Product Description

The first day of the summer vacation between eighth and ninth grades, Alice, Pamela, and Elizabeth decide they have to get in shape. "However you look when you start ninth grade, that's how people will think of you for the next four years," says Pamela. And they all begin jogging three miles every morning.

"It's going to be the most exciting summer of our lives," Pamela says. And Alice hopes it will be. But things keep happening that no one counted on. Alice knows that she is going to be a volunteer -- with her friend Gwen -- at the hospital; but she doesn't know that along with the satisfaction of doing something useful she can also find an unexpected sorrow. And she certainly doesn't know that trying to decide alone how to handle a Pamela-emergency can be a big mistake. Pamela doesn't know that she will be spending the summer dealing with the results of her parents' separation. And Elizabeth does not know that trying to be thin -- and trying to be what everyone wants her to be -- can almost lead to disaster.

Mixed with the problems and the complications the summer brings are moments of fun, moments of learning that variety is the way of nature -- beauty comes in more than one form -- and moments when all three girls see the future in whole new ways. There are also moments of stress and change for Lester, Alice's brother, and for her father. Though nothing works out quite as planned, the end of summer does find everyone in better shape -- mentally if not physically.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1714808 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

From Amazon.com
The summer between eighth and ninth grade is looming for Alice and her friends. "It's going to be one of the most exciting summers of our lives.... All the stupid things we've ever done will be behind us, and all the wonderful stuff will be waiting to happen." First things first. The girls decide it's time to get in shape. Elizabeth tells Alice her waist is a little thick and her legs are too straight. With friends like these...

They embark on a summer of discovery, with jobs, a sex-education seminar, and flirtation with an eating disorder. As Alice tests the waters of adolescence, her relationships with her father, brother, and friends are challenged. When her friend Pamela runs away from home--to Alice's house--Alice must decide where her loyalties and ethics lie. And when her father goes off to Europe, will the temptation of entertaining her boyfriend in the privacy of her home override her father's trust?

Practical, lively Alice has appeared in many of Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's other popular novels: Alice in Rapture, Sort Of, Alice on the Outside, and more. Her down-to-earth charm and quintessential adolescent ways will win her friends on and off the pages of the Alice series. From start to finish, readers will identify with Alice's hilarious, poignant, energetic exploits and be moved by Alice's growing maturity.

Serious issues--body image, death, sex--are balanced delightfully with more lighthearted teens-in-summer issues--makeup, grounding, first tampon use. By September, the girls have definitely had an exciting summer, but not necessarily in the way they had anticipated! (Ages 10 to 14) --Emilie Coulter

From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9-Alice and her friends are determined to make the summer before high school the best one of their lives. Their main goal is to make their bodies perfect. However, as the summer goes on, the girls find out they have a lot of growing to do-and most of it is internal, not external. Pamela learns how to live with her father now that her mother has left the family. Elizabeth obsesses over her weight, and Alice tries to help her friends, as well as deal with the death of her former teacher, Mrs. Plotkin, and with her sexual feelings toward her boyfriend, Patrick. Naylor has created an engaging story with strong, three-dimensional characters. The issues the girls face are common among adolescents, and as they learn from their experiences, so will readers. The author includes candid information on topics such as sex, physical development in adolescence, and eating disorders in a way that makes it completely accessible to readers. Alice is a likable protagonist; fans of the series will enjoy this latest installment and newcomers will want to go back and read about her previous adventures.
Dina Sherman, Brooklyn Children's Museum, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Alice continues to model safe, commonsensical ways of navigating the foggy shoals of adolescence, as the summer before high school brings crises, comedy, beginnings, endings, and new life skills. Actually, Alice, with a rewarding new job as a candy striper and a boyfriend who turns out to be as good a cook as he is a kisser, has it pretty good. It's those around her—older brother Lester, whose new squeeze is an imperious fashion plate, best buddies Elizabeth and Pamela, the former veering toward anorexia, the latter struggling through a stormy relationship with her father—who provide most of the angst. As usual, though, Alice provides most of the theater, and before this voyage ends she has helped teach Elizabeth how to use a tampon; learned to administer a self-examination (“Well, I said to my privates, Nice to meet you”); rides out the death of her beloved sixth-grade teacher; and hits a crest of joy when her father and junior-high English teacher Sylvia Summers finally—finally!—announce their engagement. Sailing through her 12th “Alice” with nary a sign of series fatigue, Naylor, as usual, masterfully imparts physical, social, and emotional information while bringing readers to tears and laughter. (Fiction. 11-14) -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.