Alice In-between [Turtleback]

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2004 | Series: Alice

Finally, Alice is thirteen. But being a teenager isn't always as fantastic as Alice dreamed it would be. A sophisticated night on the town with her brother, Lester, and an overnight train trip to Chicago with Elizabeth and Pamela are exciting, but they also give her a first-hand look at some of the perils of grown-up life.

The problem is, Alice doesn't really feel like a grown-up. But she doesn't feel like a kid anymore, either. She feels in-between -- and that's a pretty confusing place to be!

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-7-The perennial heroine of five Naylor novels is back in a droll tale of early adolescent pluck, curiosity, and angst. Motherless since early childhood, Alice finds turning 13 a time of awkward transition from girlhood to womanhood, a topic she never hesitates to discuss frankly with her father and older brother, Lester. The highlight of her summer is a visit with best friends Pamela and Elizabeth to her Aunt Sally's home in Chicago. The girls travel without a chaperone, enjoying the sophistication of an overnight train trip in a sleeper car. Pamela is comely and deceptively mature-looking, and when she attracts the persistent attention of an older man, Elizabeth and Alice boldly and humorously stage her rescue. A sober touch is provided when Mrs. Plotkin, Alice's beloved sixth grade teacher and surrogate mother, has a heart attack and is hospitalized. By summer's end, Alice is beginning to feel more in control of her fledgling maturation as she renews her special friendship with old flame Patrick. This is bound to reassure the many adolescent fans who can identify with the "in-between blues."-Susan W. Hunter, Riverside Middle School, Springfield, VT
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 5-7. Naylor's books about Alice get better and better. This gentle, affectionate comedy dramatizes the uncertainty of being in-between. At 13 Alice feels she's no longer a kid, though she does slip back sometimes and act giggly and gross. She's not yet a young woman, though she does have lots of "intimate conversations" about boys and bodies, and she longs to have real cleavage to fill out her clothes. Her two best friends are like the opposing parts of herself. Pamela is suddenly sexy and flirting with danger. Elizabeth hates any talk of nudity and wedding nights, and she doesn't pass the pencil test when they measure their breasts. Alice is less of a klutz than she used to be in the early books, such as The Agony of Alice (1985), though she's still bewildered about rituals like table manners ("It's what to eat and what to eat it with and how much to eat and what to say andÿ20.ÿ20.ÿ20."). Her widower dad has become just too sensitive, loving, and wise to be true, but the farce of her older brother, Lester, and his girlfriends continues to provide Alice with entertainment and instruction. His laconic one-liners are perfectly tuned. Alice says by eighth grade she and her friends will all be raving beauties. "Raving, anyway," Lester says. Hazel Rochman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Turtleback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Demco Media (October 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 060630732X
• ISBN-13: 978-0606307321
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

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 So realistic!, August 12, 2000

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Alice In-Between (Paperback)

Alice in Between is my favorite book in the Alice series, of 12 books. It tells about Alice McKinley, who has just turned 13 at the end of seventh grade, and expects it to be wonderful. However, being a teenager and at an "in between" age is harder than she thinks, though she and her friends still have some great, often hilarious times together. A fancy date, taking the "pencil test", and going on a train trip to Chicago are a few of the things that happen. This is a book that all girls 11 and up can relate to, I'm sure! I've never read a book that is so true to life - Phyllis Naylor is amazing! If you liked this book, be sure to read the others in the series.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alice In-Between, March 10, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Alice In-Between (Paperback)

Alice in between is a great book, it is basicly about Alice who has waited all her life to be 13. Now that she is not a kid anymore, she often talks with her girlfriends about their bodies and the boys at school. On the train trip to Chicago with her friends, Pamela is harrased by a older man . During this delightful time Alice becomes in touch with her ex-boyfriend Patrick again and they celebrate his 13th birthday. Her summer of the seventh grade will be an amazing time that Alice and you as a reader will never forget this cool book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alice the Best, April 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Alice In-Between (Paperback)

I feel for Alice. I know what she is going through. I go to some of the places she goes and I live 3 streets away from where she supossedly lives. I go to the junior high that she goes to. All the things Alice goes through are real including SGSD (seventh grade sing day reffered to in one of the later Alice books.) I think that Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is an excellant author. I also recomend for anyone in 7th grade or above that you read Year of the Gopher, also by Ms. Naylor.