. No critter on earth can scowl like a cat, and Griffiths
takes full advantage of this fact to repeatedly show Kimberly’s
displeasure at being bested by Maggie. Every Wishinsky quip—such as
having Maggie wish that Kimberly be locked in a dungeon with an ugly
troll—is magnified by Griffiths’s hilarious art. Highly recommended.