Alice on the Outside [Hardcover]

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Author)

Book Description

Alice likes her life, even though she realizes that change is on the way. She and her friends may develop separate interests and ideas, and sometimes she may find herself on the outside rather than inside her close circle, but the future looks good. Alice thinks she's ready for it.

Her first look at that future comes when Aunt Sally and Cousin Carol visit. This is Alice's chance to ask Carol what sex is really like for a woman. After all, her cousin was once married. But Alice discovers that sex and marriage are more complex than she had thought.

Sex is not the only area of life that turns out to be more difficult than Alice had expected. When her school observes a Consciousness Raising Week, Alice finds that prejudice is easier to acquire than to endure, especially when a new friend becomes the object of ridicule.

There is the Eighth Grade Semi-Formal to think about, however. It will be the crowning night of the school year. What could possibly go wrong? Not anything Alice could plan for. Sometimes, she finds, it is not planning that matters, but coping.

Alice is growing up. She is meeting new people, facing new problems, and giving readers new things to laugh and think about. She's experimenting with life and finding it can be awful -- but also, sometimes, very, very good.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9-Issues of sexuality, tolerance, and self-knowledge are dealt with candidly in this 11th book about Alice McKinley. Naylor continues to follow this engaging protagonist as she copes with the expected and unexpected ordeals of growing up. Over the years, Alice has developed into a thoughtful, intelligent, and increasingly independent girl. As always, the author places her character in realistic situations and has her grapple with the concerns of her age. Now in eighth grade, Alice wonders about her relationship with her boyfriend, Patrick. ("You're supposed to want to caress each other...It's natural. It's normal. So when are you supposed to stop saying no and start saying yes?") She is also faced with a school project in which the students are governed by rules aimed at forcing them to recognize the evils of prejudice and arbitrary privilege. At the same time, Alice befriends a classmate; when she finds out the girl is a lesbian, she handles the situation with maturity and tolerance. This incident dovetails, perhaps too conveniently, with the school project to understand prejudice as fear of difference. It is unfortunate that the cover illustration reflects this part of the book as if it were the central theme; it is not. It is only part of the story about Alice growing up and coping with the myriad pressures and questions that define adolescence. Of course, Alice's fans will want to read this newest installment, but the book will also appeal to those unfamiliar with the earlier volumes.
Renee Steinberg, Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Still alertly navigating the shoals of early adolescence, Alice turns 14 in the 11th installment of her often hilarious, always perceptive odyssey. Before her birthday, however, she gains some insight into the nature of prejudice from a week-long consciousness-raising exercise at school; watches friend Pamela flirt with a wilder lifestyle; observes her brother Lester's anything-but-tranquil love life; and gracefully fields a pass from a female classmate. Although the various continuing plot lines of the series don't hurtle along, they're not ignored, either, and Naylor again demonstrates her gift for embedding savvy advice and frank specifics about sex and growing up seamlessly into common situations. By the end, Alice's own romantic situation is looking decidedly bright; although her boyfriend Patrick comes down with mononucleosis, leaving her solo at the eighth-grade dance, he also shows endearing awkwardness in the kissing department and melts her utterly with a front yard serenade on the night of her birthday. Fans will leap aboard enthusiastically, but readers new to the series will have to catch earlier books first for some background. Sail on, Alice. (Fiction. 11-14) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum; 1st edition (June 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689803591
• ISBN-13: 978-0689803598
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,396,366 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 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Information Undercover?, January 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Alice on the Outside (Hardcover)

As most kids read these books and think that they are great, that they can really relate to Alice, they may not be seeing what else they can get from her. Alice asks questions and goes through things that many kids are too shy to ask about or their parents don't discuss with them. Through these books, you can get accurate information in a way that you won't be embarrassed about but still are entertained. Alice is a modern hero: realistic and down-to-earth but still has the problems of a normal teenager.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars alice on the outside, August 31, 2000

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Alice on the Outside (Hardcover)

Alice, a 13 yr. old eigth grader, is getting ready for alot of changes. Her friends are doing things without her. She also learns about racism not only with color. This book puts into words how alot of kids feel. But somethings are alittle unrealistic. Girls in particular will love this book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alice on the outside, January 5, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Alice On The Outside (Mass Market Paperback)

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor(author) really describes what it is like to be a teenage girl. Naylor puts all of the problems of being a teenager together, your date getting ill for a big dance, your dad humiliating you by interupting the most intense kiss you have ever had, and not having a mother to talk to about stuff you need a girl to talk to about. In this story all of that happens to Alice when her life gets more complicated then ever. This hilarious must-read will spark the interest of any Jr.High girl.