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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
'In the Know' Falls Short of 'Alice' Expectations, April 25, 2006
As a faithful reader of the Alice series, I was delighted to see a new Alice book on the shelves of my local bookstore. In past books, I've felt that Naylor always manages to capture the adolescent mindset with ease. So I was disappointed to see that Alice in the Know fell short of my expectations.
It's the summer before Alice's junior year of high school, and she's decided to enjoy her freedom as much as possible. She begins work at a local department store, and appears in the installment in the Alice series, more self-confident than we've seen her in the past. Alice is forced to deal with more serious issues than she has in the past, too. She comes face to face with shoplifters and a close friend becomes seriously ill.
However, the overall arc of 'In the Know' is unclear. In past books, there have been large events that change the course of Alice's life -- a wedding, a school trip, etc. But 'In the Know' is really more of an account of Alice's summer than anything else.
The book becomes tiresome, when Ms. Naylor obviously goes out of her way to hammer a cautionary note into her latest. The most noticeable instance of this are the frequent reminders that smoking is bad for the health but by the time readers are old enough to read an Alice book, this message has already been hammered into their heads. While Naylor's intentions are admirable in this sense, older readers of the book will feel patronized.
We see more layers to most of the characters in this book, and creating wonderful is one of Naylor's strongest points. We learn more about Alice's mother and there is a truly touching scene between Alice and her father. We learn more about Mr. Jones, Pamela's father. However, Pamela's non-reaction to her father's engagement is surprising and out-of-character. Lester's character develops more in this book as he experiences his first major heartbreak.
While certainly not a bad book, 'Alice in the Know' is not the endearing, amusing book that we've seen in past books. Now, we can only hope that we see more of the great Alice charms in future books and Naylor can regain her remarkable gift of storytelling.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, but somewhat disappointing, April 23, 2006
I've grown up reading the Alice series, and have always found Naylor to be dead on accurate with many of the conflicting emotions of been a teen that Alice goes through.
Even though I am now in my twenties, and Alice and I no longer share the same age, I still always run out and buy the new Alice book the day it comes out in hardback.
I was disappointed in this Alice book, although Naylor's insight remains keen. I hoped to see more developments for characters I have loved for years, although there was some. Pamela's father gets engaged, and Alice faces the death of a beloved family member with maturity and grace.
That being said, I couldn't help but groan out of disappointment that another one of Lester's relationships has not worked out. I feel for the guy--I hope he meets a woman who treats him as well as he deserves fairly soon. I'm also waiting, just as Alice is, for that first fight with Sylvia--so that Alice can experience the frustration and love of a concerned mother for the first time.
Overall, a fairly decent book.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not the best book of the series by far..., May 22, 2006
I started reading the Alice series when I was twelve, and 12 years later I'm still reading it. I look forward to the release of each new Alice book with great anticipation, as it has always been a series I feel captures the adolescent experience more accurately than any other books for teenage girls.
This book, although it pains me to say it, was a bit of a disappointment. The book lacks a truly cohesive theme and reads more like a slightly mundane day-by-day account of Alice's summer. Naylor attempts to present the idea of family and Alice's desire for more contact with hers as the central theme of the story, but it feels forced. At times it seems as though Naylor suddenly remembered, "oh yeah...this book is supposed to be about connecting with extended family...I'd better throw something else in about that." The book does not have the effortless flow and cohesive storyline of so many of the previous entries in the series.
This book also seems a bit preachy at times. Naylor includes many cautionary passages about things such as traffic safety and the evils of smoking, and while these are pertinent teen issues and it is nice that she is trying to encourage girls to be safe and healthy, the way they are addressed seems out of place in the book. The sections dealing with these issues read exactly like what they are - encouragement from a much older person to stay away from the mentioned danger, not as the conversation or thoughts of an actual sixteen-year-old. I can see the age and experience of the author breaking through at times in the story, and it never used to be that way. The main reason I have enjoyed these books for so many years is because Alice always seemed exactly like the young teenager that she was, not an older woman trying to portray the thoughts and experiences of a young teen.
Another disappointment for me is the fact that Alice's stepmother, Sylvia, barely appears in the story at all. Every book since Sylvia's marriage to Alice's dad has been a little disappointing in this regard, as I feel her character has not contributed much to the books since the marriage. Alice spent the entire first 18 books of the series longing for a mother and trying to get her dad to marry Sylvia, and now that she finally has the mother she has wanted for so long, they seem to hardly interact at all. I want to see some real, important conversations between Alice and Sylvia. I want to see them have a real, huge mother-daughter argument. I want to see more storylines and more interaction for them - I waited years for Alice to finally get a stepmom and now she might as well not have one at all, for all the attention that is paid to the relationship between them. How about a book with a theme centered around Alice and Sylvia??
All in all, this book seems more like a transitional book in the series rather than a great, stand-alone story. The book lacks the punch and the life of so many of the previous ones. Faithful readers of the series will of course want to read this book and will be interested in the developments that occur for the main characters, but to anyone who has never read an Alice book before, I don't recommend you start with this one. Get a book from Alice's seventh or eighth grade years, and you can't go wrong. Those years of Alice's life were the golden age of the series, in my opinion.
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