Alice Alone [Hardcover]

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Author)

Book Description

Series: Alice

There's a new girl in town, and she's making Alice very nervous.

The start of ninth grade -- high school! -- is every bit as exciting, and challenging, as Alice had hoped, and feared, it would be. She finds her self-confidence rising, and plummeting, depending on each new situation. Classes are definitely more interesting, but algebra is proving to be nearly impossible. Patrick is in the accelerated program so they aren't in the same classes anymore. And while she's thrilled to be chosen to work on the school newspaper, she finds that between an increased homework load and reporting assignments, she can't always join Patrick when he wants to go out. But the new girl in town, Penny, can...and does. Penny is everything Alice isn't -- perky, petite, and cute as a button, and she doesn't hide her interest in Patrick. Alice senses her seemingly perfect relationship with Patrick starting to crumble, along with her self-confidence, and suddenly, Alice feels big and awkward and not particularly attractive. Could it be possible that Patrick could like someone else besides her? She can't imagine life without Patrick in it.

But Patrick's behavior isn't the only thing that is baffling Alice. Elizabeth's nearly hysterical reluctance to go to her piano lessons has Alice and Pamela completely bewildered, until Elizabeth breaks down and shares an awful secret she's kept from everybody since she was seven...

And as Alice struggles to keep her jealousy of Penny at bay, she watches her father handle unsettling news regarding his fiancé. Alice learns what trust is all about, and how confidence in yourself, and in others, is the most important thing of all.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The first day of ninth grade is looming, and Alice is anxious. "When I think of all the embarrassing things I'll probably do, all the humiliating stuff just waiting to happen..." she laments to her big brother Lester. Luckily, Alice has the undying love of her perfect boyfriend, Patrick--or does she? There's a perky new girl in town, and Patrick doesn't seem to mind her attentions at all. Plus, with all the activities of high school, such as reporting on the newspaper, homework, friends--not to mention Alice's weekend job, her concerns over her father's love life, and her friend Elizabeth's shocking revelation--Alice may not be spending as much time as she'd like with her beau.

In the thirteenth title of her popular Alice series (The Grooming of Alice, Alice on the Outside, and Alice in April, etc.), Phyllis Reynolds Naylor deals sensitively and humorously with the painful blow just about every teenager receives sooner or later: the first heartbreak. Multiple side stories thicken the plot, as when kindhearted but misguided Alice invites three female ex-cons to Thanksgiving dinner... and neglects to tell her dad and brother. Alice is, as always, funny, strong, and yet vulnerable; adolescent readers will definitely relate to her as her self-confidence rises and falls with every passing day. (Ages 12 to 15) --Emilie Coulter

From Publishers Weekly

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's well-loved adolescent everygirl returns as a ninth-grader in Alice Alone. Here Alice unhappily though perhaps not permanently breaks up with her longtime boyfriend, Patrick, and then, as everyone gossips about it, strives to follow her dad and older brother's advice to put up a brave front. Subplots include the reappearance of her father's rival for the hand of his fianc‚e and the disclosure that one of Alice's friends was molested in childhood.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum; 1st edition (April 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689826346
• ISBN-13: 978-0689826344
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 4.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,451,261 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I guess I've been writing for about as long as I can remember. Telling stories, anyway, if not writing them down. I had my first short story published when I was sixteen, and wrote stories to help put myself through college, planning to become a clinical psychologist. By the time I graduated with a BA degree, however, I decided that writing was really my first love, so I gave up plans for graduate school and began writing full time.

I'm not happy unless I spend some time writing every day. It's as though pressure builds up inside me, and writing even a little helps to release it. On a hard-writing day, I write about six hours. Tending to other writing business, answering mail, and just thinking about a book takes another four hours. I spend from three months to a year on a children's book, depending on how well I know the characters before I begin and how much research I need to do. A novel for adults, because it's longer, takes a year or more. When my work is going well, I wake early in the mornings, hoping it's time to get up. When the writing is hard and the words are flat, I'm not very pleasant to be around.

Getting an idea for a book is the easy part. Keeping other ideas away while I'm working on one story is what's difficult. My books are based on things that have happened to me, things I have heard or read about, all mixed up with imaginings. The best part about writing is the moment a character comes alive on paper, or when a place that existed only in my head becomes real. There are no bands playing at this moment, no audience applauding--a very solitary time, actually--but it's what I like most. I've now had more than 120 books published, and about 2000 short stories, articles and poems.

I live in Bethesda, Maryland, with my husband, Rex, a speech pathologist, who's the first person to read my manuscripts when they're finished. Our sons, Jeff and Michael, are grown now, but along with their wives and children, we often enjoy vacations together in the mountains or at the ocean. When I'm not writing, I like to hike, swim, play the piano and attend the theater.

I'm lucky to have my family, because they have contributed a great deal to my books. But I'm also lucky to have the troop of noisy, chattering characters who travel with me inside my head. As long as they are poking, prodding, demanding a place in a book, I have things to do and stories to tell.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sad funny and heartfilling adventure of love, March 23, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Alice Alone (Hardcover)

I have read the whole Alice series and I must say that SO FAR, this is my favorite Alice book ever. Ms.Naylor gives us another look on love, and it's realisitic how Alice's jealousy of Patrick's new love, Penny gives the reader more interesting thoughts to turn the page quickly.

Chapter one ends with a beautiful hug from Patrick to Alice and a special gift he promised her in The Grooming Of Alice. I'll never forget how much I cried when I read the chapter called "Heart-to-heart" where Patrick expresses his undying interest in Penny and his control over his 'space' and 'his own life'.

This book takes a dramatic turn when Pamela and Alice find out a tragic secret from their best friend's past that causes her to be 'saint liz' The best friend's secret will explain partly the whole Alice series, and is the most shocking eventful book ever. Read this! Thats all I am going to tell you...READ IT NOW..ITS REALLY REALISITIC..oh and please vote me for "One of the helpful votes ever" :) Thank you!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alice Alone, May 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Alice Alone (Hardcover)

This book was great! I finished the book the same night I got it! I wanted to finish it, so I wouldn't let myself fall asleep until I did. I was tired the next morning, but I didn't care...I finished the book, and that was all I cared about. You might want to have some tissues ready if you're the sentimental type. Some major stuff happens with Patrick and Alice - stuff everyone has been through, or will go through at some time in their life. Elizabeth's secret is bad, too, but I can't say more than that, cause that will ruin the suspense! Alice manages to come through with a clear voice. The emotions she has to go through speak so clear to everyone, that you will feel like you're Alice. Your not reading about her...you'll feel that you are her. Once again, Alice comes through clearly with feelings we all understand and have, but still manages to get through a message to us.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Phyllis does it again!!, August 18, 2001

By 

liz (? ;)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alice Alone (Hardcover)

This HAS to be my favourite Alice book yet; out of all thirteen! Alice has to endure the change of going into High School, but with with her two best friends, manages pretty well. Alice's boyfriend, Patrick broke up with her to go out with this other girl, Penny. Oh, how I despise her. Alice is really bummed. This book is funny, touching, and is laughable as well. The suicide watch thing was hilarious!!!! Once again, Phyllis nails this book. Just think, we have to wait till May 2002 to read her next one!