Alice In-Between

by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Overview

Thirteen! It's finally happening. Alice McKinley is an actual, official teenager. But the problem is, she still sort of feels like a kid. Wasn't being a teenager supposed to feel different? Turning thirteen happens overnight, but the teenager stuff takes time—and a little more patience than Alice has at the moment!

Still, being thirteen does have its advantages, she decides. Alice is allowed to do more exciting things, like take a trip to Chicago with her two best friends. And when she takes a good look at all the relationship problems her older brother has, she realizes that in-between can sometimes be the perfect place.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442427587
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	05/03/2011
Series:	Alice Series , #6
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	535,413
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	780L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor has written more than 135 books, including the Newbery Award–winning Shiloh and its sequels, the Alice series, Roxie and the Hooligans, and Roxie and the Hooligans at Buzzard’s Roost. She lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland. To hear from Phyllis and find out more about Alice, visit AliceMcKinley.com.

Read an Excerpt

I did something at school on Monday that I'd been thinking about since fifth grade but never thought I'd have nerve enough to do. I guess I was still thinking about Porgy and Bess and how beautiful it was when that woman sang "Summertime." And when Bess sang to Porgy, and Porgy to Bess, and all the street vendors were singing together. I wished I knew how it felt to be up on a stage singing like that -- even in the back row of a chorus, where, when you opened your mouth and made a sound, people didn't turn to stare at you.

It was right after lunch when Pamela and Elizabeth and I were leaving the cafeteria to sit outside on the steps. We passed the chorus room, and I noticed the teacher standing by his desk, sorting through some sheet music.

"I'll meet you outside," I said to Elizabeth and Pamela, and ducked through the door.

I walked over to where he was working. I didn't even know his name. Maybe 13 makes you bolder or something.

"Hello?" he said, smiling a little, and kept sorting. "I'm not in chorus, but I've got a question," I began.

"Shoot." He was looking at me now.

"People say that when my mother was alive, she used to sing a lot. My dad plays the flute and piano, and my brother plays the guitar. They both sing too. I can't carry a tune, and don't understand it. I just wondered if it's genetic or something."

"Well, now," he said, and continued smiling, "it's probably a question no one has an answer for, but are you quite sure you can't carry a tune?"

"Trust me," I said, and explained how all through grade school, when the other kids sang for the PTA, I was given the triangle to ping at the end of each stanza. And when I sang "Happy Birthday" at parties, itbrought down the house.

The teacher listened. "Well, some people believe in the Suzuki method, which goes on the theory that everyone can learn to carry a tune if they're exposed to music at an early age."

"I probably listened to it before I was born," I told him. "But I can't even tell you if notes go up or down."

He studied me a moment. "There are no guarantees, but if you really want to make the effort, I'd be willing to work with you each day for fifteen minutes and see what we could do. The real question, though, is how unhappy you are with yourself just as you are now. Would this make a big or a little difference in your life? Or no difference at all?"

I thought about that. Would I rather have fifteen minutes a day to sit out on the steps with Pamela and Elizabeth after lunch and talk to the guys, or did I want to embarrass myself by trying to make my voice match the notes on a piano? And if I finally did get to the place where I could carry a tune, would I break into song when I saw my boyfriends coming toward me on the sidewalk?

"I guess maybe I'm pretty happy the way I am," I said finally.

He grinned. "Okay. If it ever bothers you enough that you feel genuinely unhappy about it, come back and we'll see what we can do. If it's only a mild annoyance, you probably wouldn't want to spend the time and effort."

I went outside smiling. I think it was the first time in my life that a teacher told me I could survive without knowing his subject. That I could live a long, healthy life and still not know diddly about what he was teaching. Maybe when you were thirteen, people treated you more grown-up. Maybe I was on my way to womanhood, and people could see it already in my face.

I told Dad that night what the teacher had said. "I hate to admit it," he told me, "but he's right. There was a time I fantasized that my children would be musicians when they were grown. Career musicians, I mean. And now I realize that if you were anyone other than who you are, you wouldn't be the Lester and Alice I love, and I wouldn't trade you for the world."

And that was the second time in a week I'd felt really, truly, totally, absolutely loved.

Table of Contents

1	On the Road to Raving Beauty	1
2	In the Fast Lane with Lester	10
3	Rekindling the Flame	22
4	The Pencil Test	30
5	Rescue	41
6	Of Heaven and Hell	53
7	A Voice from the Past	64
8	Poem	75
9	Train to Chicago	86
10	Pamela's Room	94
11	Saving Pamela	103
12	Intimate Conversations	110
13	A Present for Patrick	118
14	Hospital Visit	129
15	Holding the Fort	141

Editorial Reviews

Kirkus Reviews Naylor's books about Alice get better and better.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review Energetic dialogue and sprightly episodes keep the series fresh.

From the Publisher

Gr 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

School Library Journal