Product Description

Is it possible to be too good a friend -- too understanding, too always there, too much like a doormat? Alice has always been a good friend to Pamela and Liz, a best friend to Pamela and Liz. But she's starting to wonder where that leaves her: What am I? An ear for listening? An arm around the shoulder? And then there's Patrick -- after ending their relationship two years ago, he's suddenly calling again, and wants to take her to his senior prom. What does that mean? As Alice tries to figure out who she is in relation to her friends, she learns one thing -- sometimes friends need you more than they let on...especially when the unthinkable happens.

Always honest, brave, and true, the Alice series never flinches from big issues, and never discounts the small ones.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #796060 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780689870965
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up—Alice, now in the end of her junior year in high school, navigates through her friend Pamela's pregnancy scare, a promotion at the school newspaper, and prom. On top of all this, she is considering getting back together with her ex-boyfriend and future prom date, Patrick. But first, she has to figure out her feelings about his overachieving personality, which tends to leave her on the back burner. The different issues and events that Alice goes through seem realistic and believable. However, her emotional reactions are harder to accept. In general, she seems to be more mature, selfless, and rational than most teens. Part of this is due to the fact that Naylor lays out events without getting too deeply into Alice's character in this addition to the series. Also, the forced dialogue tends to drag the book down. Loyal fans of the series will get the most out of this book as they will be more connected to Alice and her friends and anxious to see what happens to them.—Jessie Spalding, Queen Creek Branch Library, AZ
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor includes many of her own growing-up experiences in the Alice books. She writes for both children and adults and is the author of more than one hundred and twenty-five books, including the Alice series, which Entertainment Weekly has called "tender" and "wonderful." In 1992 her novel Shiloh won the Newbery Medal. She lives with her husband, Rex, in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and is the mother of two sons, both grown and married.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Trouble with Sadie

It had to be in person, and they all had to be there.

Gwen was at a meeting over the lunch period, so I couldn't tell them then. I waited till we went to Starbucks after school before I made the announcement:

"Patrick asked me to the prom."

Two seconds of silence were followed by shrieks of disbelief and excitement:

"Five months in advance? Patrick?"

"You're kidding me!"

"When?"

"Yesterday." I was grinning uncontrollably and couldn't help myself. "He called. We talked."

"He called. You talked. What is this? Shorthand?" Gwen demanded. "Girl, we want details!"

"Wait! Hold it!" said Pamela. She jumped up, went to the counter, and bought a huge cup of whipped cream, then liberally doused each of our lattes to celebrate.

"Now dish!" she said.

"Well, I was just hanging out in my room, getting my stuff ready for school, when I heard the phone ring."

"He didn't call you on your cell?"

"I'm not sure he knows the number."

"I'd think he would have had it programmed in!"

"It's been two years," I told them, working hard to defend him. Defend whatever there was between us, though I didn't know myself.

Liz rested her chin in her hands. When she looks at you through half-closed eyes, you realize just how long and thick her eyelashes are -- longer than any girl's lashes have a right to be. "Oh, Alice, you and Patrick!" She sighed. "I knew you'd get back together. It's in the stars."

Gwen, the scientist, rolled her eyes. She was looking especially attractive, her hair in a new style of cornrows that made a geometric pattern on top of her head. The gold rings on one brown finger matched the design of her earrings, and she was definitely the most sophisticated-looking of the four of us. She was also the only one who had visited three colleges so far and who had even picked up scholarship forms. "How long did you guys go together, anyway?" she asked.

"I guess it was about eighth grade that I really started liking him. The summer before eighth through the fall of ninth grade." I was embarrassed suddenly that I remembered this so precisely, as though it were always there at the front of my consciousness. "We actually met in sixth, but sixth-grade boyfriends aren't much to brag about."

"He did have his goofy side," Pamela agreed. "Remember that hot day at Mark's pool when you fell asleep on the picnic table? And Patrick placed two lemon halves on your breasts for a minute?"

"What?" Gwen shrieked.

"Yes, and when I woke up, everyone was grinning and no one would tell me what happened. And I couldn't figure out what those two little wet spots were on the front of my T-shirt. Like I was nursing or something!"

We yelped with laughter.

I continued. "And the year he gave me an heirloom bracelet for my birthday that turned out to be his mom's, because she didn't wear it anymore."

"I never heard that one," said Liz.

"And Mrs. Long had to call me and ask for it back," I said. We laughed some more. I wondered if I was being disloyal, telling all this. That was the old Patrick. The kid. That was then, and this was now.

"So what attracted you to him in the first place?" asked Gwen. "Besides the fact that he's a tall, smart, broad-shouldered redhead? I wasn't in on that early history."

"Well, he wasn't always as tall or broad-shouldered," I said. "I guess it's because he's the most motivated, focused, organized person I ever met. His dad's a diplomat, and they've lived in Japan, Germany, Spain....In some ways, he's a man of the world."

"And then he falls for Penny, the jerk," said Pamela. "I'm glad that's over."

I saw three pair of eyes dart in my direction to see how I was taking that, then look away. Wondering if I'd cry myself sick again if things didn't work out this time with Patrick. I remembered Elizabeth's organizing a suicide watch when Patrick and I broke up, so that a friend called every quarter of an hour to see if I was okay. I tried not to smile.

"Well," I said flippantly, "a lot can happen in the next five months. You know how everything else comes before fun where Patrick is concerned. And I didn't say we were back together. I just said we were going to the prom."

"But this is his prom, and then you can invite him back for yours!" said Liz excitedly, since Patrick's in an accelerated program that gets him through high school in three years.

"Yeah, and with two prom nights to make out, you know what that means," said Pamela.

"Will you stop?" I said.

To some girls, a prom means you're a serious couple. To some, it's the main event of high school. To some, it's the biggest chance in your life, next to getting married, to show off. And to some girls, it means going all the way.

"Well, I'm glad for you," said Gwen. "But I hope we don't have to talk prom for the next five months."

"Promise," I said.

"Some couples were just meant to be," Pamela said. "Jill and Justin, for example. They've been going out forever."

"What about you and Tim?" I asked. Tim had taken her to the Snow Ball last fall. A really nice guy.

"Could be!" said Pamela.

"So are you going to ask him to the Sadie Hawkins Day dance?" asked Gwen.

"I already have," Pamela told us, and grinned. Then she turned serious again. "Patrick better come through this time, Alice. He owes you big time."

If my friends didn't quite know what to make of Patrick, neither did I. I'd always thought of him as special somehow, but...My first boyfriend? More than that. Patrick was someone with a future, and I didn't know if I was part of that or not. Or wanted to be.

But you can analyze a good thing to death, so I decided to take it at face value: He really, really liked me and couldn't think of anyone he'd rather take to the prom. Now enjoy it, I told myself.

Our house was a mess. Dad and Sylvia were having the place remodeled, with a new addition on the back. Their bedroom, the kitchen, and the dining room were sealed off with heavy vinyl sheets so that dust and cold wouldn't get through. Their bed had been taken apart and stood against one wall in the upstairs hallway. The rest of their furniture was pushed into Lester's old bedroom, where they were sleeping, and their clothes were piled all over the place in my room. Downstairs, the dining-room furniture had been moved into the living room along with the refrigerator and microwave, and the construction crew had fashioned a sink with hot and cold running water next to the fridge. We ate our meals on paper plates, sitting in the only available chairs, knees touching.

"Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to stay in the house during remodeling," Dad said that weekend when we didn't think we could swallow one more bite of Healthy Choice or Lean Cuisine.

"But think of all the money we're saving by not living in a hotel!" said Sylvia. "The foreman said that if we can put up with painters and carpenters doing the finishing touches, we might be able to move into the new addition by the middle of March."

Fortunately for us, the construction company had another contract for an expensive project starting April 1, and had doubled the workforce at our place to finish by then.

Dad was at the Melody Inn seven days a week, Sylvia was teaching, and I was at school, so we didn't have to listen to all the pounding.

Lester came over one night and took us out to dinner.

"Hey," I said over my crab cake, "why don't we move in with Lester for the duration?"

He gave me a look. "Don't even think it," he said. "I'm surviving on five hours of sleep a night while I finish my thesis."

"Oh, Les!" Sylvia said sympathetically.

"You need to get some exercise," Dad told him.

"I run to Starbucks and back," Les said.

"But...you're not seeing anyone at all?" I asked.

"Not much," said Les.

It was hard to imagine, but somehow I believed him. Les had made up his mind to graduate, and he was hitting the books.

"What about that girl you were going out with at Christmas?" I asked him.

"It's over," said Les.

"Already?" exclaimed Dad.

"Too high maintenance," Les told us. "All she wanted to do was party, and I can't afford the time. So I've sworn off women till after I graduate."

That was even more difficult to imagine, but I felt real sympathy for my twenty-four-year-old brother right then. I decided that somehow, sometime around Valentine's Day, I...or Liz and I...or Liz and Pamela and I...or Liz and Pam and Gwen and I were going to plan a surprise for Lester. I just didn't know what.

Patrick has called me twice since he invited me to the prom on New Year's Day. He didn't call to chat, exactly. He either had something to tell me or a question to ask. You could say he's all business, but that wouldn't be true, because he has a good sense of humor and there's a gentleness that I like too. I just wish he were more accessible. He runs his life like a railroad -- always busy, always going somewhere, getting somewhere.

But there was a lot more to think about during the second semester of my junior year. The SATs, for one. I decided that January would probably be my least hectic month, so I'd take the test on January 26, then take it again later if I bombed the first time. Getting my braces off was item number two. I also wanted to spend more time with our friend Molly Brennan, who's getting treated for leukemia, and to persuade Pamela, if possible, to audition for the spring musical, Guys and Dolls. I'd signed up for stage crew once again.

Tim Moss was doing a lot for Pamela's self-confidence. Pamela's pretty, she's got a good voice, and has a great body. But ever since her mom deserted the family a few years ago and ran off with a boyfriend, Pamela's self-esteem has been down in her socks. Lately, though, now that her mom's back and living in an apartment alone, Pamela's seemed a little more like her old self, and once she started going out with Tim, she really perked up.

Sylvia, my stepmom, said that one way to tell if a guy is right for you is if he wants what's best for you, encourages your talents, and -- at the same time -- has a good sense of self and where his life is going. She was speaking about my dad and her decision to...

Customer Reviews

An okay installment to the series.
I have been reading the Alice series since I (and Alice) was twelve. I'm now 25 and Alice is just 16, but I still rush out to the bookstore as soon as a new book is released to find out what Alice and her friends and family are up to.

I liked this book, but I didn't love it. The first half to three-quarters of the story is a bit slow-moving. To me, it has the same problem that some of the other recent Alice releases have had - it reads like a recital of somewhat mundane everyday events that don't add much substance to the theme of the book or move any of the characters' storylines forward very much. I have found many (though not all) of the books released in the last several years lacking in the same humor, wit, and warmth that I enjoyed so much in the books about Alice's middle school years, and this book unfortunately did not recapture that magic for me.

The story does pick up near the end with a shocking event that had me reading as fast as I could and dying to see what would happen (I will refrain from giving away significant details here, but read on with caution if you don't want to know anything at all). While this portion of the book was very exciting, I ended up feeling a little let down by the resolution of this storyline. I felt the author took the easy way out by having a character's decision essentially made for her. I really would have liked to see that character have to deal with the situation more and have to figure things out for herself instead of having it wrapped up so quickly. It was a decision that really could have carried over to the next book and been more of an ongoing plotline, but by resolving it so quickly it feels more like the author is just issuing a convenient "warning" against certain behaviors without taking the opportunity to delve more deeply into the character and what the situation might mean for her.

I was also disappointed by the minimal interaction shown between Alice and her family in this book. Scenes between Alice, her father, and Lester have always been the heart of the Alice books for me, and this installment was really lacking in this regard. I am especially disappointed by Alice's lack of interaction with her stepmother, Sylvia. Throughout the majority of the series, Alice longed for a stepmother and tried pretty hard to get Sylvia and her dad together. It seems that ever since they finally did get married, Alice rarely has any meaningful moments with the stepmother she longed for so much. The book just before this one, "Dangerously Alice," at least included some conflict between Alice and Sylvia, and I was hoping this book would continue to develop their relationship. But sadly, there isn't much of anything between the two in this book. Alice's dad appears perhaps even less, and Lester only pops up a few times. I really miss the funny conversations that used to be held so often at the McKinley dinner table.

All in all, the book was decent and I enjoyed reading the newest chapter of Alice's life. There are some funny moments and situations as well as some exciting and shocking ones, but I feel like a lot more could have been done here. I don't want an Alice book to be just a recital of quickly wrapped up events; I want more deep characterization and more meaningful plots that will be carried on to later books. "Dangerously Alice" was a step in that direction, I felt, but this newest installment wasn't quite what I was hoping for.

Naylor's losing her touch
I must say that I was terribly disappointed by this book. The Alice books have always been one of my favorite series. I love Naylor's witty writing and honest outlook. Although I think the series has been going downhill since Simply Alice (the last book of Alice's freshman year), I was willing to give this book a shot. However, Alice readers beware: the first three quarters of the book were even a bit tedious to get through, and it recalled a lot of conversations rather than being set in the present. I was impressed when Naylor introduced a believable predicament and subjected her character to the consequences, but was then infuriated when Naylor suddenly solved the problem in a completely unlikely way. And for those readers (like I) who were looking forward to the story of the prom with Alice and Patrick, that didn't live up to my expectations either... However, this book had its good points, and if you're a faithful Alice reader, you should probably read it. But you might end up more disappointed than you think.

A bit of a letdown
I didn't grow up with these books, as I somehow missed them when they first came out, but I did discover them in library school. I read the first 20 books in about 3 months a couple of years ago, and I was completely hooked. The early books were funny, realistic, touching, and well-rounded with great characters. Naylor seemed to really have an ear for preteen and young teen dialog and situations. I was so impressed with the series that I quickly caught up with its publication and have spent the last 2 years eagerly awaiting the publication of the two newest titles.

Unfortunately, as with Dangerously Alice, and as other reviewers have said here, I was disappointed with Almost Alice. There was hardly any conflict at all (except for the last 50 pages, which, as others have mentioned, was tied up a bit too easily), and Naylor seems to have lost her ear and eye for teen situations. While the earlier Alice books were lively and believable, this one dragged and did not ring true. At all. I have a hard time imagining an entire high school of kids in 2008 becoming totally obsessed with the culture of Li'l Abner. It's almost as if Naylor is starting to actively tone down her edginess as Alice ages - when she should be doing the opposite. I also am irritated and mystified by the lack of interaction portrayed between Alice and her stepmother Sylvia. This seems like it should be the crux of the series at this point. But instead, Sylvia is relegated to a background character. And Alice's relationship with Lester, while always cute and heartfelt, felt silly and ridiculous here. What high school junior and her friends are going to decide it would be funny to decorate her own BROTHER'S car with love notes on Valentine's Day to take his mind off his studies? This isn't 1955.

Teens look up to Naylor. I've seen her website. She responds to their email questions, and her answers are usually smart, to the point, and tell it like it is. I only wish that side of her came out more in the latest Alice titles. It almost seems like she's letting a very conservative editor wield a red pen a little too freely. I will keep on reading this series, but it really needs to improve.