Alice on Her Way [Hardcover]

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Author)

Book Description

Series: Alice | Publication Date: May 17, 2005

Freedom!

It's the moment Alice has been looking forward to for years -- her sixteenth birthday is coming up, and that means getting her driver's licence, with the freedom that entails. And before that important milestone, there's another delicious taste of freedom awaiting Alice and her friends -- a class trip to New York City, promising some serious partying once chaperones have gone to bed.

But sophomore year and driving lessons are a lot harder than Alice thought they would be, and then there's the problem with her new boyfriend, who is sometimes too attached to her. The older Alice gets, the more complicated her life seems to become.

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7-10–This 16th book in the series (not counting the three prequels) is as frank and candid as its precursors. Alice, now almost 16, has a new boyfriend, goes to New York with her school, and participates in a program at her church. At first, she bristles when her dad signs her up for "Our Whole Lives," but is won over by its open exploration of sex, commitment, and responsibility. Sam, attentive to a fault, tests Alice's feelings about intimacy. Her relationship is contrasted with that of Faith, whose boyfriend is abusive, and Pam, who has oral sex with a boy she doesn't know well and regrets her impulsiveness when they get back to school and he ignores her. Homosexuality and interracial dating are given brief and accepting mentions. Alice faces all challenges with her trademark mix of confusion and maturity. A subplot has her trying for her driver's license–it takes her a while to get it, but as with many other of her achievements, she works hard until she succeeds. Alice's fans will continue to enjoy this likable girl-next-door who wrestles with the pressures and pleasures of modern life and growing up.–Tina Zubak, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 7-10. Alice, 15 going on 16, is furious when Dad signs her up for a class about sexuality at their church. As it turns out, the discussion is fun, and her friends want to hear all about it. Readers will, too, as the class covers everything from sexual myths and masturbation ("It's healthy, and it doesn't make you crazy") to condoms and the importance of mutual respect. Meanwhile, Alice has a new boyfriend (he's nice and sexy, but Alice wonders why she isn't in love with him); her friend gives a blow job to an older student; everybody has fun on a class trip to New York; and -Alice anticipates getting her driver's license and the freedom that comes with a car. After she fails the driving test, her buddies rally round her, and so does her family. As in her previous books about Alice, Naylor depicts her character confronting contemporary coming-of-age issues, big and small, with openness, humor, intimacy, and surprise. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum (May 17, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689870906
• ISBN-13: 978-0689870903
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 4.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,483,029 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

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alice is at it again!, June 20, 2005

By 

kaduzy - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Alice on Her Way (Hardcover)

Sophomore year is in full swing as Alice, now almost sixteen, begins facing a new set of challenges, issues and awkward situations.

On the family front, her father is now joyfully married to Sylvia and her older brother Lester has moved out of the house. Alice misses him, but things at home have never been better. And when Lester begins dating a girl of another race just as an old flame is tying the knot, you have to wonder what will happen at the wedding . . .

Meanwhile Alice herself has begun dating Sam, the shy photographer who's had his eye on her since the 8th grade! His patience has paid off, and Naylor's descriptions of their relationship make it hard to believe that she's a day over sixteen herself. But Patrick is still calling, and Alice herself is torn about her feelings for Sam. She feels so split already between family, extra curriculars, academic work and friends that Sam's demands on her time (not to mention his mother) can be more than a bit trying. And if she wants an example of how awful it can be to have a boyfriend make too many demands on your time, she needs look no further than her drama club friend Faith and Faith's abusive boyfriend Ron.

But then again, what if a boy doesn't pay enough attention to you? As Pamela finds out, no matter what you do with (or to) a boy, it won't guaruntee his affection. And Pamela's quest to make up for not getting positive attention from her separated parents by seeking it out in boys is showing Alice the right way to go wrong in relationships. She has to figure out how to maintain a balance between the two extremes, and it's not easy.

Meanwhile, the school has planned a trip to New York City, and all Alice and her friends want to do is plan a way of sneaking away from the chaperones (one of whom is Pamela's estranged mother!) and enjoying a night on the town. But Alice is also looking forward to that long, dark bus ride back, sitting next to Sam . . .. That's certainly one way to test her feelings!

And somewhere between all of this, Alice has to get her driver's license, deal with her horrible braces, AND suffer through a class her father's making her take at church about intimacy and relationships. What's a girl to do?

The answer is: grow up. And once again, Naylor has crafted a marvelous story in which Alice does a little bit more of just that, leaving readers hungry for another installment in this girl's life. Naylor doesn't shy away from telling it like it is, using the slang terms and frank talk that young people themselves use. Alice's maturity in dealing with her friends, her relationship and her family is evident and she grows with the kind of grace and polish one might wish for one's own daughter.

This series began when I was in the fifth grade, and I've been reading the books ever since. (More than ten years! How time flies . . .) And though I've grown up a bit faster than Alice has, I'll never stop following her life, and I'll always love this fantastic series.

7 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alice enters womanhood, July 12, 2005

By 

T. Filowitz "Filowitzy" (Southern California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alice on Her Way (Hardcover)

If you've been a long-time fan of the Alice series, as I have since childhood, Alice's sophmore year welcomes back an old friend with an adultish twist. Alice's life has changed, but Naylor's well-drawn character pulls us into adulthood with just the right blend of innocence and practicality to make her likeable. I'll be sad when these books are over, but I can't wait to read the next one!

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Growing up is never easy..., February 24, 2009

By 

Joanna Mechlinski (CT, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alice on Her Way (Alice Books) (Mass Market Paperback)

Now almost sixteen, Alice McKinley is eager to tackle all the new responsibilities and privileges coming her way -- getting her driver's license, going on a weekend class trip to New York City, dating her new boyfriend Sam. Sometimes it feels like she's waited her entire life for these things.

Yet now that they're here, Alice finds, they aren't without their problems, too. Sam is really physical with Alice, and while part of her enjoys how his constant touching makes her feel, another part is beginning to feel smothered by his 24/7 presence. Doesn't he know she just wants to hang out with the girls sometimes?

Then, the long-awaited class trip nearly brings disaster for Alice's best friend Pamela, whose misery over her strained relationship with her mother leads to an act with an older boy that compromises her reputationn. At the same time, the trip proves a redemption for Faith, another friend, whose abuse at the hands of her boyfriend has worried her classmates for months.

Sometimes, all Alice wants is to get behind the wheel of a car and GO! But even that proves not as easy as she thought...

Once again, Naylor nails the thoughts and feelings of a typical teenage girl, making mistakes and discoveries on the unpredictable road to adulthood.