Maggie, Too

Rating:
Summary: Good start in a trilogy that makes me wish there were more
Review: Margaret Ledoux is 12 years old, has straight brown hair, and is 20 pounds overweight. Her beautiful mother died when she was only two. Her father is a famous film director. Margaret has been in one boarding school after another because she keeps getting into trouble. She hates her latest school and everyone there.

If Margaret thought her life stank like week-old gym socks, it gets worse in the first chapter. Daddy is getting married again to a beautiful starlet named Kiki. Kiki doesn't want to live in their old house with all the memories of Margaret's mother, so it's going to be sold. Worse, Kiki doesn't think she can be a mother to a 12 year-old, so Margaret is being sent to Houston to live with her mother's mother for the summer.

Margaret doesn't want to meet Kiki. She's so upset that she can't get away fast enough even if she hasn't seen her Grandma since she was too young to remember her.

Grandma is nice and younger looking than Margaret expected. Grandma is hoping they'll have a nice, quiet summer together, getting to know each other. It doesn't work out that way, of course.

The first night, a neighbor and her two little kids come over because a guy with a gun is at their house. They're staying with Grandma awhile. The guy with the gun makes the news. That brings Uncle Dennis with an enormous hairball on legs called Flowerpot [no joke] because he wants Grandma to be protected. The "guard" dog turns out to be good for big, slobbery licks and tearing around the house.

Aunt Janet is all upset because her husband is very busy being a doctor and can't read her mind, so she uses the news as an excuse to come over with a burglar alarm and her two kids. Now Margaret has to share her room with little cousin Debbie, who can hog a bed worse than a cat. Her brother, Jason, is no angel either.

Aunt Sharon isn't upset with her husband, but she's worried about Grandma, too, so *she* comes to add to noise and crowding.
The aunts and uncle want Grandma to sell her house and move into a secure apartment. Grandma doesn't want to. They won't listen.

Margaret isn't used to this. She's got to get away. One of the local radio stations is having a contest for a dream vacation at the beach. Margaret buys over 200 post cards and fills them out to enter that contest. Meanwhile, the jerk with gun is out on bail......

Rating:
Summary: Good start in a trilogy that makes me wish there were more
Review: Margaret Ledoux is 12 years old, has straight brown hair, and is 20 pounds overweight. Her beautiful mother died when she was only two. Her father is a famous film director. Margaret has been in one boarding school after another because she keeps getting into trouble. She hates her latest school and everyone there.

If Margaret thought her life stank like week-old gym socks, it gets worse in the first chapter. Daddy is getting married again to a beautiful starlet named Kiki. Kiki doesn't want to live in their old house with all the memories of Margaret's mother, so it's going to be sold. Worse, Kiki doesn't think she can be a mother to a 12 year-old, so Margaret is being sent to Houston to live with her mother's mother for the summer.

Margaret doesn't want to meet Kiki. She's so upset that she can't get away fast enough even if she hasn't seen her Grandma since she was too young to remember her.

Grandma is nice and younger looking than Margaret expected. Grandma is hoping they'll have a nice, quiet summer together, getting to know each other. It doesn't work out that way, of course.

The first night, a neighbor and her two little kids come over because a guy with a gun is at their house. They're staying with Grandma awhile. The guy with the gun makes the news. That brings Uncle Dennis with an enormous hairball on legs called Flowerpot [no joke] because he wants Grandma to be protected. The "guard" dog turns out to be good for big, slobbery licks and tearing around the house.

Aunt Janet is all upset because her husband is very busy being a doctor and can't read her mind, so she uses the news as an excuse to come over with a burglar alarm and her two kids. Now Margaret has to share her room with little cousin Debbie, who can hog a bed worse than a cat. Her brother, Jason, is no angel either.

Aunt Sharon isn't upset with her husband, but she's worried about Grandma, too, so *she* comes to add to noise and crowding.
The aunts and uncle want Grandma to sell her house and move into a secure apartment. Grandma doesn't want to. They won't listen.

Margaret isn't used to this. She's got to get away. One of the local radio stations is having a contest for a dream vacation at the beach. Margaret buys over 200 post cards and fills them out to enter that contest. Meanwhile, the jerk with gun is out on bail......