Moxie
by Jennifer Mathieu; read by Suzy Jackson
High School     Recorded Books     Rev. 11/17
8 CDs     8.75 hrs.     978-1-5019-6805-1     $87.75

Vivian Carter, frustrated with the systemic sexism of her small-town Texas high school, secretly distributes a zine proclaiming, “Moxie girls fight back!” Though she’s shy in real life, Viv draws inspiration from her mom’s old Riot Grrrl music from the nineties. Soon, young women from every social sphere of the school are banding together and standing up for one another, but their actions also bring unwanted attention their way. As the drama of Viv’s protest builds to a crescendo, Jackson voices the teens’ increased confidence and fierce camaraderie without missing a beat. Jackson’s pitch-perfect narration makes the most of the book’s first-person perspective and snappy, energetic dialogue. The images of Viv’s zine, so central to the book, are of course missing from the audio, but the plot does not suffer greatly without them.

From the November/December 2018 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.