From School Library Journal
Grade 5-7-The perennial heroine of five Naylor novels is back in a droll tale of early adolescent pluck, curiosity, and angst. Motherless since early childhood, Alice finds turning 13 a time of awkward transition from girlhood to womanhood, a topic she never hesitates to discuss frankly with her father and older brother, Lester. The highlight of her summer is a visit with best friends Pamela and Elizabeth to her Aunt Sally's home in Chicago. The girls travel without a chaperone, enjoying the sophistication of an overnight train trip in a sleeper car. Pamela is comely and deceptively mature-looking, and when she attracts the persistent attention of an older man, Elizabeth and Alice boldly and humorously stage her rescue. A sober touch is provided when Mrs. Plotkin, Alice's beloved sixth grade teacher and surrogate mother, has a heart attack and is hospitalized. By summer's end, Alice is beginning to feel more in control of her fledgling maturation as she renews her special friendship with old flame Patrick. This is bound to reassure the many adolescent fans who can identify with the "in-between blues."-Susan W. Hunter, Riverside Middle School, Springfield, VT
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Booklist
Gr. 5-7. Naylor's books about Alice get better and better. This gentle, affectionate comedy dramatizes the uncertainty of being in-between. At 13 Alice feels she's no longer a kid, though she does slip back sometimes and act giggly and gross. She's not yet a young woman, though she does have lots of "intimate conversations" about boys and bodies, and she longs to have real cleavage to fill out her clothes. Her two best friends are like the opposing parts of herself. Pamela is suddenly sexy and flirting with danger. Elizabeth hates any talk of nudity and wedding nights, and she doesn't pass the pencil test when they measure their breasts. Alice is less of a klutz than she used to be in the early books, such as
The Agony of Alice (1985), though she's still bewildered about rituals like table manners ("It's what to eat and what to eat it with and how much to eat and what to say andÿ20.ÿ20.ÿ20."). Her widower dad has become just too sensitive, loving, and wise to be true, but the farce of her older brother, Lester, and his girlfriends continues to provide Alice with entertainment and instruction. His laconic one-liners are perfectly tuned. Alice says by eighth grade she and her friends will all be raving beauties. "
Raving, anyway," Lester says.
Hazel Rochman
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
