Alice: The Agony of Alice

written by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Simon Schuster Children's Publishing, 2007

Genre: Children's contemporary fiction

Reading Level: ages 12 and up

144 pages

The Agony of Alice is the story of a motherless girl who just moved to a new town and is getting ready to start the sixth grade. The book starts with an explanation of Alice and how she is scared of growing backwards and realizing that she is immature when she is older. She is easily embarrassed and desperately wants a mother, and decides that she will adopt one. Another important character in the book is a card with the Saint Agnes on it who Alice looks to when she needs help or reassurance she is kind of Alice's good luck charm. Alice lives with her father and older brother, Lester. Lester and her don't get along. The first day of school, Alice shows up as they're sorting out the classes, she really wants to be with Miss Cole, who she decides is perfect for her adoptive mother. However, she ends up in "homely" Mrs. Plotkins' class. On the first day Alice is very rude to Mrs. Plotkin but soon regrets it, and tells herself she needs to be nice to her but still look for ways to get into Miss Cole's class. Luckily the safety squad is run by Miss Cole and Mrs. Plotkin asks Alice if she wants to be a substitute, Alice says yes and eats lunch in Miss Cole's classroom every Wednesday. Alice has several unfortunate events at school, from hearing her friends talk about how great Miss Cole, to wearing too much perfume and everyone making fun of her, and several other embarrassing moments. Mrs. Plotkin starts having her students keep journals and Alice really runs with the idea. Halloween soon comes and she agrees to dress up like a horse with one of her friends, and during the parade, accidentally kicks Miss Cole, she is of course mortified and runs home and hides out in her room. Mrs. Plotkin and Alice become closer as she helps her after class, participates in her play, and cries to her about how life is unfair. Over Valentine's day Alice gets a valentine that says i like you and she soon discovers that it's from a boy in her class, named Patrick. After they've "gone steady" for awhile Alice feels inadequate because Patrick speaks two languages and has done lots of travelling. Alice's kind of father sends her on her first train ride to Chicago to spend some time with her Aunt Sally and family. She starts her period on her trip and really feels loved by Aunt Sally and her daughter Carol. She returns with tons of stories to tell Patrick. Near the end of the school year as the safety squad throws Miss Cole and Alice a birthday party, Alice finally gets a hug from Miss Cole and it's not what she expected. She realizes she's grown closer to Mrs. Plotkin than she would have thought and gives her a piece of cake. As she says goodbye to Mrs. Plotkin at the end of they year, Mrs. Plotkin gives her a special ring, and Alice has never been happier; until of course she gets her first kiss from Patrick.

I would recommend this book to a young girl about to be a teenager.

As far as controversy coming from this book I think that parents might think some of the material would make their children take on some of the habits of Alice.

I really enjoyed this book, even as a 20 year old. I know that if i had read it when i was 11 or 12 i would have absolutely loved it and all the other Alice books. THey are ones that young girls can really relate to, and find entertaining.

My rating: 4 out of 5