Alice, I Think [Paperback]

Susan Juby (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 30, 2003

Alice lives in Smithers, a small logging town in Canada, with her mother, father, and ten-year-old brother MacGregor. She attends the Smithers Teens in Transition (Not in Trouble) centre, and is now up to therapist number two, Death Lord Bob.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ever since Alice arrived at first grade dressed as a hobbit and endured a week of increasingly violent peer rejection, she has been home schooled by her hippie mom and indifferent dad, leaving her with what her therapist calls "a shocking poverty of age-appropriate real-life experience." Now Alice’s inept new therapist, Death Lord Bob, has cornered her into agreeing to go to the public high school. Actually, this fits right in with Alice’s career aspirations to become a cultural critic, and her eighties style statement would be working out pretty much all right (especially after she gets a great haircut somewhat by accident) if it weren’t for her old nemesis Linda, now grown seriously homicidal, and her two head banger henchmen. Alice’s sensible observations are a rich source of humor in this very funny first novel, as she tries to get her life together in spite of the peculiar aberrations of the "normal" teen and adult population of Smithers, a small ingrown town in British Columbia where entertainment opportunities are limited to excuse-to-drink events like the Northern Saddle Sores’ Family Trail Ride. Her mother is the kind of tie-dye clad woman who holds a sage-burning ceremony for safety before starting out on a back-to-school shopping trip, and her friends include bookstore owner Corinne, who is allergic to books. Her romance-writing father’s poker cronies are equally colorful: gay but style-challenged Finn and taxi-owning Marcus, who has a succession of twenty-years-younger girlfriends who need a ride. When Alice’s sullen girl cousin Frank arrives, a parents’ nightmare with her bizarre outfits and stuffed-animal backpack filled with bottles and baggies, Alice observes the resulting hullabaloo with amused satisfaction, and after a hilarious, precarious car trip to a Fish Show and Drum Workshop, she finds herself well on the way to acquiring a friend and a boyfriend. Older teens will enjoy the story and the many descriptions of wacky clothes if they can get past the misguided cover, a picture of five-year-old Alice's chubby hobbit-clad legs. (Ages 12 and older) --Patty Campbell --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Goethals does a superb turn as Alice, the alienated teen possessed of a biting sarcasm who stars in Juby's frequently hilarious novel. Providing the perfect air of intelligence tinged with teen angst, Goethals gives Alice's journal about her various travails an undercurrent of energy. Alice, who feels like a true misfit, has been home-schooled for years and will soon enter a public high school. Whether she's keenly critiquing her hippie mother's feminist friends (of the armpit-hair-growing, patchouli-wearing ilk), her father's slacker pals or her generally inept teachers and counselors, Alice offers a unique view of common teenage scenarios and complaints. She suffers at the hands of bullies, feels awkward around boys and longs to create a special "look" for herself, just like most kids her age. Her ever-present family is a source of love and comfort as well as embarrassment. But what makes this tale unusual is Alice's ability to see her everyday dramas in the context of a bigger picture of her life. Particularly entertaining are Goethals's spot-on mocking imitations of the overly caring or just plain daffy authority figures in Alice's life. Teens-and adults who remember their own teen years well-will find much to like here, including plenty of pop-culture references. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (Australia) Children's (July 30, 2003)
• ISBN-10: 073227690X
• ISBN-13: 978-0732276904
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A decent book, July 15, 2004

By 

Shi-chan "Shi-chan" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alice, I Think (Paperback)

Anyone who wasn't satisfied with Alice, I Think should re-read it. I found it quite...odd at first, and would have given it 2 or 3 stars after the first read. However, after re-reading it twice, and reading its sequel, Miss Smithers, I enjoyed it far more. I think it is a book that you need to get used to. The author's style is really something that's an acquired taste.
However, I think that whoever thought the mention of Internet porn was awful...all I have to say is welcome to reality. I am a teenager, and my friend who is younger than I am has read this book without issue. I have seen much worse things in books, and it's simply ridiculous that it wouldn't be appropriate for 16 year olds. (Besides, it WASN'T in great detail!) And anyway, it's a _journal_. I'm aware Alice is fictional, but if that happened, you know, it happened. I keep a journal myself, and I'm sure it's extremely boring at times. I mean, please. This is hardly the height of inappropriate literature. I think this is a grossly misguided idea.
Anyway, sorry for snarkiness. This was a pretty good book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Kind of bland, September 4, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Alice, I Think (Paperback)

This book, although mildly humorous in a sarcastic way at times, is pretty bland. Being a slightly negative and sarcastic person myself, I am not against blunt people who "tell it like it is." However, Alice is too over the top in her negativity. When i finish a book, I like to get something more out of it than just "oh, here's a story about a naive and condescending girl who is constantly surrounded by hippy-idiots and everything about her life sucks." I like books with a slightly deeper meaning. I know that sounds corny, but it's true. Another thing that I didn't like about this book is how unfairly it portrays hippies. Come on, not all feminists who eat organic food and do spiritual stuff like yoga are that stupid and idiotic. Alice is a bit hard on her mother. I mean, her mother actually doesn't seem that bad, just a little wierd at times. Anyway, this is an OK book but it really isn't that great.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Overly dramatized but good, February 24, 2006

By 

Bellerose (Berkeley, Ca. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alice, I Think (Hardcover)

I am a homeschooled teenager who will be going back to school next year so I am in somewhat the same situation as Alice though my family is not as disfunctional...I thought the book really showed a witty but VERY overly dramatized version of "the adventures of unsocialized teen trying to find her 'style'" and it was sort of a "what NOT to do" manual for anyone who's not in the 'cool' crowd. "Alice, I think" really made me laugh and was a refreshing light read. I think anyone who thinks they've got it bad socially should read this and will come out thinking "well, life's not so bad, at least people don't think I'm as weird as Alice..."