Recently I read the book "Achingly Alice" by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, which is a story about Alice, the main character, and the events that take place as she tries to get her teacher to marry her father who're in love. The cover is what caught my eye as I thought it'd be a sweet romance considering the cover, it was bland though. The best part in this book honestly had to be when Alice was crying realizing she meddled too much in the lives of others. I felt she deserved to feel terrible for her nosiness. My biggest problem with this book was the fact that Alice and her friends kept talking about sex, adults and themselves. These characters are supposed to be in middle school, and it was tacky and disgusting for their age, if the author wanted to bring the concept in it would've been better if they were older. Truthfully I disliked this book, since the plot was dry; I was skimming most of the time. Not to mention the characters seemed unrealistic and downright annoying, I seriously wanted to punch Alice in the face multiple times. Surely I won't recommend this to any of my friends since they deserve to read a quality story, not this garbage.
Alice is really beginning to fret over her dad's love life and takes matters into her own hands to speed things up, but her fib about Mr. Sorringer seeing another woman doesn't help her dad out and makes her feel awful. It takes a walk in Miss Summer's shoes for Alice to understand what it's like to not be able to make up your mind about matters involving the heart as Alice herself has mixed emotions about Patrick and a boy from the Camera Club named Sam. Meanwhile, a yeast infection sends Elizabeth accompanied by Alice and Pamela to the doctor for her first pelvic exam. Some readers object to this type of material being included in the books in the Alice series and this series is among one of the most challenged annually. While I see how some readers would be shocked to see taboo subjects talked about so frankly I appreciate the way the author takes these moments to teach. Readers learn along with Alice and her friends learn what to expect when it will inevitably be their turn to experience a pelvic exam. Recommended for girls grades 6-8.
I'm sorry, what do you mean by 'mature looking covers'? Could you send me a link? I thought the more modern ones were better, but I've not seen any of the old ones.
—Valerie
As I mentioned in my review of "Alice in April," an earlier book in this series, I love the characters in these books, particularly Alice's family. This story provides good doses of both humor and tough stuff, as do the rest of the Alice books that I've read. I didn't think this one was quite as funny as "Alice in April," though, and it seemed sort of repetitive: Alice still wants Miss Summers and her dad to get together and they still are moving too slowly for her. I would have liked to see more new stuff coming into play in "Achingly Alice."
—Heather
#13 Still great series. Alice still has Patrick and is having physical thoughts about him but now has some interest in Sam from the Camera Club, Pamela's parents have separated, and Miss Summers, her dad's girlfriend, is moving to England for a year.
—B
