Alice in Charge

Alice in Charge Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

It's Alice's senior year and she seems to think that now she's almost an adult, and off to college next year, she can no longer ask for help with anything, because "doing it yourself" is part of being grownup. So, there were a lot fewer conversations where her dad and Lester only talk as a way to impart VALUABLE INFORMATION ABOUT LIFE STUFF to the reader. So that was nice, but Alice's attitude bothered me and just led to a lot of "I'm so stressed out and can't handle this" self-invented drama.

Along with this, Alice befriends a Sudanese refugee and teaches him our American ways, battles a hate group at school, battles a sketchy teacher, and is (rather condescendingly/patronizingly) nice to a student who seems to be on the autism spectrum, but it isn't specified.

The ending, as usual is a little pat, and Naylor's explanation as to why people join hate groups is over-simple to the point of being insipid* but Alice is so gosh-darn EARNEST and reminds me a lot of me at that age that I really like her, even though Naylor has no eye for little details.

For instance:

Pam wants to go to school in New York, it has to be New York, the implication being New York CITY. She lists all these schools she's thinking about, and they're all in the city, except then she mentions Cornell. Which is in New York STATE, not City. (And according to Google maps, is the same distance, time-wise, from the city as Silver Spring is.)

It seems really, really weird that Kay's parents would have had an arranged marriage. Arranged marriages aren't that common in modern China and are most likely to take place in rural areas among classes that would be unable or very unlikely to have the money and skills necessary to immigrate to the US. So, unless Kay's parents are 100 years old, this is just... no.

Molly has a boyfriend who's "Indian. Pakistani, anyway." Because they're TOTALLY THE SAME THING. And I bet he's totally ok with his girlfriend thinking they are.

Why are 2,714 people graduating with Les? And why are they all WALKING? Speaking as someone who has gotten a Master's degree from Maryland in the past few years, grad students are invited to the big ceremony, but no one walks and most don't go. Each school has its own graduation ceremony where they walk. And I highly doubt that 2,714 people are earning a Masters in Philosophy at a December graduation. Naylor does get points for pointing out the totally true ridiculousness that graduation is 2 days before Christmas. (I walked on the 22nd. FOR REALZ.)

What is with Alice enjoying cheesy school presentations by outside groups on various dangers facing teens? Does Naylor really think most kids think these are actually funny and cool?

So, yeah, I've often blogged about my love/hate relationship with this series. Why can I love a character, but hate the books so much? Alice deserves better than poorly-researched after-school specials she gets thrown into.


*SPOILER ALERT! It's because his father is emotionally abusive! And says he's too wussy to be a Marine. So that's why he's a Neo Nazi.

Book Provided by... my local library

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A Slightly Different Alice

Intensely Alice Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

I've talked before about my love/hate relationship with Alice McKinley. On the one hand, Alice is one of the most real characters in YA lit. On the other, her voice is no where near real and each book is an after school special. It's a really weird mix.

And the latest installment is no exception. I won't say what the After School Special is, because, like in most of the books, it happens at the end. They all tend to follow this formula: life-life-minor conflict-life-minor conflict-life-life-minor conflict-life-life-BAM! MAJOR WTF EVENT!

It's the summer before senior year. Patrick's off to University of Chicago. Carol's getting married. Alice is trying to figure out what to do after school...

Minor things-- Naylor seems to think that campus fliers are day specific-- "Everytimg we made a turn, it seemed, there was a poster of a bulletin board promoting an organization or a lecture, a concert, a play. Being Sunday, there were notices about religious services and discussions..." Um, no. They'd be there all week long.

Major things-- after Carol's wedding, Alice refers to them as Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Swenson. REALLY?! Only Aunt Sally would think that's appropriate. Why would Alice, who has spent previous books so obsessed with the "Sisterhood" say something so outdated?! Especially in relationship to CAROL of all people?!!!!!! ALSO, Alice lets Patrick order for her, because "I wanted to try whatever he liked best." I mean, just ask him and then order dude. When did she get so... subservient?

While the book was fine, I do not like who Alice was when she was in Chicago. And I don't think it's that Alice changed, but that Naylor just really lost touch with things when writing this and thought it was 1950 or something. While the voice issues usually just annoy me, this just made me angry.

Copy from: the library


Book Provided by...

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For 24 years, I've been living next door to Alice...

Last week I blogged about the changing covers of the Alice McKinley series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Today, I thought I'd blog about the books. I just read 10 Alice books more or less in a row. Separating them out into 10 different reviews is too much work (sorry) so this is just one mass review of the last half of the series. As such, there will probably be some spoilers.

The books I'm looking at are:

Alice On The Outside In which Alice worries about whether or not she's "in" or "out"--complete with quotation marks. Also prejudice and racism! And a lesbian! (Ok, with all the changing covers on this series, WHY does this one still look like it's from 1987? Especially when it came out in 1999?!)

The Grooming of Alice In which there is an eating disorder. Kinda. Not really.

Alice Alone Breaking up is haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaard toooooooo doooooooooo!

Simply Alice In which Alice develops outside interests and Liz and Pam resent her for it. Also! The one with abusive boyfriends!

Patiently Alice In which we talk a lot more about racism.

Including Alice What happens when the step-mother of your dreams finally moves in and you have to see her before she's had her coffee?

Alice on Her Way In which Alice gets her drivers license, goes to New York, and has a new boyfriend who is super clingy. We also learn a valuable lesson about reputations.

Alice in the Know In which there is beer and pot and a friend with cancer.

Dangerously Alice In which Alice has a boyfriend who wants to go further than she does and there's a car accident.

Almost Alice The one with teen pregnancy.

I have a love/hate relationship with Alice. I mean, I wish I was reading this series when I was in junior high and high school (although these books are the most relevant to that time and they all came out after I graduated from high school). I like that Alice sees all the issues around her, but even when she's "living dangerously" she's a pretty straight-laced. We don't have that many characters in YA lit, where they see everything going on around them, don't overly condemn it, but realize it's not for them, which I think is actually a lot of teens. I think Alice worries about a lot of things that most teen girls worry about but don't often put voice to.

On the other hand... everything in the world happens to Alice's friends. Seriously. Every book is a new after-school special. BUT! Everything ends up nice and normal. A friend almost has an eating disorder (I'm sorry Naylor, but no, you can't be "getting a little anorexic") but her friends and family help her see that she's lost too much weight, so she starts eating again and everything is fine. A friend is pregnant but luckily miscarries the baby so she doesn't have to make any of the hard decisions about what to do with it, or even tell her father!

Then, there's Alice's voice. Where I love her feelings and questions, Alice doesn't talk like an authentic teen. When talking about Pam's relationship with her parents in The Grooming of Alice, Alice doesn't say that Pam and her dad fight all the time, no, they "quarrel." In one of the earlier books (before they break up) Alice is talking about how wonderful Patrick is at everything. But, instead of saying that he's good at everything he does, Alice says he's "competent." Really. And this is a boy she really likes, not someone she's stretching to say something nice about.

Also, why the @#$#, when she's talking about how awesome Sylvia Summers (her father's girlfriend/fiance/wife) is, does she ONLY talk about how pretty she is? This passage is from Patiently Alice but pretty much the same thing gets said in every book before Sylvia moves in:

Sylvia, with her blue eyes and light brown hair, her wonderful smile and wonderful scent, seemed the perfect [role] model for me and the perfect wife for Dad.

Nothing about how she was nice or caring or had similar interests. NOPE! Alice apparently wants this woman for her mother because she's pretty. And while not admirable, that might be true when Alice firsts gets to know her, but Sylvia has been in the picture for awhile now, and Alice can honestly say that Sylvia is nice and caring and has similar interests. Through the books and plot, we get these things and I have a pretty good feeling that that is why Alice really likes Sylvia, but when she's giving all the basic info in the first few pages? Alice only likes her because she's pretty and smells good.

One other thing really bugged me. In Patiently Alice, the girls all go off to be summer camp counselors for inner city kids. Now Alice got a token black friend in Alice on the Outside, but there are also some race issues in this one. In order to make the kids see that everything isn't all black and white, Gwen puts out black, white, red, and yellow paint and has the kids mix colors together until they get their own skin tone. The moral being that everyone needs a little of every color to get the mix right. BUT! Then one of the girls paints red stripes on her skin and says "Look! I'm an Indian!" and everyone laughs. No discussion (because lots of discussion only takes place to teach morals and life lessons in this series) about stereotyping or racism against Native Americans. Nope, it's a bonding moment amongst everyone. Ha. Ha. Ha. Grrrrr.

Even though a lot of discussion (especially with Alice's Dad or older brother) only takes place so that a RESPONSIBLE ADULT can give us all some guidance, I do really miss those discussions when Sylvia moves in. While there are a lot of adjustments when Sylvia joins that family, that doesn't seem to be one that Alice overly misses. Which seemed odd to me.

And, to end on a positive note, in Alice on her Way, we find out that Alice is Unitarian Universalist. This really excites me because I was raised UU and we don't see a lot of UU kids in literature and when none of your classmates have heard of your religion, well. Ok, so it never comes out and says that Alice is UU, BUT! Alice's dad signs her up for a class at church (the one on Cedar Lane, and there is a UU church on Cedar Lane in Bethesda. No I didn't look this up, my mom did. :) ) Anyway, the class is called Our Whole Lives and is about sex and relationships. That is a UU class. (Also, on the first day of class, they talk about why they're talking about it in church, and it's because one of the church's principles is respecting the inherit worth and dignity in every person. That's UUism.) Anyway, I took this class's predecessor and it's a unofficial right of passage. I was SO EXCITED to see it in a book. SO EXCITED.

While Alice drives me crazy, she does remind me a lot of me at that age, so I keep reading. The next book, Intensely Alice will come out this spring. Yes, I will read it. I'm looking forward to it.

Alice

Before we get to our regularly scheduled reviewing, some announcements.

Quiescit anima libris has an excellent post today about catalogers and how, despite popular library-world sentiment, we are NOT the enemy. (Ok, I'm not a cataloger, but I do love cataloging and have been a cataloger and might be one again someday. Mmmmm... cataloging...)

Also, there's still time to enter my drawing for a free (hardcover! not an ARC!) copy of Playing with Fire by Derek Landy. Information can be found here.

AND! I haven't done my Top 9 for [insert month here] since April! So, click on the store and see my top 9 for July!

Anyway, some books, yes.

I've been reading lots of Alice lately.

Alice the Brave Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

It's the summer before 8th grade. Alice is excited to be an 8th grader, but the summer's being spent at Mark Stedmeister's pool and Alice is TERRIFIED of the deep water. Can she deal with her fear without doing something absolutely mortifying?

Lots of angst about over coming various fears. Also, the typical Alice banter with questions about bodies, sex, and growing up.

>

Alice in Lace

Well, it's a critical choices unit in health class. Pamela has to pretend she's having a baby and do her report on all the options she has and the effects. Elizabeth has to do hers on buying a used car. Alice and Patrick are supposed to plan a wedding, honeymoon, and set up an apartment with only $5000, plus set up a monthly budget.

And here the differences in Patrick and Alice's background start to come out. Also, there is some serious drama surrounding the assignment (and not the made up teen drama that surrounds everything in Alice's life, but real drama)

Also, this one was initially confusing, because I accidentally read Outrageously Alice first. Whoops!

Outrageously Alice Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Alice wants to stand out and be noticed. But, there are so many weird things going on. Alice is a bridesmaid, Halloween goes dreadfully wrong, and Pamela's family has hit the fan. Plus, it's pretty obvious Miss Summers has two boyfriends!

Will any of Alice's attempts to shine in her own way NOT end in disaster?

Of course not.

Achingly Alice Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Miss Summers is spending Christmas with the McKinleys! Yay! Right? Well... she's spending New Years with Mr. Sorringer so... who does she like more?

Alice is starting to understand though, because Sam from Camera Club pretty obviously likes Alice. Alice likes Sam too, he's nice and caring, but what about Patrick?

So, here's the deal. Alice is a very real character. I wish I had discovered her when I was 12. I don't know why I didn't, I mean, she was around then. But her constant worrying about boys, and sex, and bodies, and her mortal embarrassment over everything... basically, the very things that make her such a true and honest character, as an adult grate on my a bit after reading 3 books in a row.... so... the lesson is... space your Alice, so she'll just be winning. But you should read her. And you should give her to all the younger teens in your life (because Alice is one of those series that ages up, so they'll be friends with her for a long, long time.)

16 Hours, 45 Minutes

Hours Spent Reading: 10 hours, 45 minutes

Mini Challenges Completed/Won: 11/0

Books Read: 6

Pages Read: 973

WARNING: I am reviewing series books. While this review contains no spoilers for this book, it probably contains spoilers for previous volumes in this series. It’s the nature of the beast.

Alice In-Between Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Ah the summer before 8th grade and Alice isn't a kid anymore, but not quite a teenager and feeling like she doesn't really fit anywhere.

The age her mother dies has steadily gotten younger. In the first few books, she was 5. Then a few books ago, Alice said she was 4 or 5 when she died. Now she's saying she was 4.

Bigger things are happening in this book-- more adult things. Early on she and Lester have to rescue Crystal from an octopus man and Alice needs that knowledge later in the book.

Due to the increasing seriousness of the books, and the fact I'm sleep deprived means I keep crying when she's feeling particularly mother-less, I'm going to switch series to something a little more light-hearted.

Stay tuned!

Hour 15

Hours Spent Reading: 9

Mini Challenges Completed/Won: 9/0

Books Read: 5

Pages Read: 829

WARNING: I am reviewing series books. While this review contains no spoilers for this book, it probably contains spoilers for previous volumes in this series. It’s the nature of the beast.

Alice in April**Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Aunt Sally has put some ridiculous ideas in Alice's head again-- this time about being the woman of the house. Plus, the boys have decided to give all the 7th graders nicknames based on topography. Elizabeth is devastated to be Illinois. Alice just hopes she doesn't end up with Wyoming. And then there's the surprise party Alice is planning for her dad's birthday.

All I can really say about this is that the ending hit me like a Mack Truck and I really wasn't expecting it. Wow.

**For a few days, I had the book title as Alice in Lace, which is a later book in the series that I haven't read yet. I blame lack of sleep.

13 Hours, 15 minutes

Hours Spent Reading/Blogging: 7 hours, 45 minutes

Mini Challenges Completed/Won: 8/0

Books Read: 4

Pages Read: 655

WARNING: I am reviewing series books. While this review contains no spoilers for this book, it probably contains spoilers for previous volumes in this series. It’s the nature of the beast.

All But Alice Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Alice is one of the beautiful people, but who knew that being popular was so... boring? Plus, it means leaving some friends behind...

Some comments:

Ok, what the !@#$ is up with all the freak-out over pierced ears? I can understand waiting until you have it done, or even limiting the types of earrings, but seriously? All the adults disapproving because it's bad? Really? You'd think Aunt Sally, who's always trying to girl Alice up would be all gung-ho, not all "you're going to get blood poisoning and DIE" about it! I can understand the "make sure it's sterile" thing but... Dad and Lester and Aunt Sally and all the adults being so horrified and shocked? Seems weird.

Hour 10 and 15 minutes

Hours read: 4 hours, 15 minutes

Number of books read: 3

Number of pages read: 514

WARNING: I am reviewing series books. While this review contains no spoilers for this book, it probably contains spoilers for previous volumes in this series. It’s the nature of the beast.

Reluctantly Alice Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Well, 7th grade has started, and every thing's different and harder, both academically and personally. Alice already has an enemy that's making her life hard but no matter what, her personal problems are nothing like her dad's and Lester's romantic woes!

Seriously though, Alice needs to stop taking advice from Aunt Sally. Geez. And stop talking to Lester's girlfriends on the phone...

Anyway, I just want to say how much I freaking love Pandora, which you need to check out if you haven't yet.

The new challenge is to make a button. I've never made a button, but I think I'll try!

Hour 8 and a bit

Hours Spent Reading: 2 hours, 45 minutes
Books read: 2
Pages read: 332

Alice in Rapture, Sort Of Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Having a boyfriend is so hard! Especially when there's kissing involved! What if you just ate garlic pizza?!

The thing about being twelve is that you bawl a lot... Between the sixth and seventh grades, something happens to your eyes. They water a lot. I think it's so you can get all the watering out the way before you start wearing mascara. pp.160-161

There'll probably just be more plot summary, less reviewing until tomorrow when I'll review the series as a whole. Unless, of course, I feel like yelling at some characters a la Princess Diaries, which is rather likely, especially as I become more sleep deprived.

Anyway, the mini-challenge right now is to go take a walk, so I'm off to 7-11 to get a slushie. Yummy.

Hour 6 and 15 minutes

Hours Spent Reading: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Books Read: 1
Pages Read: 166

So, I finished up Lovingly Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor!

It's Alice's 5th grade year and things aren't going so well. First of all Sara moved away without telling everyone-- rumor has it her family has been evicted. And everyone's being mean to Rosalind because she's fat. Things just go down hill from there.

Naylor has a way of capturing the bittersweetness of childhood. The confusion and giggles over where babies come from, the hurt involved in popularity...

I do like this series.

And now to your regularly scheduled programming...

Dan got back from his business trip yesterday.

Me: Hey! So, I ended up winning the 48 Hour Challenge for most hours read!
Him: How many hours did you end up doing?
Me: Um... 42
Him: Yeah... some people have lives.

And just to prove that I really, really don't have a life, I've already read 3.5 books since then...

So let's review one of them, shall we? Ok.

Alice in Blunderland Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

This is one of the Alice prequels.

Alice is in 4th grade and things aren't going so well. Lester tells her that they're really escaped Russian royalty and that her real name is Alicia Katerina de Balencia Blunderbuss Makinoli. When she tells her friends at school this, she finds out that "blunderbuss" means someone who messes everything up.

Alice thinks that sums her up perfectly. Whether she's accidentally messing up Lester's chances with the ladies or having a very loud stomach at a slumber party, she can't do anything right. She's pretty sure that Lester would trade her for almost anything.

Then she and Lester mess up so badly, they have to get a horrible housekeeper!

4th grade has to be the worst year yet!

I love Alice and I'm really looking forward to growing up with her. Naylor remembers the agonizing details of the age and renders them with humor, but well enough that we all can cringe along with Alice.

The Alice series has been around since I was in elementary school and there's a reason they're still heavily in print! I really recommend them for kids and for adults, especially fans of Clementine or Ramona who are looking to move up to harder (and edgier)* books.

Not that I'd really call the early Alice books edgy, especially the prequels. But this one does feature Alice learning about babies and wondering about babies growing inside you. Not sex so much, but babies. The first book in the proper series The Agony of Alice deals with periods and stuff. Presumably they'll deal with even bigger issues as Alice goes through junior high and high school. I'll keep you updated as I read them!
adfa

Books I Missed the First Time Around

Man, am I ever behind in my blogging duties. I was going to put together my Best of 2006 list, but I haven't talked about half the books on the list yet. Ah well.

None of these will be on the list, but it's what I feel like talking about right now.

Anyway... so this summer I finally read Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry and The Agony of Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Both are the first books in extremely popular series that I never read when I was the target audience, but wish I had. Interestingly enough, I liked Alice a lot more than Anastasia, but when I was a kid, it would have been the other way around.

Quick summaries:

Anastasia hates her name, her fourth grade teacher, liver, and pumpkin pie. She loves making lists, writing poetry, her wart, and her goldfish. When her parents announce she's going to have a little brother, she adds her parents and babies to the list of things she hates. Over the school year, both lists change as items are added and deleted in this funny and moving book.

Alice is about to start sixth grade at a new school in Silver Spring. ALl she really wants is to be on safety patrol, but they were all chosen the year before. Instead of being placed in Miss Cole's class (who will sometimes drive you home in her sports car) or Mr. Weber's class (who takes everyone on a camping trip in the spring), she has Mrs. Plotkin, who is boring and old. If she only had a mother, Alice would have help navigating her transition into being a teenager, but, left on her own, is she really just going backwards and not growing up at all?

I also read Starting with Alice, which is the first of 3 prequels to the Alice series.

Both Alice and Anastasia are accurate and touching portrayals of the 10-13 years, which are not fun. I think I liked Alice better now because Naylor picks up on a lot of the mishaps that I can now look back on and laugh about. Lowry picks up on those feelings that still hurt.

Also, remember that show on PBS that you got to watch in reading class where this woman would read a story or a chapter while the guy drew illustrations? Once, she read this story about a girl whose brother takes her jeans shopping and she walks in on a guy in blue underwear in the dressing rooms. I always wanted to know what the story is and wanted to read it. I remembered it the first time I ever fell into the Gap. I was very excited when I was reading The Agony of Alice and THERE IT WAS! And then I was very annoyed because she was buying Levis. At the Gap. The Gap only sells Gap brand!