Alice in the know by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
#18 in the Alice series
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.

As usual reading Alice is reading a part of life I wish I could have had as a teenager. Naylor really seems to keep up with events in a teen's life yet it won't feel too dated in 5 years. I always enjoy a dose of Alice in my hectic life.