At first, Maggie is just being contrary when she tells her parents she doesn't need to learn cursive. Then her teacher, Mrs. Leeper, says Maggie's cursive is so untidy that when she writes her name it looks like "Muggie," which makes her whole class erupt in laughter. Now Maggie really wants nothing to do with those wiggly, squiggly, roller-coaster letters

But when Mrs. Leeper appoints Maggie class mail messenger, the notes Maggie must carry are all in cursive. Though she's unable to read them, she suspects that some of them are about her. But the only way to know for sure is to learn cursive . . . and Maggie can't go back on her word, can she?

Newbery Medal-winning author Beverly Cleary has once again created an irrepressible heroine in a book filled with the perceptive humor that has earned her generations of fans.