Maggie the Freak

by Eve Bunting, Lucyna A. Green (Illustrator)

Maggie worries that there is no boy in her high school who won't be put off by her athletic ability or her interest in cars.

53 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Also known as Evelyn Bolton and A.E. Bunting.

Anne Evelyn Bunting, better known as Eve Bunting, is an author with more than 250 books. Her books are diverse in age groups, from picture books to chapter books, and topic, ranging from Thanksgiving to riots in Los Angeles. Eve Bunting has won several awards for her works.

Bunting went to school in Ireland and grew up with storytelling. In Ireland, “There used to be Shanachies… the shanachie was a storyteller who went from house to house telling his tales of ghosts and fairies, of old Irish heroes and battles still to be won. Maybe I’m a bit of a Shanchie myself, telling stories to anyone who will listen.” This storytelling began as an inspiration for Bunting and continues with her work.

In 1958, Bunting moved to the United States with her husband and three children. A few years later, Bunting enrolled in a community college writing course. She felt the desire to write about her heritage. Bunting has taught writing classes at UCLA. She now lives in Pasadena, California.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maggie is such a freak I could barely get through this book. This book is basically American Horror Story: Freak Show except that the main character (Maggie) is less cuddly and more apt to make people barf because she is so deformed and horrible.

Everyone knows boys hate beautiful, athletic, leggy girls who share their interests in cars and sports. Maggie knows this too, which is why she rightfully hates herself. In the end, however, she helps fix a boy's car and realizes she is basically Megan Fox so ok now everything is fine. I guess she doesn't watch movies or read magazines or have a mirror.

The only good thing I can say about Body Dysmorphic Disorder is that without it, this book could never be written and Eve Bunting would have had to write about gender roles or abortion or something I guess.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tall girl who is also good at everything has mild depression due to her lack of love life. Her friend says, "If you would just suck at things then people would like you. After all, it's not like boys are lining up down the block for you." So then she pretends to suck at life a little and gets a date. He drives her to the movies in some shitty old car and they take a romantic detour to caress each other in the sunset. But the car is unreliable and they get stranded. Then she remembers that she's good at everything so she fixes the car and saves the date. He touches her hair with his lips and tells her that she has green eyes and is big. She loves to be so big. But you don't find out whether they ever made it to the movie or how it was.

So I'll finish the story. The movie was really good but she got too comfortable with him and let out a giant burp in their popcorn. He was so disgusted that he spontaneously turned gay and they became best friends because he realized that she could do a great Cher impression and so could he.

[Reading with Cats · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maggie is a freak like romance heroines are plain 🙄
1.5 stars