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.


Book Description
The Most Exciting Summer of Their Lives That's what Pamela says about the summer before ninth grade, and she, Alice, and Elizabeth are determined to make the most of it. All three girls are getting into shape for the new school year by jogging three miles a day and cutting down on junk food, and Alice is enjoying her volunteer job at the local hospital. But things keep happening that Alice hadn't counted on. Her satisfaction with her job is marred by an unexpected sorrow. Her attempt to be a loyal friend to Pamela gets her in trouble with her father and brother, big time. And both she and Pamela are afraid that Elizabeth may be taking her efforts to lose weight too seriously. Could the most exciting summer of their lives be a little too exciting?


Card catalog description
During the summer between eighth and ninth grades, Alice and her friends Pamela and Elizabeth decide to improve themselves through exercise.

ANNOTATION

During the summer between eighth and ninth grades, Alice and her friends Pamela and Elizabeth decide to improve themselves through exercise.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The Most Exciting Summer

That's what Pamela says about the summer before ninth grade, and she, Alice, and Elizabeth are determined to make the most of it. All three girls are getting into shape for the new school year by jogging three miles a day and cutting down on junk food, and Alice is enjoying her volunteer job at the local hospital.

But things keep happening that Alice hadn't counted on. Her satisfaction with her job is marred by an unexpected sorrow. Her attempt to be a loyal friend to Pamela gets her in trouble with her father and brother, big time. And both she and Pamela are afraid that Elizabeth may be taking her efforts to lose weight too seriously. Could the most exciting summer of their lives be a little too exciting?

SYNOPSIS

"It's going to be one of the most exciting summers of our lives," Pamela tells Alice and Elizabeth. The important thing this summer before high school is to create a perfect body. But for each of the girls it is, instead, a summer of growing up on the inside, rather than outside. Elizabeth discovers that to always accept others' opinions is a mistake. Pamela learns since her mother ran away that she must live with her family problems. And Alice slowly realizes that she does not have all the answers to the problems life brings her and that her decisions can affect other people in good ways or bad. The summer is a memorable one, but not in the way the girls had planned. They come to September more mature, if not more physically beautiful.

FROM THE CRITICS

Children's Literature - Children's Literture

In this installment of the Alice saga, Alice and her friends have finally reached adolescence. During the summer between eighth and ninth grade, Alice and her two best friends, Pamela and Elizabeth, decide to get into shape. Unfortunately, Elizabeth takes their routine too seriously and develops a serious eating disorder. Alice is happily dating someone, but she does not know how to handle the new feelings she's experiencing. Her volunteer work at the hospital brings her joy as well as sorrow as she deals with a dear friend's illness. If those problems were not enough, her father wants to remarry, and Pamela moves away, causing Alice to deceive her father in a way she never has before. Naylor's Alice has always been a delightful character with issues young readers can relate to. So too with this book. All of Alice's problems resonate with authenticity. What will Alice confront next? 2000, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Ages 10 to 14, $16.00. Reviewer: Rebecca Joseph

VOYA

This twelfth book in the Alice series is just as enjoyable as the first. Those readers who have watched Alice growing up since Naylor began the series in 1985 with The Agony of Alice (Atheneum) feel as if she is a sister/friend/daughter/niece. This installment takes place during the summer between eighth and ninth grades, and Alice is still seeing Patrick. Alice and her best friends, Pamela and Elizabeth, decide to get into shape by running every morning. Pamela, who is dealing with her parents' recent divorce, becomes obsessed and begins to show symptoms of anorexia. Pamela eventually runs away from home, and by helping her, Alice gets them both in trouble. Alice's summer volunteer position at the hospital forces her to deal with the death of a favorite former teacher, which in turn causes her to worry when her brother and father go on vacation. Of course, these events are not all that occurs within the pages of this volume. As usual, Alice's father and brother each have their own adventures, which have an impact on Alice. Alice comes to realize that her actions have an effect on them as well. Naylor again succeeds in packing a lot of activity into this book while still managing to write a realistic, engaging novel. VOYA CODES: 5Q 5P M J (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Every YA (who reads) was dying to read it yesterday; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2000, Simon & Schuster, 224p, $16. Ages 12 to 15. Reviewer: Marlyn Roberts

SOURCE: VOYA, October 2000 (Vol. 23, No. 4)

KLIATT

The summer before high school Alice and her friends Pamela and Elizabeth decide they need to shape up, so they go on a diet and start running every morning. Elizabeth takes it to extremes and starts to get too thin. Her mother treats the three girls to a special seminar at the Y for girls only in which they get a day's worth of straight talk about nutrition, body shapes and sizes, and some graphic lessons about how body parts vary tremendously from one person to another and that all the variations are normal. Alice's older brother Lester is dating a thin, beautifully groomed young woman and Alice doesn't feel comfortable around her—it turns out that Lester doesn't either. Pamela has some problems living with her ever-critical father now that her mother has run off to Colorado to start a new life. Alice has work as a volunteer at the local hospital, where she re-connects with her beloved 6th grade teacher, but unfortunately the teacher is seriously ill. Alice is growing up, slowly but surely, as are her friends. And her legion of fans will eat up this installment, as Naylor takes Alice from one joy, one sorrow, to another. This series is so superior to any other for middle-school-aged girls—with intelligent, thoughtful characters and frank, totally believable situations. At the end of the summer (and this book) Alice's father announces that he and Miss Summers will marry in the next year, so Alice's story will continue to evolve and her life will be full of changes that she will face with her usual enthusiasm and curiosity. KLIATT Codes: J—Recommended for junior high school students. 2000, Simon & Schuster/Atheneum, 215p, 99-32184, $16.00. Ages 13 to 15. Reviewer:Claire Rosser; July 2000 (Vol. 34 No. 4)

School Library Journal

Gr 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 Cahners Business Information.|

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)