Moxie and the Art of Rule Breaking

“How could you say no to a book that's described as ‘for fans of The Westing Game and From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler’?”—The Atlantic Wire

Moxie Fleece knows the rules and follows them--that is, until the day she opens her front door to a mysterious stranger. Suddenly Moxie is involved in Boston's biggest unsolved mystery: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art heist. Moxie has two weeks to find the art, otherwise she and the people she loves will be in big-time danger.

Her tools? Her best friend, Ollie, a geocaching addict who loves to find stuff; her Alzheimer's suffering grandfather, Grumps, who knows lots more than he lets on; and a geometry proof that she sets up to sort out the clues.

It's a race against the clock through downtown Boston as Moxie and Ollie break every rule she's ever lived by to find the art and save her family.

“…the believable dialogue and characters, complicated family dynamics, and threat of danger make this mystery hard to put down.”—Publishers Weekly
 
“Plot and character drive this lively book . . . Fans of Blue Balliett’s Chasing Vermeer will appreciate the similarities: using math to solve real-life dilemmas, depending on a best friend when times are rough, and learning that urban centers are rich in history, culture, and crime.”—Booklist
 
“This fast-paced, National Treasure–style mystery puts an imaginative spin on the real story behind the infamous theft of several masterpieces from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum . . . Moxie narrates the breathless, action-packed tale in a humorous first person, maintaining the suspense almost to the end.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
“. . . readers will . . . get caught up in the breathless thrill-ride.”—School Library JournalErin Dionne is the author of Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies, The Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet, and Notes from an Accidental Band Geek. She broke her share of rules as a kid, and has always been fascinated with real-life mysteries. When not writing about the miseries, mysteries, and magic of middle school, or teaching Liberal Arts at a small college north of Boston, Erin catches Red Sox games and rocks out to local Boston bands. She lives with her husband and two children in Framingham, Massachusetts.