Alice in Lace [Hardcover]

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1996 | Series: Alice (Book 8)

Alice suddenly finds herself married! Well, sort of. In an eighth grade health class, she and her friends are each given a hypothetical situation to help them learn to make good decisions. It's all great fun until one of the students creates a problem that could have serious consequences for the whole class.

The first semester of eighth grade is both exciting and complicated as Alice learns something about last year's English teacher, Miss Summers, who is dating her father, and when one of her brother's old girlfriends makes a startling announcement. Then there is the problem of how to afford a wedding and honeymoon, the pranks with Pamela's pillow, a harrowing ride in a used car, Elizabeth's confession, Patrick's embarrassing request, and finally, a new person arrives on the scene.

As usual, Alice has questions, but sometimes no one has the answers.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Gr. 6^-8. What happens if you get pregnant? What happens if you're caught shoplifting? How much does a wedding cost? Alice's eighth-grade health class is studying Critical Choices: investigating and role-playing "how the choices you make now can affect the rest of your life." The latest in Naylor's wonderful series about Alice is more didactic than usual: like Anne Fine's Flour Babies (1994), the story openly explores such issues as unplanned, unwanted pregnancy and how babies can begin--and end--dreams. There's a contrived subplot in which an angry girl in the class falsely accuses the teacher of sexual harassment; but for most of the story, Alice's comic, affectionate narrative captures the bumblings and failures and intimacies of growing up female now. As Alice and her classmates try out adult roles, it's a bit like playing house and dress-up; it's also very clear that lack of planning can mean serious trouble. The message is all the more convincing because it isn't simplistic. Naylor is honest--you can't control everything that happens to you, nor would you want to. Hazel Rochman

From the Publisher

Alice suddenly finds herself married! Well, sort of. In an eighth grade health class, she and her friends are each given a hypothetical situation to help them learn to make good decisions. It's all great fun until one of the students creates a problem that could have serious consequences for the whole class.

The first semester of eighth grade is both exciting and complicated as Alice learns something about last year's English teacher, Miss Summers, who is dating her father, and when one of her brother's old girlfriends makes a startling announcement. Then there is the problem of how to afford a wedding and honeymoon, the pranks with Pamela's pillow, a harrowing ride in a used car, Elizabeth's confession, Patrick's embarrassing request, and finally, a new person arrives on the scene.

As usual, Alice has questions, but sometimes no one has the answers.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum; 1st edition (March 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689803583
• ISBN-13: 978-0689803581
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,499,315 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

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alice never knew life was this complicated..., December 7, 2000

By 

Melanie (Iowa, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alice in Lace (Jean Karl Books) (Paperback)

"Alice in Lace" was another great novel on Alice McKinley, an ordinary 13 year-old girl.

In this novel, Alice and Patrick are getting married, Pamela is pregnant, and Elizabeth is buying a car. Not to mention Karen shoplifting and Jill burying her grandmother! What? Well, it's all part of the Critical Choices unit in Alice's 8th grade class: everyone receives a hypothetical situation and solves it.

This book was filled with humor, especially when Alice and her friends try to solve their situations! Teenages can really relate to this book. :) Be sure to read all of the other "Alice" books!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best alice book ever !, April 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Alice in Lace (Hardcover)

Alice and Patrick are getting married,Pamela's pregnant,and elizabeth is buying a car! Well,at least in Mr.everrets health class.They all have to make "critical choices'.I can't tell you what pamela did,but it is so funny!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alice In Lace, October 13, 2002

By 

Mandy Shelby (Oxford, Mississippi, University of Mississippi United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alice in Lace (Jean Karl Books) (Paperback)

As Alice begins the eighth grade, she suddenly finds herself planning her own wedding. In heath class, Alice and her friends are given hypothetical situations to help them make wise decisions. Some students "became" pregnant, planned a wedding, bought a car, planned a funeral, and received a DWI. As the story progresses, the eighth graders realize that their assignment in health class becomes a reality shock. As part of their assignment, they had to experience their situations fully. Alice comes to realize that eighth grade is exciting yet complicated. Complications include trying to plan a wedding with the absence of her mother and learning something about her last year's English teacher, Ms. Summers, who is dating her father. Some exciting events were when one of her brother's old girlfriends makes a surprising announcement and a new person arrives. This is a great book; it gives students insight and connections to the real world. By reading the book, the reader can become part of the eighth grade health class. The book is very easy to read and keeps you on your toes. You will not want to put it down! This book would be interesting to students in seventh and eighth grades. Parents and teachers could use Alice In Lace to bring the awareness to the students about what lies beyond the classroom. In the classroom, teachers could promote social relationships, math, art, music, and geography.