Alice in Lace

by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Overview

Alice and Patrick are getting married! Well, sort of. It’s all part for her eighth grade health class. But, this is a piece of wedding cake compared to some of her friends’ assignments where they have to role play being pregnant or being caught shoplifting. The biggest challenge of all, though, is just growing up—and this health unit is showing that it doesn’t get any easier! Who decided that life was a never ending obstacle course, anyway?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442465831
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	05/22/2012
Series:	Alice , #8
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	738,052
Lexile:	800L (what's this?)
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	10 - 14 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.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 5-8-In this newest stage of Alice's journey to adulthood, the appealing heroine begins eighth grade with a million questions and few answers. Her health teacher, Mr. Everett, has assigned the members of the class various real-life scenarios to investigate and come to terms with. Some of Alice's friends are facing teenage pregnancy, shoplifting, totaling a car, and arranging a funeral. Alice and her friend Patrick are to plan their wedding, honeymoon, find an apartment, and buy furniture on a very limited budget. With her great sense of humor, Naylor once again captures the true turmoil of adolescence. The awkward feelings and questions about budding bodies and an awareness of the opposite sex are handled in a true-to-life but lighthearted and sensitive manner. Some questions go unanswered, but life will eventually fill in those blanks. Naylor obviously has fun exploring friendship, family, relationships, and even love. With all of these issues permeating the story, Alice and her friends are a little more serious than in previous titles, but readers will still find plenty to laugh at and cheer about. Alice in Lace leaves readers wanting to see where life will take Alice next but still hoping that she won't grow up too fast.-Tracey Kroll, Brookland Middle School, Richmond, VA

School Library Journal

What happens if you get pregnant? What happens if you're caught shoplifting? How much does a wedding cost? Alice's eighth-grade health class is studying Critical Choices: investigating and role-playing "how the choices you make now can affect the rest of your life." The latest in Naylor's wonderful series about Alice is more didactic than usual: like Anne Fine's "Flour Babies" (1994), the story openly explores such issues as unplanned, unwanted pregnancy and how babies can begin--and end--dreams. There's a contrived subplot in which an angry girl in the class falsely accuses the teacher of sexual harassment; but for most of the story, Alice's comic, affectionate narrative captures the bumblings and failures and intimacies of growing up female now. As Alice and her classmates try out adult roles, it's a bit like playing house and dress-up; it's also very clear that lack of planning can mean serious trouble. The message is all the more convincing because it isn't simplistic. Naylor is honest--you can't control everything that happens to you, nor would you want to.

Hazel Rochman