Have you ever read a book in which the main character could be your long-lost twin? When Rae Marsh reached out to me over the summer to see if my family would enjoy her Love, Maggie series, I couldn’t believe how how much it sounded like the main character and my younger daughter had in common. Turns out my younger daughter is also the target age range for these books, so I responded and said we’d absolutely love to give these books a try. After reading them, if I didn’t know better, I would have told you Marsh modeled Maggie after my daughter, because they had so much in common!
Read more: The Love, Maggie series by Rae Marsh
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Written in diary format, the Love, Maggie series starts with Love, Maggie: Chronicles of Third Grade, in which we meet Maggie Montgomery as she comes off of “the BEST summer of her life!” and starts third grade. We journey with her as she meets her new teacher and classmates, starts a running club, tries to keep up with her “perfect” fifth grade sister, navigates soccer and basketball tryouts (spoiler alert — she doesn’t make one of the teams!), gets braces, says goodbye to a friend who moves away, earns a part in the spring musical, and more.
At the end of Love, Maggie: Chronicles of Third Grade, Marsh includes a diary entry in which Maggie reflects on the things she learned in third grade that she thinks will stick with her forever, and I am so grateful for that inclusion. I’d love for my daughters to do a similar reflection at the end of their school years, thinking through their highs and lows and all they learned from the experiences, so I’m glad to have this modeled in Maggie… Maybe we’ll do the same at the end of this school year!
My newly-minted third grader’s thoughts on Love, Maggie: Chronicles of Third Grade: “This one it tells all about her and I am a lot like her and that was the best part of the first book. Maggie is adventurous and lively, and she likes her dog GG. I really liked when she ran 35 laps for the school Fun Run.”
In the second book, Love, Maggie: The Greatest Summer Ever!!!, Maggie is back, but this time coming to us through diary entries written over the course of the summer between third and fourth grade. Through these diary entries, we walk with Maggie through summer break adventures, the death of her “special Grandma,” goes to circus camp (yes, circus camp… Keep reading for more on that one!), turns nine and celebrates with a surprise birthday dinner, and more.
My circus-camp-loving daughter’s thoughts on Love, Maggie: The Greatest Summer Ever!!!: “I think this one was like me too because I went to a Circus Camp this summer too. I liked when she tried surfing!”
Even though the Love, Maggie books are written by an adult in diary format, these books read as if an eight-year-old girl had written. We follow her train of thought and emotions in what feels like an unfiltered way, and I think this is the main reason my daughter loved these books so much. Not only did she see herself in Maggie, she was able truly think about Maggie’s daily life the way Maggie did! Readers will also enjoy the full-color illustrations scattered throughout each book.
I’m telling you… Maggie was like my daughter seeing 100% of herself reflected in a book! I mean, the odds of someone sending my daughter a book about going to circus camp just weeks after she went to circus camp herself… I almost still can’t believe it!
Marsh has written a third book in the series, titled Love, Maggie: The Case of the Missing Scooter… Don’t tell our daughter that she’ll be getting that one for her upcoming ninth birthday!
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