Alice Books
19 total works
Alice, who has survived sixth grade and The Summer of the First Boyfriend, soon discovers that it isn't so easy to be Alice the Likeable. Even her best friends get in the way sometimes. And just when she is sure no one has more problems than she does, she is drawn into the ones her twenty-year-old brother and her widowed father are facing, which seem worse. Thinking a favorite teacher may hold the answer to at least one difficulty, Alice ends up with a bigger mess than ever.
She realizes, however, that it is possible to overcome disaster and to find a way out of troubles. Most of all, she discovers, it's good to have a father and a brother who love you and look out for you. In fact, sometimes, having family is almost enough.
But, she reasons, if you don't have a mother, maybe a sister would help. Maybe lots of sisters, a worldwide sisterhood. Be like everyone else, do what others do, and best of all, be part of the "in" group. Then you have sympathy and protection.
It is with this in mind that Alice joins the All-Stars Fan Club and the earring club and becomes one of the Famous Eight. It helps, even when it's a bit boring. On the whole, Alice thinks, she is enjoying seventh grade more than she had ever expected.
Yet Sisterhood, even Famous Eighthood, does not take care of all of her problems or answer all of her questions about life and love. Can she be Sisters with all three girls who want to be her brother Lester's girlfriends? How does she treat the fact that her father is dating her teacher, Miss Summers? How do you accept a box of valentine candy from a boy? In fact, how do boys fit into Universal Sisterhood -- or is there a Universal Humanhood? How far do you go when being part of the crowd means doing something you don't want to do?
As in the earlier Alice books, Alice copes with life in her own way, and her answers to her endless problems are often funny and surprisingly right.
Of course, Alice is still in school. And there she faces another crisis. She might be Woman of the House at home, but in school she needs a different kind of name, one given by a table full of boys in the cafeteria Depending on their figures, girls are being given state names-- some states have mountains and others do not. Will flat, flat Delaware or Louisiana be her fate? Alice lives in fear that it might be, though even worse is the fear that she might not get a name at all.
The month ends with a dinner party for her father's birthday (part of being Woman of the House) that has more downs than ups-- and with a totally unexpected event that makes Alice and everyone she knows grow up a little and wonder a little deeper about life and the future. April is a hard month, but reading about "Alice in April" is to find that most tragedies (though not all) pass and tears can turn to laughter and delight.
What she needs, Alice decides, is a gorgeous woman who does everything right, as a roadmap, so to speak. If only she finds herself, when school begins, in the classroom of the beautiful sixth-grade teacher, Miss Cole, her troubles will be over. Unfortunately, she draws the homely, pear-shaped Mrs. Plotkin. One of Mrs. Plotkin's first assignments is for each member of the class to keep a journal of their thoughts and feelings. Alice calls hers "The Agony of Alice, " and in it she records all the embarrassing things that happen to her.
Through the school year, Alice has lots to record. She also comes to know the lovely Miss Cole, as well as Mrs. Plotkin. And she meets an aunt and a female cousin whom she has not really known before. Out of all this, to her amazement, comes a role model -- one that she would never have accepted before she made a few very important discoveries on her own, things no roadmap could have shown her. Alice moves on, ready to be a wise teenager.
She's also starting to notice that even though Dad and Sylvia are perfectly happy together, not everyone gets along so well. Elizabeth and Ross never see each other; Leslie and Lori are breaking up; Pamela and her mother can't seem to find a way to even talk to each other; and Alice herself has started to hear some surprising rumors about Patrick....
As Alice watches her friends sort out their problems and sees her dad and Sylvia navigate their new marriage, she starts to understand all the hard work that goes into relationships and how even when people seem to be meant for each other, it's not always easy to be together.
Funny, realistic, and always provocative, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor does it again, proving that she understands what real girls think and feel, with this twenty-second book in the beloved Alice series.