Patiently Alice [Hardcover]

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Author)

Book Description

Series: Alice | Publication Date: May 1, 2003

Now that she's finished freshman year of high school and survived her first breakup, Alice is pretty sure that she's finally got a handle on life. Dad and Sylvia are going to live happily ever after, Pamela can always be counted on to do something outrageous, Lester will always be there when she needs him, and Alice is way over Patrick. But when she heads off to be a camp counselor for three weeks with Elizabeth, Pamela, and Gwen, Alice is shocked to come home and find that everything has changed -- and not necessarily for the better!

Patrick surprises Alice by turning to her for help, Pamela's mother (who ran away with the NordicTrack instructor) is contemplating coming home, Lester's been offered a deal he can't refuse, and what's worse, Dad and Sylvia's happy future seems to have encountered some unforeseen complications. Finally, Elizabeth, who once felt that kissing was too much, goes further with a boy than any of them have yet! As Alice tries to cope with her changing world, she learns that life is never totally what you expect it to be and that even people you've known your entire life can still sometimes surprise you. Phyllis Reynolds Naylor does it again, proving that she understands what real girls think and feel, with the newest book in the beloved Alice series.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9-Alice's many fans will be delighted to see the heroine back in action. Having survived her first year of high school, Alice and her friends are off to be counselors at a coed camp for disadvantaged children. Her father and his longtime love, Sylvia Summers, are finally preparing to walk down the aisle, and her brother, Lester, is planning to move out. Can one girl handle all this change? The summer challenges Alice's patience at every turn, but she sails through with her usual charm and good humor. Some of the camp scenes are racially charged as one camper calls another "the n-word" and Alice must deal with her emotionally needy young charges. She realizes that she is not the center of the universe and is all the wiser for it. Readers will appreciate Naylor's skilled handling of all of the above. They will laugh out loud at some scenes, particularly when Elizabeth buys condoms for their friend Pamela, "just in case," and hold their breath in other instances. Naylor's writing continues to be fresh and witty, and her characters live the real-world struggles of many teens.
Elaine Baran Black, Gwinnett County Public Library, Lawrenceville, GA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 6-9. Alice takes time out from romance (a No-Boyfriend Summer) to spend three weeks after ninth grade with her girlfriends as a volunteer counselor at a nature camp for poor, young urban children. But even if there's no love story in this fifteenth book about Alice, there is lots of forthright talk about sex and dating, including a hilarious scene in which Alice's friend buys condoms "just in case." There is also uproarious fun when the assistant counselors, guys and girls, somehow end up skinny-dipping together. Naylor is just as candid, and more serious, about Alice's work with the children in her charge: their joy and their trouble; the pain and anger that fuels their racist insults; the limits to what Alice can do to help; the small things that make a difference. The summer-camp story is framed by the continuing drama of Alice's family and friends at home, and, as always, fans of this immensely popular series will welcome both the familiar and the new. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum; 1st edition (May 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689826362
• ISBN-13: 978-0689826368
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,419,637 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

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great addition to the series!, May 16, 2003

By 

Melanie (Iowa, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Patiently Alice (Hardcover)

I've been a fan of the Alice series for over three years, now, and every year I anxiously await the next release. I was not disappointed with Patiently Alice this spring - far from it! Covering the summer between 15-year-old Alice McKinley's 9th and 10th grade years, this should be popular with fans and newcomers to the series alike.

Alice's mother died when she was very young, so she's excited that her dad is finally marrying her English teacher from 7th grade. Alice and three of her friends, Elizabeth, Pamela, and Gwen, decide to be assistant counselers at a summer camp for three weeks, however, soon before the wedding. Alice and her friends have a lot of fun, trials, and tribulations at camp, but when Alice returns home, so many things have changed. The wedding is postponed, her 22-year-old brother Lester is considering moving, a friend is having family problems, and she even hears from her ex-boyfriend, Patrick.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes very realistic, humorous reads about life for a teenage girl who is not-so-perfect but somehow relates to all of us. Be sure to read the othes in the series, and if you still want more, try The Princess Diaries series by Meg Cabot or the Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging series by Louise Rennison. Enjoy!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, June 3, 2003

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Patiently Alice (Hardcover)

I have been a faithful reader in the "Alice" series and when I read this book, I was definitly not disappointed. I have read every single Alice book and I still find it interesting. This book was escpecially good to me because it involved tons of new guys for the girls to fight over and have fun with. I also liked that the girls were in a different environment than what they usually were in, that being a coed camp. This book was touching and fun. I even laughed out loud, which I hardly ever do in books.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Book, August 8, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Patiently Alice (Hardcover)

This book was really good. It's about When Alice and her friends take jobs as assistant counselors at a camp for messed up kids. Camp Overlook is one of the best things that happened to Alice. She makes wonderful friends, makes a diffence in some kids lives, and at the same time manages to stay just friends with all the hot boy assistant counselors. Elizabeth is getting sizzly with hottie Ross, Gwen is getting down and dirty with Joe. Overall, Camp Overlook counselors are learning about love and friendship.