Intensely Alice [Hardcover]

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Author)

Book Description

Series: Alice | Publication Date: June 2, 2009

Wouldn’t it be great to go back to the time before Pam got pregnant, before Patrick left for the University of Chicago, before anyone was making any big decisions about sex or college or life in general? Wouldn’t it be great to get the whole gang together again, just once? What it takes for this to happen will change Alice (and the whole gang) forever. A funeral is not a happy reunion. Full of life—the good, the bad, and the heartbreaking—the latest Alice book reminds us just how much can change in an instant.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This twenty-fourth title in the popular Alice series will grab readers with the contemporary coming-of-age story of friendship, family, love, sex, loyalty, faith, work, and loss. Alice, 17, serves as a bridesmaid at her cousin’s wedding (and enjoys the wild, sometimes raunchy, bachelorette party), volunteers with her friends at a homeless shelter, visits her boyfriend in his college dorm (she packs condoms but does not use them), and much more. At the story’s climax, a tragic loss makes Alice confront what she believes. As candid, funny, and touching as the rest of the series. Grades 9-12. --Hazel Rochman

About the Author

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor includes many of her own growing-up experiences in the Alice books. She writes for both children and adults and is the author of more than one hundred and thirty-five books, including the Alice series, which Entertainment Weekly has called "tender" and "wonderful." In 1992 her novel Shiloh won the Newbery Medal. She lives with her husband, Rex, in Gaithersburg, Maryland.  Visit Phyllis online at alicemckinley.wordpress.com

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers (June 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416975519
• ISBN-13: 978-1416975519
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #899,466 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

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Alice nears the end, July 23, 2009

By 

kaduzy - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Intensely Alice (Hardcover)

Well, I seem to have a lot in common with my fellow reviewers for this book. I started reading the books in grade 6, and I'm 26 now. I also found the last two Alice books to be lacking; it seemed that Naylor was apparently losing her touch, and her ability to write realistically about teens.

Reading this book made me start to wonder whether *I* was losing my touch, as well. After all, I haven't been a teen for a long time now. I don't hang out with teenagers. And, increasingly, I do not understand their culture. Part of the reason I like the Alice books is that they are stuck in a bit of a time warp, likely due to the age of the author. Modern teens are a lot more technologically savvy than the teens in Alice's world. It's odd to read a book about teenagers that never mentions a single current TV show (though this might be a deliberate choice on the part of Naylor, to keep the books from aging too quickly), a single current website like Facebook or MySpace that all the teens use nowadays, or a single current gadget, like an iPod. These things are so ubiquitous among teens nowadays that it's simply odd to see any mention of them left out. Still, I must admit that the omission of these things lessens the gap between myself and these fictional teens. They don't seem as alien to me as actual teenagers increasingly do.

But try as I might, I cannot shake the feeling that the author has a personal checklist of "hot topics" that she simply MUST deal with before the Alice books have concluded. We already hit teen pregnancy, divorce, suicide, domestic abuse, cancer, marriage and remarriage, infidelity and drunk driving. This book gives us religion and the sudden death/life is fragile combo. One thing I do not have in common with my fellow reviewers is that I saw this death coming miles away, because it was so heavily foreshadowed. Maybe I've just read too many other books, but the fact is that Naylor's reliance on formula made it easy to see which character she'd marked for death. Even if the book jacket hadn't specifically said that someone would die, I would have known immediately that SOMETHING BAD was about to happen.

I just fear that in Naylor's quest to make Alice into "every girl" so that girls of all ages can identify with her life and her struggles, she sometimes forgets to include particular things that are just plain Alice. In the most recent books, Alice has seemed less like the unique character I wanted to keep reading about back in grade school and more like a blank piece of paper filled with check-boxes next to "modern teen" experiences. Her friends and family are steadily getting a little flatter too.

The one thing that keeps Alice from being completely blank and lifeless, and keeps her more her own person and her own character instead of just a witness to the formulaic things that are happening around her is her relationship with Patrick. That has always been the most genuine thing about these books, and I am happy to say that the same is true here. Patrick makes his first big appearance in several years, and we get a glimpse of his college life as he shares one day of it with Alice. One day, and one magical night. I enjoyed these sections of the book so much that for a few moments I forgot that the characters haven't grown up as fast as I have, and actually found myself rooting for them go even farther. After all, they've been dating for 15 years!

I'm with Naylor -- and Alice -- till the end, no matter what happens. In fact, I find myself kind of hoping Naylor will take her into college or something, and just keep writing Alice books for the rest of her life. But I know that it has to end soon. I just hope that the last few books will feel more natural and less forced into a preconceived idea of what an average teen's life is supposed to be. I hope that in the last few books, Alice finally gets to step forward into adulthood with a distinct personality all her own, no longer just a player in other people's dramas. I hope Naylor won't let me down. I have spent more years of my life on this series than any other -- more than Harry Potter, more than Lemony Snicket -- Alice has been a part of my life longer than any other fictional character, and I had no idea until I finished this book (and this review!) how much she means to me. I don't want her to go quietly into that good night.

This book was okay. But I really hope that the final few are SPECTACULAR.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining installment which will make you tear up in the end, May 30, 2009

By 

Vespi - See all my reviews

This review is from: Intensely Alice (Hardcover)

I have been reading the Alice books since I was a twelve-year old middle schooler, and am now a 21-year old college student. I must say, after the disappointment of the previous book, this one seemed to be going back on track to what attracted me to the Alice series in the first place--the funny and sometimes awkward moments, humorous and delightful character interactions, and most of all, the friendship of Alice and Pamela and Elizabeth. (The review may contain slight spoilers, though I tried careful not to mention anything you would rather read yourself).

The book starts off bringing Alice and most of the gang back together at the Stedmeister's pool, and it was great seeing Alice interact more with other members of the gang such as Mark, Keeno, and Justin rather than have them serve as background characters with a couple of lines per story. The humorous quips and dialogues between the friends seemed natural and easygoing, making Alice seem more like the teenager she is rather than the middle-age high schooler she had been emulating in the past couple of books. The cemetary scene made me chuckle, and brought back memories of my own silly exploits at the cemetary as a teen with my friends. Carol's bachelorette party was kind of raunchy fun, but in a typical-of-every-modern-day-bachelorette-party-out-there, and Aunt Sally's speech had me laughing and cringing at the same time. Thankfully, that section was short and not too detailed because I really couldn't wait for the next part, which was Alice visitiing Patrick at the University of Chicago, who has been glaringly MIA for the past few books (except for the forgettable prom). Naylor's description of college-life was very refreshing, and I was quite pleased with her detailing certain aspects of college life that are important, and was amused that she even included the term "sexiled" (which is a funny, but important part of college dorm life). I won't spoil what happens between Alice and Patrick, but I was very glad to see them interact together some more and go further than just kisses, which they have been doing since, oh, the sixth grade. I was glad to see them take the physical part of their relationship up a level. Also, it was nice seeing Alice and her friends volunteer at a soup kitchen, and the entertainment provided by Mark and Keeno before and after was hilarious. However, the event that happens in the end shocked me, as I did not see it coming, and almost made me cry in the bookstore. A death of a friend shakes up Alice and the gang in a way none of them expected, and the level of grief and tears had my heart aching for these fictional characters for a while after putting the book down. I will not lie--I did not see this coming, even though the description does say a person will die. The last part of the book was full of shock and grief (which was excellently written), and anyone who has suffered the loss of someone close to them could relate to the pain of Alice and her friends.

Naylor does well in this latest installment of the Alice series. She has Alice deal with the daily trials of a teen, such as working, thinking about sex, planning for school, and even has her analyzing her own faith and what she believes in. The book does not get preachy, but details different sides of people's personal beliefs and religion, and I believe the conclusion Alice comes to the end of the book is going to continue to be dealt with in the next Alice book. The only complaint I really have about this book is how Naylor still continues to *tell* rather than describe situations. I would have appreciated a better description of Alice and her friends working at the soup kitchen. Even if this means Naylor actually going down to one and observing the place, hearing the conversations and smelling it to acurately describe the scenes. Also, I feel confused about Alice and Patrick's relationship. So they are officially a couple again? Then why haven't they discussed doing a long-distance relationship? Wouldn't they be planning the next time they can see each other? And I felt the whole dilemma of them worrying where Alice was going to sleep was excessive--first off, many people in the dorms don't mind if their roommate brings a friend or girl/boyfriend to visit. I'm sure Alice could have snuggled with Patrick in his bed and his roommate would have been fine with it. The single beds could fit two people on it (rather tightly), we've all done it several times freshman year.

The ending was well-written and very believable, and one of the best scences Naylor has written. This was a more enjoyable book than the last few, and I'll look forward to the next one in the series, like I have every year since I was thirteen.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars much better than the previous few Alice books!, June 7, 2009

By 

L. Deal "high school English teacher" (NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Intensely Alice (Hardcover)

(warning: potential spoilers)

Like another review said, I've been reading the Alice series since middle school, although I'm now almost 30 years old and still can't wait for the newest book each year. I was disappointed with the past few books in the series - Naylor had lost her touch for tapping into realistic teen dialogue and situations - but this book was definitely several steps up. I appreciated the girls' friends becoming more "round" characters, and enjoyed the realistic interactions between Alice and Patrick. (Although I do agree with the other review - the odds that Patrick *wouldn't* have realized that Alice would prefer to share his bed, seem pretty slim!) The ending did make me cry and was a pretty big surprise to me; I had read that there would be a death but was expecting it to be an older relative, or maybe even Molly.

My one complaint isn't related to the book, but to the Amazon page for this book; when I purchased it earlier this week, I naturally read the book description and critical review, not expecting spoilers in the critical review! It sort of ruined the suspense of Alice's visit to Patrick. I hate inadvertently running into spoilers!