Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
I have never read this series but always recommended it to girls. So I'm looking forward to reading this series. Very quick and easy to read during the lunch hour. I am really enjoing it.

1. Agony of Alice is the first in a series of books featuring 6th grader Alice McKinley. Her mother died when she was 5 and her father has tried to raise her the best he can but since there are no females in her life it is hard to figure all this growing stuff up out. Her 19 year old brother lives at home and she sees him struggle with various girl friends who give her a taste of female touch. The book starts as they move to a new city for her father to be the manager of a music store. Alice is loved by her family but needs a female to help guide her through adolescence. We experience her embarassing moments, opening a dressing room and see a boy in his underpants! (Patrick) and to her struggle to become a teenager. She takes her first trip by train to visit it her Aunt who she gets confused with memories of her mother. She gets her first kiss and her first bra and her period. A lot happens in this thin book.

2. Alice in Rapture, Sort Of is the summer Alice's "first boyfriend" before she starts Junior High. She is "going with" Patrick, who she met last year in the dressing room incident. She gets her first babysitting job and hangs out with her best friends, Pamela & Elizabeth and their boyfriends. But she discovers that she may not be ready to have a boyfriend and misses having Patrick as her friend. She learns how to deal with her girl friends when she and her dad take Pamela & Elizabeth to the beach for a week. Pamela becomes a wild woman and Elizabeth more uptight. How different can her friends be? Patrick takes her to her first grown-up dinner at a country club, she learns to how stand up for herself and to be true to oneself.

3. Reluctanlty Alice starts 7th grade where she and her friends are at the bottom of the pecking order in Jr. high. We see her struggle with finding her own identity and still be liked by others. When an 8th grade bully picks on Alice, she has to decide how to deal with it. We learn more about her brother and father as they try to help Alice without knowing too much themselves. We see her grow as she realizes that other people have bigger problems than her.

4. All But Alice Since she started 7th grade people have told her to find a group, a place to belong, be like everyone else, do what others do, and best of all, be part of the "in" group. It is with this in mind that Alice joins the All-Stars Fan Club and the earring club and becomes one of the Famous Eight. It helps, even when it's a bit boring. Yet Sisterhood, even Famous Eighthood, does not take care of all of her problems or answer all of her questions about life and love. Can she be Sisters with all three girls who want to be her brother Lester's girlfriends? How does she treat the fact that her father is dating her teacher, Miss Summers? How do you accept a box of valentine candy from a boy? In fact, how do boys fit into Universal Sisterhood -- or is there a Universal Humanhood? How far do you go when being part of the crowd means doing something you don't want to do?

5. Alice in April Still in 7th grade, Alice is about to turn 13, an official woman. But how will she be able to cope with all the responsiblities of womanhood, plus is her family? In school she needs a different kind of name, one given by a table full of boys in the cafeteria depending on their figures, girls are being given state names -- some states have mountains and others do not. Will flat, flat Delaware or Louisiana be her fate? Alice lives in fear that it might be, though even worse is the fear that she might not get a name at all. The month ends with a dinner party for her father's birthday (part of being Woman of the House) that has more downs than ups -- and with a totally unexpected event that makes Alice and everyone she knows grow up a little and wonder a little deeper about life and the future. April is a hard month, but reading about Alice in April is to find that most tragedies (though not all) pass and tears can turn to laughter and delight.

6. Alice In-Between Alice is finishing her 7th grade year and as she turns 13 she realizes that she is in-between, not really a child and not a teen-ager either. As her older brother, Lester, takes her out on the town, some almost grown-up things happen to her, but there are unexpected dangers attached. And a marvelous trip to Chicago with her best friends, Pamela and Elizabeth, proves that "in-between" may not be such a bad place to be after all, when Pamela, acting too old for her age, attracts some unwanted attention, and Elizabeth promptly goes into shock. And when Patrick comes back into Alice's life again, she realizes she doesn't have to rush things.

7. Alice the Brave - it is the summer before Alice and her friends are starting 8th grade. They everyone in Alice's gang goes to Mark Stedmeister's swimming pool almost every day. Alice sits at the shallow end. She plays badminton. She makes excuses, and keeps her problem secret. She is afraid to swim. Her brother helps her over this hump and she learns that it isn't so bad having someone to help you out once in awhile.

Everyone seems to be changing except Alice. Her friend Elizabeth brings a risque book to a sleepover but ends up confessing to her priest and her parents. But she is much more open to having a boyfriend than ever before. Pamela decides she wants to play the field. Her dad and Miss Summers seem serious but will they get married? She can't help but worry about it. I especially enjoyed Alice receiving a chain letter that she can't forget about while no one else even pays attention to it. Always a good way to spend a few hours with Alice.

8. Alice in Lace 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. I somehow didn't read this one, so noticed some changes and wondered how Lester's girlfriend was suddenly working at the music store. Now it all makes sense.

9. Outrageously Alice Now that Alice is setting into eighth grade, the class she used to envy, Alice discovers it isn't as exciting as she thought. She's tired of being the same old Alice, and longs to be a bit outrageous. She tries to reinvent herself by dressing outrageously - a showgirl for Halloween but then is gropped by someone (later discovered to be Patrick) in the broom closet at school, then dies her hair green and wears it in spikes along with green eyeliner and eye shadow. When she is invited to be a bridesmaid for Crystal (Lester's former girlfriend) she gets to hang out with an older crowd but that doesn't fit right either. Her friends Elizabeth and Pamela are having problems of their own. Pamela's parents are divorcing and Elizabeth has a new baby brother. But together they find that their friendship is what makes them feel special.

10. Achingly Alice In eighth grade now, Alice grapples with lies, loss, loyalty, and sexual awakening, even as she worries about what to wear to the school Valentine's Day dance. She is still obsessed with getting her widowed father to marry her gorgeous ex-teacher. Like her readers, Alice wants to talk to someone about her body and her sexuality. Does everyone masturbate? What is it like to have a pelvic exam? (Deliberately outrageous, she tells her father and brother at the dinner table about the three things that the doctor says can cause wetness "down there.") Is it all right to feel "wet and tingly" when her boyfriend Patrick kisses her?

11. Alice On The Outside Alice likes her life, even though she realizes that change is on the way. She and her friends may develop separate interests and ideas, and sometimes she may find herself on the outside rather than inside her close circle, but the future looks good. Alice thinks she's ready for it. She's ready to know about sex and marriage so asks her cousin Carol and finds that it is a lot more complicated than she thought. She is also faced with a school project in which the students are governed by rules aimed at forcing them to recognize the evils of prejudice and arbitrary privilege. At the same time, Alice befriends a classmate; when she finds out the girl is a lesbian, she handles the situation with maturity and tolerance. But she finds that whether someone is a friend or more than a friend it matters how you treat everyone.

12. The Grooming of Alice 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. But when Elizabeth becomes obsessed with her weight it becomes more of a problem. They discover more about themselves as a woman when Elizabeth's mom makes them take a "Just for Girls Course", and instead of being embarassing it's a learning experience. Alice is also doing her first volunteer job at the local hospital where she finds her 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Plotkin, is hospitilized and then dies Alice has her first real brush with loss. Even though her mother died when she was young she doesn't remember any of it. The summer seems ruined when Alice makes a poor decision by hiding her friend Pamela in the house after she runs away. Alice gets grounded and Pamela moves to Colorado to be with her mother. Alice's father goes to visit Miss Summers in England and end up getting engaged. The whole family is growing up. But with all the ups and downs of the summer it all ends on a positive note. They can't wait until 9th grade.

13. Alice Alone - Alice's first year in high school gets off to a difficult start when she and her boyfriend Patrick break up. There's a new girl in town, and she's got her eye on Alice's longtime steady, Patrick. What's worse, Patrick seems to enjoy the attention. Alice and Patrick have been a couple so long, Alice can't imagine life without him. How can Alice forge a post-Patrick life for herself when she doesn't even know who she is on her own? She makes her first Thanksgiving meal and invites 3 women from the Community Connections for Female Offenders for dinner. The dinner is a commical event. Also we see more development with her friendships with Elizabeth and Pamela. Elizabeth confesses that she was sexually molested by a friend of her parent's when she was 7-8 years old. Together they support Elizabeth as she finally tells her parents what happens. More drama developes when Alice discovers that Miss Summer's former fiance is going to England to visit her over Christmas. But all ends well because of communication between them all.

14. Simply Alice is the 2nd half of Alice's 9th grade year. She has found new interests and new friends. She just doesn't have time for everyone and everything she wants to do. After she is hazed by the boys on the set of the new play and decides to expose the problem in the school paper Alice finds she has a real passion for writing but as she gets more confident in herself her old friends are shutting her out. And if Alice ever needed friends, she needs them now. She's got a secret e-mail admirer she's not sure how to handle. Her brother, Lester, is plunging headlong into a risky romance with a professor. And her new friend, Faith, seems unable to break free of an abusive relationship with her boyfriend. It's not simple being simply Alice.

15. Patiently Alice Alice, Elizabeth and Pamela are off the work as Jr. Counselors for 3 weeks 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. But then Sylvia's sister becomes deathly ill and has to postpone the wedding. Maybe for good? to help care for her.

I laughed out loud when Elizabeth buys condoms for their friend Pamela, "just in case,". And it ends up that Elizabeth might need to use it as she goes further than either Alice or Pamela can imagine. As with the other Alice books we're left wanting more as Alice's former boyfriend Patrick seems interested again. Can one girl handle all this change?

16. Including Alice
Alice is now a sophomore, and finally, after four long years, her dad is marrying Sylvia Summers. When the wedding day arrives, Alice is excited but quickly begins to feel left out. Changes come to the household; first her older brother, Lester, moves out and then her father and Sylvia begin making plans to remodel without talking to Alice. She is further exasperated when the embroidered sheets she toiled over for a wedding gift do not fit the new bed Sylvia and her dad have purchased. Over time, with patience from both sides, Alice realizes that though her dad has a new life, she is very much a welcomed part of it. She realistically deals with the challenges and angst that teenagers face in their daily lives including fitting in, peer relationships, getting braces, and blended families.

17. Alice on Her Way
The biggest event (except maybe for her dad's wedding) in Alice's life is about to happen. She's been waiting for it forever, ever since Lester turned sixteen, but now it's finally her turn ... to get a driver's license. Alice can't stop thinking about all the freedom she'll have once she can finally drive. It's like being a grown-up. Almost. What with learning to drive, trying to keep chunks of food out of her braces so that she can kiss her new boyfriend, and planning a school trip to New York City, there's not much room for anything else. So when her father signs her up for a class on sexuality at their church without her permission, Alice is outraged. Who wants to learn about sex at a church? But what Alice learns this year surprises her as she begins to realize that there's a lot more to being an adult than taking a trip without your parents, getting a driver's license, or having a boyfriend.

18. Alice in the know
Alice fills the summer before her junior year of high school with a job at the mall, hanging out with her friends, and wishing she had a bigger family. It's the summer before junior year, and Alice is looking forward to three months of excitement, passion, and drama. But what does she find? A summer working in a local department store, trying to stop shoplifters, and more "real life" problems than she could have ever imagined: A good friend becomes seriously ill, Lester has more romance problems than even Alice knows what to do with, and the gang from Mark Stedmeister's pool is starting to grow up a bit faster than Alice is comfortable with. Fortunately for Alice her family and friends are with her through it all, and by the end of the summer, Alice finds she knows a whole lot more than she had in June.