Allergic

“The baby wasn’t even born yet and it was already taking up way too much of their time…but Mom and Dad could keep being baby obsessed, for all I cared.”

Maggie thinks her parents are focused on the coming baby to the exclusion of all else. Here, she implies that she’s okay with this, but the fact that she considers them “obsessed” suggests that she probably isn’t happy about it. While she thinks these thoughts, her parents are talking in the front seat of their minivan and her brothers are playing in the back seat, leaving Maggie alone in the middle seat, with no one engaging her in their conversation or actions. Both the words and the illustration give the impression that she’s lonely in her home.

“Looks like some intense animal allergies here.”

The doctor’s words emphasize the crux of Maggie’s problem. She desperately wants a pet, especially a dog, but learns that she’s allergic to animals with fur or feathers. She becomes distressed after hearing this news. Maggie’s allergies pose the central problem in the novel and influence various scenes.

“A nurse will give you a packet with more information…including some paperwork about allergy shots.”

Maggie is heartbroken after hearing the news that she shouldn’t have any pets with feathers or fur because of her allergies. Now she hears briefly about allergy shots, and she panics. While she never shares her feelings about shots in words, her facial expressions and nonverbal language in the pictures every time shots are mentioned show how afraid of them she is. Maggie experiences fairly strong anxiety in this scene and others in the novel.

“Can me and Liam get a pet, too? It’s Maggie’s fault we couldn’t get a dog.”

Noah’s words here understandably upset Maggie. She doesn’t like being blamed for their not being able to get a dog, especially because she’s the family member who most wants a dog. The boys joke around a lot but can also be callous. Eventually, they do get a couple of the pets that Maggie decides she doesn’t want.

“Do not handle or touch your frog or toad unless absolutely necessary.”

When Maggie reads these words on the frog and toad cases at the pet store, she decides not to get either animal as a pet. This reveals that one of the traits she desires most is the ability to hold and play with a pet. She wants to nurture an animal, not just watch it from a distance.

“First a new school, and then a new baby. Why couldn’t things just stay the same?”

Maggie thinks these thoughts as she walks to the bus stop with her dad and brothers. They reflect the extent to which she feels a lack of control over her life. Things change against her will, and this led her to become so nervous earlier in the morning that she choked on her drink.

“It’s not my fault that I’m allergic! But it felt like all my fault.”

These thoughts represent two key problems that Maggie has. First, she struggles emotionally because she feels like it’s her fault that she’s allergic to pets and that her class must therefore give up its pet guinea pig. Second, the other students blame her, as evident through their glances, for having to give up the class pet. She already has no friends because she’s new at the school, and now many of her classmates resent her.

“But I still didn’t know what to do with my room. It used to feel so me, but now…”

Maggie’s room represents her view of herself. She’s changing, and things are changing around her. She’ll soon have a new baby sibling, she must start fifth grade in a new school, and she finds out that she’s allergic to dogs. Since everything is changing, her sense of identity feels uncertain. Therefore, she doesn’t know how to decorate her bedroom.

“Oh yeah. ‘Cause she’s awesome.”

These words show that Claire is a good friend to Maggie. She’s a year older than Maggie, and when her sixth-grade friends react with near disgust to learn that she’s friends with a fifth grader, instead of turning her back on Maggie, Claire defends her, calling her “awesome.” This leads Maggie to consider Claire the “perfect” friend.

“Sure! Of course! Anything for you! Other people have to wait and wish and dream for things. But you always get anything you ever want right away!!”

Maggie imagines Claire’s father saying this to her when she asks for a puppy. She sees Claire’s life as better than hers because she thinks Claire gets whatever she wants. These words demonstrate her bitterness and jealousy of Claire. What she doesn’t consider, however, is the reason that her father is especially lenient. He’s trying to make up for some serious struggles that she has experienced.

“Ned, don’t forget to remind her to do the deep breathing we’ve been working on.”

The novel doesn’t use the word “anxiety,” but Maggie frequently feels nervous and upset, and her mother helps her relax through deep breathing. Hannah’s reminder to her husband illustrates that Hannah is an attentive and caring mother who teaches Maggie to have some control over her responses to life’s challenges.

“It hadn’t occurred to me that maybe I wasn’t the only one who missed being friends…After all, now that Claire had Lucky for company, why would she need me?”

Maggie starts to open herself up to empathy. Thus far in the novel, she has focused only on her feelings in all her relationships. Now, as she wonders how Claire feels about the break in their friendship, she finally considers another person’s perspective. These words also show, however, that she undervalues her own contributions to the relationship when she notes that since her friend has a dog, she doesn’t need Maggie anymore.

“What they do is give you a shot with a tiny bit of the thing you’re allergic to in it. And then they add more and more over time, to build up your immune system.”

One purpose of the novel is to educate the reader about allergies and different types of allergies. Here, Maggie explains to Claire the purpose and process of allergies. Earlier in the novel, the doctor explains to Maggie what allergies are, and later, Sebastian tells her about food allergies, anaphylaxis, and his epi-pen. The novel entertains, but it also provides important information about this common medical condition and the approaches to treatment for different forms of the condition.

“The best pet Ever.”

These words explain a key facet of Maggie’s personality: the tendency to think in black-and-white terms. On two other occasions, she declares that a particular day will either be the “best” or the “worst” day ever. Previously, she characterized Claire as the “perfect” friend, and here she characterizes her mouse in a similar way. Because she thinks about things in simplistic, absolute terms, she’s often very emotional and struggles to rein in those emotions.

“It wasn’t your fault. You don’t get to choose your allergies.”

Sebastian tries to convince Maggie that her allergies aren’t her fault. She bears the burden of thinking that her brothers can’t get a dog and her class can’t have a guinea pig because of her allergies. Sebastian’s point is that although her allergies do prohibit people around her from having pets, she didn’t choose to have allergies and has no control over having them.

“Do not touch the baby mice for at least two weeks.”

Maggie reads these practical words in her mouse-care book and heeds the instruction, which reveals an important aspect of her character. Although she often overlooks the needs and feelings of other people as she focuses on her own, she cares for her mice meticulously. She follows all the instructions in the book and thus avoids holding the baby mice for the recommended length of time even though she really wants to. This demonstrates that she can act selflessly when she needs to.

“Come on, Maggie, you’re allergic. I can’t eat eggs no matter how much I want to! Facts are facts, Maggie! You can’t outsmart science!”

These words, with which Maggie imagines Sebastian admonishing her in her daydream, illustrate two key features of the novel. The first is Sebastian’s love for facts. When he doesn’t know the answer to Maggie’s question about allergy shots and food allergies, he decides to research this, and he creates a book of facts. Here, she envisions him insisting on the primacy of facts rather than trying to “outsmart science.” Second, these words illustrate how Maggie still has difficulty accepting the facts when she doesn’t want to. Previously, she tried to convince people that she was sick rather than allergic. Here, she continues to deny the reality of her situation.

“I wanted a pet that would love me most of all! You and Mom have each other and the baby. Noah and Liam are twins! I don’t have anyone that’s just mine.”

Maggie’s words to her father, as he comes in and talks to her after learning about her mice, identify the cause of her distress and why she wants a pet so badly. In addition, they explain how she feels left out in her family. Her father responds by affirming her feelings rather than trying to change them, which helps advance the theme of Empathy and Compassion.

“You never know…Maybe it will be even better.”

Maggie’s mom says this to her when she’s about to have the baby. All along, Maggie hasn’t liked change. She emotionally resisted starting a new school, and she has dreaded how the baby might change her family’s dynamics. She has never considered that change might instead make her life better. Even after her mother says these words, she doesn’t believe that life will be better with the baby.

“How come you don’t like me and Noah?”

Liam asks Maggie this question as she settles in to sleep in the boys’ room. She tells him that it’s because they don’t need her, but his question signifies her previous lack of consideration for other people’s feelings. She never considered how her brothers felt about her; she was always certain that they were perfectly content to just have each other.

“Maybe we can make pancakes…together? They could be birthday pancakes, since it’s the baby’s birthday!”

Maggie hasn’t wanted to spend time with her brothers before today. Here, she suggests an activity they can do together, signifying a change in their relationship. She’s also acknowledging the baby’s birth by invoking a family tradition, showing that she’s slowly learning to accept her new sister.

“I bet we can fix it.”

These words refer to the broken friendship necklace, which symbolizes Maggie and Claire’s friendship. Their friendship has experienced multiple riffs, but here, as the two discuss repairing the necklace, which Maggie broke earlier, they’re symbolically referring to mending their friendship.

“Oh, you’re the best little baby in the whole world, oh yes you are!”

All along, Maggie has dreaded her sister being born. Even when she first meets her, she doesn’t want to hold her. However, once she holds her and comforts her, she falls in love with her. Here, Maggie turns her all-or-nothing, black-or-white thinking toward her new sister, referring to her as the “best.”