Roxie’s Mall Madness

Abruptly Roxie turned away and started out the window. She couldn’t help Eli or Lacy – and not even Faye. Roxie bit her bottom lip to keep it from quivering. What good was she to anybody?

Book: Roxie’s Mall Madness by Hilda Stahl, Crossway Books, 1993

 

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Target Audience: Girls 12-15

Subjects: Friendship, relationships with family (siblings), showing love to others, power of prayer

Summary: Faye is keeping a puppy hidden in her room and gets Roxie to promise to not tell. Lacy is crying about something and won’t tell what and makes Roxie promise to not tell. Eli is hanging around the bad kids from school and makes Roxie promise not to tell. None of her siblings will listen to her or let her help them at all either! So what’s a sister to do? Roxie concludes the best thing to do is just get away from it all. So she starts hanging out at all the mall all the time. It’s there that she finds someone else who is using the mall to escape from home, but for quite a different reason than Roxie. Julie wants to get away from an empty house. Her parents aren’t around much and with break-ins in the neighborhood, Julie is scared to be home alone. Roxie wants to help Julie too, but just like all the others, Julie doesn’t want Roxie to tell anyone. How in the world can Roxie be of any help to anyone?

Notes: This book has two big lessons in it. The first is obviously showing love to others. There’s even a sort of side story going on about Roxie and her friends showing love to an elderly lady and making a big difference in her life by doing one simple act of kindness. Roxie’s heart is totally in the right place in this story – wanting desperately to help those she cares about. The other lesson that the book never specifically says but that should be obvious from reading it, is that sometimes you MUST tell an adult what is going on. A puppy hidden in a room, a boy hanging out with the wrong crowd, a sister who cries herself to sleep at night, a girl who is left home alone in a dangerous time and place – these are all serious issues. Roxie’s big mistake was agreeing to not tell the adults what was going on. And then keeping that promise when things got worse was also a mistake. Sometimes love means getting help. Roxie thought she could do it all on her own. She did learn that she at least needs Christ to help her and realized the power of prayer, but the book doesn’t specifically indicate that she learned it’s not always good to keep secrets.

Recommendation Scale: 4.5/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

Ephesians 6:18 – And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.