Ms. Bixby's Last Day

Middle grade fiction author John David Anderson initially published Ms. Bixby’s Last Day in 2016. The novel, a middle grade quest narrative, received numerous accolades, including a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, A Top Ten Kids Indie Next List Pick, A Junior Library Guild Selection, a School Library Journal Best of 2016 Selection, Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2016 Selection, New York Times Notable Children’s Books of 2016 Selection, and the Charlotte Huck Award Honor Book, among other awards. The novel, one of a dozen middle grade titles by Anderson, features three first-person narrators, each a 12-year-old-boy who is a sixth-grade student in a class taught by a free-spirited, 35-year-old teacher, Ms. Maggie Bixby. With little more than a month to go in the school year, Maggie announces she has received a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. With treatment progressing more rapidly than first announced, her students lose the opportunity to see her one last time—until Topher, Steve, and Brand decide to skip school and visit her in the hospital.

Originally published in 2016, discussed here is the 2017 paperback edition issued by Walden Pond Press, HarperCollins.

Content Warning: The Epilogue of Ms. Bixby’s Last Day contains a description of death, references to a traumatic work accident, and two fights.

Plot Summary

Christopher “Topher” Renn, the first narrator, describes running around the playground of Fox Ridge Elementary School, along with his two best friends, Steve Sakata and Brand Walker. They taunt a classmate, Rebecca, about having cooties, and she chases them until they encounter their teacher, Ms. Maggie Bixby. Topher describes the first time he ever saw Maggie at a circus where she was a juggler. Maggie settles the dispute between Rebecca and the boys. As they walk away, Topher notes that Maggie seems sad.

Steve, the second narrator, describes the day Maggie sat her students in a circle and told them she has pancreatic cancer and will miss the last month of school. He recalls the occasion when Maggie let him show the class his talent show honorable mention medal. This is significant to him because his older sister, who won the talent show gold medal, is typically the one receiving awards.

Narrator three, Brand, explains how he came to be friends with Topher and Steve, with whom he actually has little in common. He considers himself very fortunate to be their friend and to be in Maggie’s class. He then describes how Principal McNair comes into the classroom to explain that Maggie could not return for her intended final week and the planned farewell party must be canceled.

Topher describes how he, Steve, and Brand decided they will go to the hospital the coming Saturday to visit Maggie, since she could not come to the school for her party. They learn, however, that Maggie will fly to Boston for treatment that day, so they decide they will skip school on Friday so they can see her. As they are departing to visit Maggie, they encounter Mr. Mackelroy, the other sixth-grade teacher, who is late. Brand convinces the teacher to hurry toward the school and ignore the three boys who are skipping class.

Steve describes boarding a bus headed toward a mall. He shifts to a description of the way he and Topher met in the first grade, became friends, and remained best friends. The bus stops near Michelle’s Bakery, where the boys intend to get a special cheesecake, the first item they plan to take to Maggie. Steve recounts his father having a conference with Maggie because he felt dismay when Steve got a B in language arts. Maggie stood her ground, much to Steve’s delight. Returning to the narrative of the bakery, Brand comes out of the store after convincing the owner, Eduardo, to sell him the whole cheesecake at a discount.

Brand describes how the boys now make their way to a bookstore called Alexander’s. Brand relates a flashback in which he describes his father as a prankster and fun-loving person prior to the injury that left him unable to work. His father fell 30 feet off a scaffold above the ground. During his lengthy rehabilitation, Brand’s father ceased his physical therapy sessions.

Topher purchases a book. As the boys wait for a bus to go downtown, Topher takes out his sketchbook. In it, Brand sees a well-drawn portrait of Maggie. This upsets Topher. They fight over the sketchbook, accidentally tearing the book in half. As they ride a bus downtown, Topher tells Steve, the narrator, that his portrait of Maggie does not mean he has a crush on her.

Steve describes the way his sister has dominated his life as long as he can remember. Topher’s family is more detached. Steve describes going to a creek with Topher in the early spring where they discussed marriage and whether or not it was a worthy institution. Topher made Steve promise that he would never let Topher get married. Returning to the present, the boys get off the bus downtown. Topher finds a liquor store and asks a stranger in the street to buy a bottle of wine with the boys’ money as another gift for Maggie. As the boys study wine bottles, the man, named George, sneaks out of the liquor store with their money.

As the boys are chasing George, Topher tries to leap over a trash can and turns his ankle. They discover that running has battered the cheesecake, which now appears ruined. Brand says he is ready to go home, that their mission has failed.

Brand describes the results of his father’s injuries, which caused him to retreat from human interaction. Thus, Brand had no one to take him to the sixth-grade open house, where he met Maggie for the first time. She immediately took him under her wing. Sitting on the bus that will take him back to school, Steve tells the boys to duck when he sees George getting onto the bus with them.

Steve describes the way the boys follow George when he gets off the bus. They confront him in an alley, blocking both his exits, where George begins to fight the boys. George swings his fist at Brand, who ducks, and the punch hits Steve in the jaw. Claiming to have the whole encounter on video, they force George to give them the bottle of whiskey he is carrying and the few dollars left in his billfold.

Topher relates that the boys are at McDonald’s, acquiring a large order of French fries for Maggie, when Steve’s sister, Christina, enters the store. She confronts Steve about skipping school and threatens to call their mother. Topher flashes back to an occasion when he saw Maggie saving one of his drawings out of the trash in the classroom. She revealed that she saves creative work of exceptional students. After reaching a truce with his sister, Steve and the boys leave McDonald’s and walk to Saint Mary’s Hospital to visit Maggie.

Brand reveals to his friends that, for 10 weeks, Maggie helped him by picking him up and driving him to a grocery store. He describes the way Maggie helped him care for his father when they found him unconscious on the porch and called 911 to take him to the hospital.

When they finally reach Maggie’s hospital room, Topher notes that Maggie’s appearance has changed so dramatically that they first believe they are in the wrong room until she speaks. They persuade her to leave her room and walk to a nearby park, sneaking past the nurses’ station. Atop a hill in the park, they give her the treats that they brought, as well as a copy of The Hobbit, asking her to read the end of the story to them. They then say goodbye to Maggie before heading back to school.

Brand later reports that Maggie died from blood loss after surgery. Abe, Brand’s father, receives the message and goes to Brand’s room, where the three boys are playing video games, to tell Brand. The other boys know from the look on his face what has happened.

In the Epilogue, Topher describes an occasion when Maggie gave the class a difficult assignment, asking them what they would do if they had only one day to live. When the students asked the question of Maggie, she responded that she would want to enjoy exactly the three treats that the boys ended up bringing her in the hospital. She told the class they will always remember her after she’s gone.