Book 21

Wouldn’t it be great to go back to the time before Pam got pregnant, before Patrick left for the University of Chicago, before anyone was making any big decisions about sex or college or life in general? Wouldn’t it be great to get the whole gang together again, just once? What it takes for this to happen will change Alice (and the whole gang) forever. A funeral is not a happy reunion. Full of life—the good, the bad, and the heartbreaking—this Alice book is a reminder of just how much can change in an instant.

Book 22

Alice in Charge

by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Published 15 June 2010
Alice's senior year is off to a rocky start in this relatable novel from Newbery Medalist and three-time Edgar Award–winning author Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.

It’s the beginning of Alice’s senior year and she finds herself facing some difficult situations. A sudden increase in vandalism at the school leads Alice to discover an angry and violent group of students—teenage neo-Nazis. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she learns that a new, attentive teacher has been taking advantage of her friend. Between these crises, harder classes, college applications, work, and friends, Alice wonders just how much responsibility she can take. It’s great to start feeling like a grown-up, but does the world really have to throw her everything all at once? Alice has the choice to step up…or melt down.

The decision is simple and true to the character that readers have loved for years: Alice steps up—and in a big way.

Book 23

With graduation, a wedding, a pregnancy, and a college decision in store, the end of high school is harder—and more emotional—than Alice ever imagined.

Get ready to start your own incredible, amazing life…right?

Alice McKinley is standing on the edge of something new—and half afraid she might fall off. Graduation is a big deal—that gauntlet of growing up that requires everyone she’s known since forever to make huge decisions that will fling them here and there and far from home. But what if Alice wants to be that little dandelion seed that doesn’t scatter? What if she doesn’t have the heart to fly off into the horizon on the next big breeze? And what if that starts to make her feel like staying close to home means she’s a little less incredible than her friends—and her boyfriend Patrick?

Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is be honest with yourself—and sometimes the most incredible thing you can do is sneak a little fun into all this soul-searching.

Book 24

Alice on Board

by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Published 22 May 2012
In her last adventure before starting college, Alice takes to the open sea for the summer—and nothing can stop the tides of change.

Everything Alice has ever known is about to change—from where she sleeps at night to how close her closest friends will be. So Alice is meeting that seasick feeling head-on by setting sail as staff on a Chesapeake Bay cruise ship. And like any last great adventure before starting college, Alice knows she’ll need sunblock, an open mind, and…oh yeah, all her best girlfriends. It’s the perfect summer job.
     Perfect, that is, when things are going perfectly. But when they’re not, Alice has to figure out how to weather unexpected storms of all sorts. Which could be perfect after all—perfect training for her next big adventure—college.

Book 25

It’s Alice—for the rest of her life! Yes, the very last Alice book, and it reveals every last bit you’d want to know about Alice, including whether she spends the rest of her life with Patrick! “This is the book where Alice, every girl’s girl, turns into every lady’s lady” (VOYA).

Alice McKinley is going to college! And everything, from her room to her classes to her friends, is about to change. Stoically, nervously, Alice puts her best foot forward…and steps into the rest of her life.

Will Alice’s dream of becoming a psychologist come true? Are she and her BFFs destined to remain BFFs? And with so many miles between them, will Alice and Patrick find each other again? Will there be baby Alices in her future? As Alice well knows, life isn’t always so predictable, and there are more than a few curveballs waiting to be thrown her way.

This is it. The grand finale. Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Alice McKinley will be revealed!

Starting with Alice

by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Published 1 September 2002
After she, her older brother, and their father move from Chicago to Maryland, Alice has trouble fitting into her new third grade class, but with the help of some new friends and her own unique outlook, she survives.

Lovingly Alice

by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Published 1 January 2004
Fifth grade is tumultuous for Alice as she tries to help others through the many changes occurring at home and in school, including learning about sex when Rosalind gets her period and shares a book that explains what is happening.

It's the moment Alice has been looking forward to for years--her sixteenth birthday is coming up, and that means getting her driver's license, with the freedom that entails. And before that important milestone, there's another delicious taste of freedom awaiting Alice and her friends--a class trip to New York City, promising some serious partying once chaperones have gone to bed. But sophomore year and driving lessons are a lot harder than Alice thought they would be, and then there's the problem with her new boyfriend, who is sometimes too attached to her. The older Alice gets, the more complicated her life seems to become.

Alice in Blunderland

by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Published 26 September 2003
Fourth-grader Alice tries unsuccessfully to avoid embarrassing mistakes and to establish better relations with her older brother Lester.







Dangerously Alice: During fall semester of her junior year of high school, Alice decides to change her good girl image, while major remodeling begins at home and some important relationships begin to change. Almost Alice: In the second semester of her junior year of high school, Alice gets back together with her old boyfriend Patrick, gets a promotion on the student newspaper, and remains a reliable, trusted friend. Intensely Alice: During the summer between her junior and senior years of high school, Maryland teenager Alice McKinley volunteers at a local soup kitchen, tries to do "something wild" without getting arrested, and wonders if her trip to Chicago to visit boyfriend Patrick will result in a sleepover.

Come and meet Alice. Here she is on the brink of being a teenager and discovering that life is just one big embarrassment. Things are not made any easier by the fact that she has no female role model - Alice's mother died when she was four - so there is just her father and older brother - and what could they possibly know about being a girl and growing up? Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's lively, witty style, mixed with poignance and perception, has captured the essence of adolescent anxieties as we follow Alice through the trials and tribulations of growing up. Alice is about to turn thirteen - time to become Woman of the House, Aunt Sally tells her, since her mother is long dead. It is an awesome responsibility, and some of her attempts to be a grown-up - like planning a birthday dinner for her father - turn out pretty disastrously. School brings other crises, as the boys in the cafeteria assign each girl a geographical nickname according to her figure. And a shocking and unexpected event forces Alice and everyone she knows to grow up a little, and wonder a little deeper about life and the future.