MOXIE, by Jennifer Mathieu

The story: Good Old Boys run things at East Rockport High School. Football players rule all, while the girls' soccer team hasn't gotten new uniforms since the 1990s. When Viv Carter looks at her mom's feminist stuff from her college days, the teen decides she needs to get in on the action too--and Moxie is born! "Moxie girls fight back" against sexism, racism, and just plain stupidity. But the sexists. racists, and stupids are way bigger and meaner than Viv and all her friends...do the Moxie girls really stand a chance?

June Cleaver's ratings: Language R; Violence PG; Sexual content PG-13; Nudity G; Substance abuse R; Magic & the occult G; GLBT content PG; adult themes (racism, sexism, and other -isms) PG-13; overall rating PG-13.

Liz's comments: With two Rs in the ratings (and with most, but not all, reviews rating it for 9th-up), this should probably be rated R overall, and yet I think there's a lot to recommend it to a smart 8th grade girl. Viv, the dutiful, responsible narrator, learns to know herself and comes to realize that people working together can accomplish great things--and that just because something's always been that way doesn't mean it has to stay that way. I liked this one a lot, and it will find a place on my MS library shelves...complete with that sticker that says "Bad Language Alert!"