Pixley, Marcella

PERSONAL:

Education: Vassar College, B.A., 1992.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Westford, MA.

CAREER:

Teacher and writer. Eighth-grade language arts teacher.

WRITINGS:

Freak, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor of poetry to periodicals, including Prairie Schooner.

SIDELIGHTS:

Marcella Pixley's debut novel Freak deals with issues familiar to many middle-school students: bullying, crushes, the search for uniqueness, sibling rivalry, and family miscommunication. In the novel, Pixley grapples with each of these issues from the perspective of central character Miriam Fisher. Awkward and unpopular, Miriam happily spends her days reading the Oxford English Dictionary and writing journal entries and poetry. Unfortunately, events conspire to undermine the preteen's comfortable routine. The school bullies single Miriam out for abuse, and her older sister—usually reliable as a friend and confidante—deserts her when she is accepted into the popular crowd at the high school. Then Miriam's parents agree to take in high-school senior Artie while his parents travel abroad. When the shy Miriam develops a crush on Artie, she must then watch in dismay as her sister becomes romantically involved with their new housemate. Pushed to her limit, Miriam responds with extreme measures, all of which are documented in her diary.

A Publishers Weekly correspondent called Freak "a disturbing tale that taps into the harsh reality of what it means to be a middle-school outcast." In the novel, Pixley's far-from-perfect protagonist is realistically portrayed, her endearing traits offset by fits of temper and intellectual snobbery, making Freaks "a powerful look at middle school angst and transformation," according to School Library Journal critic Nora G. Murphy. In Booklist Debbie Carton remarked that Miriam's conflicts "are especially riveting and believable," and a Kirkus Reviews critic praised Pixley's novel as "an expertly—and lovingly—narrated story."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 15, 2007, Debbie Carton, review of Freak, p. 62.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, October, 2007, Deborah Stevenson, review of Freak, p. 105.

Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2007, review of Freak.

Kliatt, September, 2007, Claire Rosser, review of Freak, p. 17.

Publishers Weekly, November 5, 2007, review of Freak, p. 65.

School Library Journal, November, 2007, Nora G. Murphy, review of Freak, p. 134.

Voice of Youth Advocates, August, 2007, C.J. Bott, review of Freak, p. 248.

ONLINE

Macmillan Publishing Web site,http://www.us.macmillan.com/ (October 31, 2008), "Marcella Pixley."