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Alice #3
Reluctantly Alice
Alice McKinley comes home on the first day of junior high with a list of seven things about seventh grade that stink. Just about the only good thing she can think of is that she's friends with everyone. Maybe that's how to survive seventh grade and make it through the entire year with everyone liking her.
That turns out to be easier said than done, when Alice gets on the wrong side of the school bully, Denise "Mack Truck" Whitlock. But Alice's problems with Denise pale in comparison with the romantic entanglements of both her father and her older brother, Lester. And when Alice decides to help them out, life gets even more complicated.
That turns out to be easier said than done, when Alice gets on the wrong side of the school bully, Denise "Mack Truck" Whitlock. But Alice's problems with Denise pale in comparison with the romantic entanglements of both her father and her older brother, Lester. And when Alice decides to help them out, life gets even more complicated.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
21 people are currently reading
724 people want to read
About the author
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
244 books1,034 followersPhyllis Reynolds Naylor was born in Anderson, Indiana, US on January 4, 1933.
Her family were strongly religious with conservative, midwestern values and most of her childhood was spent moving a lot due to her father's occupation as a salesman.
Though she grew up during the Depression and her family did not have a lot of money, Naylor stated that she never felt poor because her family owned good books. Her parents enjoyed reading stories to the children--her father would imitate the characters in Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer--and her mother read to them every evening, "almost until we were old enough to go out on dates, though we never would have admitted this to anyone."
By the time Phyllis reached fifth grade, writing books was her favorite hobby and she would rush home from school each day to write down whatever plot had been forming in her head - at sixteen her first story was published in a local church magazine.
Phyllis has written over 80 books for children and young people. One of these books, "Shiloh," was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1992, was named a Notable Children's Book by the American Library Association and was also Young Adult Choice by the International Reading Association.
Naylor gets her ideas from things that happen to her or from things she has read. "Shiloh" was inspired by a little abused dog she and her husband found. The little dog haunted her so much that she had to write a story about him to get it out of her mind.
Her family were strongly religious with conservative, midwestern values and most of her childhood was spent moving a lot due to her father's occupation as a salesman.
Though she grew up during the Depression and her family did not have a lot of money, Naylor stated that she never felt poor because her family owned good books. Her parents enjoyed reading stories to the children--her father would imitate the characters in Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer--and her mother read to them every evening, "almost until we were old enough to go out on dates, though we never would have admitted this to anyone."
By the time Phyllis reached fifth grade, writing books was her favorite hobby and she would rush home from school each day to write down whatever plot had been forming in her head - at sixteen her first story was published in a local church magazine.
Phyllis has written over 80 books for children and young people. One of these books, "Shiloh," was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1992, was named a Notable Children's Book by the American Library Association and was also Young Adult Choice by the International Reading Association.
Naylor gets her ideas from things that happen to her or from things she has read. "Shiloh" was inspired by a little abused dog she and her husband found. The little dog haunted her so much that she had to write a story about him to get it out of her mind.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
January 30, 2024
Maybe the best one yet!
July 21, 2011
I love Alice McKinley as a character. She is always trying to find her place in the world.
In her latest adventure, Alice is starting seventh grade and she has one goal - for everyone to like her. She doesn't want to be popular, she just wants everyone to think she is a "swell" gal.
There is only one problem. That problem is named Denise Whitlock. For some reason she hates Alice, and thus is the focus in the book: how to overcome a bully. Well, there really is only one way to do it - the Alice way!
With Alice dealing with her bully, she and her friends adjusting to middle school, Lester dealing with two girls, and Alice's dad dealing with two women, this novel is packed with enough to keep readers turning the page.
I gave this novel five stars because I feel that Naylor has a solid plot with well-developed characters. While it can get a bit repetitive book after book about Alice growing up without a mom, for me as a reader, it is what makes her an endearing character. A lot of Alice's issues are birthed from her growing up without a female role model, and I love that she is always searching for just the right one.
In her latest adventure, Alice is starting seventh grade and she has one goal - for everyone to like her. She doesn't want to be popular, she just wants everyone to think she is a "swell" gal.
There is only one problem. That problem is named Denise Whitlock. For some reason she hates Alice, and thus is the focus in the book: how to overcome a bully. Well, there really is only one way to do it - the Alice way!
With Alice dealing with her bully, she and her friends adjusting to middle school, Lester dealing with two girls, and Alice's dad dealing with two women, this novel is packed with enough to keep readers turning the page.
I gave this novel five stars because I feel that Naylor has a solid plot with well-developed characters. While it can get a bit repetitive book after book about Alice growing up without a mom, for me as a reader, it is what makes her an endearing character. A lot of Alice's issues are birthed from her growing up without a female role model, and I love that she is always searching for just the right one.
August 9, 2020
Another cute one in the series!
March 28, 2019
The Reluctantly Alice is written by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. This book is basically about Alice in junior high trying to get comfortable but when she comes home she has a list that is about all of the good and bad 7th graders. She asks her big brother for advice and her brother gives her terrible advice. She just has to get through middle school. This book would be good if you are in middle school and to become better in middle school.
June 29, 2024
It was a cute read but I liked the first two a little more in this series. Also, Lester is the best brother, although he needs to make up his mind about his love life and Elizabeth needs to calm the F*** down.
April 9, 2012
This is the third installation in the "Alice" series, and once again I was thoroughly entertained. Like the rest of the series so far, it was poignant, sweet and funny. Rather than rehash my feelings about the series, I'd like to share a favorite passage, which occurs as Alice researches the human body at the public library:
"A librarian came by to get a book from the shelf, and she couldn't help but see what I was looking at; she didn't even blink. Like it was okay to be curious. I felt almost the way I did at the grade school the other day. Safe. Protected.
When I picked out four books for Elizabeth, the man at the checkout desk didn't stare at me or anything, either. He checked out my books on bodies as casually as if I were reading up on the Civil War or photosynthesis or how to build a bird feeder. I had to know if this was just an act or if librarians were always glad to have you read stuff. So just before we left the library, I went over to a woman at the reference desk and asked where I would find a list of nudist camps.
It wasn't just an act, it was real." -p. 90
As a librarian, I realize I'm biased, but to me Phyllis Reynolds Naylor has shown exactly how great libraries can be.
"A librarian came by to get a book from the shelf, and she couldn't help but see what I was looking at; she didn't even blink. Like it was okay to be curious. I felt almost the way I did at the grade school the other day. Safe. Protected.
When I picked out four books for Elizabeth, the man at the checkout desk didn't stare at me or anything, either. He checked out my books on bodies as casually as if I were reading up on the Civil War or photosynthesis or how to build a bird feeder. I had to know if this was just an act or if librarians were always glad to have you read stuff. So just before we left the library, I went over to a woman at the reference desk and asked where I would find a list of nudist camps.
It wasn't just an act, it was real." -p. 90
As a librarian, I realize I'm biased, but to me Phyllis Reynolds Naylor has shown exactly how great libraries can be.
August 28, 2011
For my summer reading I chose to read Reluctantly Alice. Reluctantly Alice was a very good choice for me to read because it kept my attention, and was a great part of the series. In Reluctantly Alice the author explained Alice's difficulties of starting 7th great with a goal of getting everyone to like her. I liked how the author made Alice start off well, have difficulties with her goal later in the book, and manage to fix her problems on her own, and become friends with the girl that was giving her problems. In this book, Alice had big improvements from the last books, and was starting to handle things better on her own. Starting out, Alice didn't know much about 7th grade, and later found out who the bullies were, and the girls bullied Alice. Towards the end of the year there was a project with a partner that you picked, Alice picked the bully. The author showed how Alice fixing her own problems really worked (even though you would never think so) because Alice turned out to fix her problem, and meet her goal of 7th grade. Overall Reluctantly Alice was a great book, and I definitely recommend it!
June 14, 2020
I liked this read about Alice, a girl who is just starting seventh grade who lives with her brother and father. Even though the book is the third in the series, I didn't lose anything by not reading the first two books and the book wraps up nicely so readers get some resolution without having to read further. Realistic fiction, the story is your typical middle-grade angst with issues with friends, classmates, and family dynamics. At one point in the story, Alice and her friends start to notice body changes in their female classmates while changing for gym class which leads to wonderings about male bodies. Alice's dad has a great parenting moment as he takes her to the library where she can research her questions. For kids who are starting to question body changes, this might be a book they can read to realize they aren't the only ones going through the experience.
Some of the references felt a bit dated (to technology students wouldn't know) so a reissue with some updating and fresh covers could liven up the series and generate some new interest in the Alice series. But if you are looking for a nice series or just a one-off read geared towards middle-grade girls, this is a wholesome read, if you can get them to look past the cover.
Some of the references felt a bit dated (to technology students wouldn't know) so a reissue with some updating and fresh covers could liven up the series and generate some new interest in the Alice series. But if you are looking for a nice series or just a one-off read geared towards middle-grade girls, this is a wholesome read, if you can get them to look past the cover.
June 1, 2024
The third Alice book! On the first day of seventh grade, Alice has a list of things that stink about junior high, and struggles to come up with positives. So she fixes on a new goal: to go the whole year with everyone liking her. This admirable objective is very soon put to the test when a large, angry bully named Denise makes her a target. Her family life also faces some tests when her adult older brother cannot choose between two girlfriends, and similarly, her father is pursued by a coworker while he tries to woo another woman. The usual fears and myths about changing bodies, kissing, dating, and friends are also discussed. If she had a mother, Alice often muses, she'd know better what to do.
Like the preceding books in the series, this is an often very funny, often sweet and sympathetic, look at adolescence. Alice is, I think, wiser in this book (noting at one point that her friend Elizabeth is doomed to disappointment because she glamorizes her future first kiss so much); despite her avowed ignorance of social mores, she often does do what a mother might do to help smooth things over, although with her good intentions and naivete she tends to muddy the waters as much as help. Naylor is a shrewd observer of the tween mind, and the characters are highly sympathetic and real.
Like the preceding books in the series, this is an often very funny, often sweet and sympathetic, look at adolescence. Alice is, I think, wiser in this book (noting at one point that her friend Elizabeth is doomed to disappointment because she glamorizes her future first kiss so much); despite her avowed ignorance of social mores, she often does do what a mother might do to help smooth things over, although with her good intentions and naivete she tends to muddy the waters as much as help. Naylor is a shrewd observer of the tween mind, and the characters are highly sympathetic and real.
October 27, 2021
Alice's new adventures and agonies as she has to sing although she knows she can't carry a tune. Nudism - exploring mens' nude bodies in magazines (was that why the series was banned in schools?) and the best part, how to deal with bullies the best way possible. What I mostly liked about this book is that bullying is portrayed the way we had in mind the previous decades. Unlike nowadays that things got to extremities (either kids are trying to kill each other physically or emotionally or teachers get involved in every single disagreement between kids and name it "bullying"), here bullying is handled with a different psychology,a more friendly, a more bohemian one. Finally, you are probably wondering why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5; I felt like this was part of a series so somehow incomplete as an individual book -unlike the rest that can be read either as standalones or as parts of a series.
July 5, 2024
Alice's new adventures and agonies as she has to sing although she knows she can't carry a tune. Nudism - exploring mens' nude bodies in magazines (was that why the series was banned in schools?) and the best part, how to deal with bullies the best way possible. What I mostly liked about this book is that bullying is portrayed the way we had in mind the previous decades. Unlike nowadays that things got to extremities (either kids are trying to kill each other physically or emotionally or teachers get involved in every single disagreement between kids and name it "bullying"), here bullying is handled with a different psychology,a more friendly, a more bohemian one. Finally, you are probably wondering why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5; I felt like this was part of a series so somehow incomplete as an individual book -unlike the rest that can be read either as standalones or as parts of a series.
February 18, 2019
The third book in the Alice series finds Alice entering 7th grade with the goal of being liked by everyone. For the most part, she seems to be getting along with everyone except for the school bully, Denise Whitlock. Denise goes out of her way to make Alice's first semester of junior high miserable. Alice is offered some ways on how to handle Denise but ultimately comes up with a creative way to get her bully under control.
Like the other Alice books, this one features some topics and conversations about growing up that Alice and her friends are curious about. But like Alice has come to realize, the best thing to do is to take it one day at a time, no matter how humiliating, stressful, or confusing the day before was.
Like the other Alice books, this one features some topics and conversations about growing up that Alice and her friends are curious about. But like Alice has come to realize, the best thing to do is to take it one day at a time, no matter how humiliating, stressful, or confusing the day before was.
September 3, 2017
I’ve got to give this one 5 stars because there were times when I was literally laughing out loud because it was so funny! There were two scenes in particular that were my favorite. One was the scene where Alice was looking through National Geographic magazines for pictures of naked men. Two, the scene in which Patrick and Alice were passing notes about their boring history teacher back and forth, complete with drawings of their teacher spraying saliva all over his students. I think these scenes were so funny to me because it reminded me a lot of what me and my friends did when I was that age.
Can’t wait to read the next one in the series!
Can’t wait to read the next one in the series!
October 25, 2019
Reluctantly Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is a cool book it's about a girl named Alice who is in the seventh grade she writes down 7 thing sher hates about seventh grade but one of the good things is that she has tons of friends. Then she makes a goal it's for everyone to like her exp." not in a popular way, but in an im nice to everyone way" but then she comes across a bully named Denise and Denise has it in for Alice. I love this book I think Alice is so funny and i recommend this book to all middle schoolers and ik feel like Alice goes through things many people have gone through thats why I think this is such an amazing book.
July 13, 2017
I loved it - I remember just enough of this series to be like, "ah yeah that!" with a smile, but I forget just enough to be pleasantly surprised at major plot points, such as when Lester rescues Alice from Denise. I remember that Denise had family issues and ultimately commits suicide in front of a train later on in the series. I love witnessing the love problems of Alice's dad and older brother Lester. Interesting to read about Alice's seventh grade experiences. Man, I'm glad I didn't go to seventh grade at her school in her time.
August 15, 2018
This is the one with an interesting bully and a very nasty torture (though nobody actually gets it done to them). And an awful lot of romance all over the place. And unacceptably clueless adults at the school. And it was a bit longer. Just felt a little off to me... but I'll keep reading at least for awhile.
I'll also look up The Cherry Tree Carol because even though I don't celebrate Christmas I do like carols and hymns, and do the same thing Al's dad does, which is collect different versions of my favorites (and seek out new ones, which Cherry Tree is, iirc).
I'll also look up The Cherry Tree Carol because even though I don't celebrate Christmas I do like carols and hymns, and do the same thing Al's dad does, which is collect different versions of my favorites (and seek out new ones, which Cherry Tree is, iirc).
March 3, 2020
The third book in the wonderful ALICE series, sees Al in seventh grade with a goal to make everyone like her. All of that doesn't go as planned when Denise begins to bully her, and Pamela and Elizabeth get too sensitive. Lester, Alice's brother, is juggling two women at a time. Indecisive to which one he should choose.
May 10, 2021
This is a cute series, but maybe a bit dated? Nothing wrong with it, but compared to the realistic fiction published today, the storyline is quite simplistic. Alice isn't a particularly strong character without much development or growth throughout the novel.
June 17, 2021
I liked it, wouldn’t really want to reread it again. I didn’t read the rest of the series, oops, not really planning to. I might if I get around to it, but not really at the top of my list. You should still read it.
April 20, 2023
So far this one is my favorite. I'm reading them in order and I really enjoyed this one. It was an easy read and read so much smoother than the books before it. I was almost ready to stop this whole series, but, with this book, I'm glad I didn't.
July 23, 2024
read this is like 4th grade? one of the parts that suck with me was when Alice's brother went to the hospital (?) and she had the "you never know what you had till its gone" bits. great coming of age book
October 17, 2024
This book is very important for the series of Alice McKinley I won’t spoil why but I’d just like to say that the way the author is able to form this character throughout the books, it makes you feel like part of Alice McKinley’s life.
May 11, 2017
Currently re-reading all of the Alice books & it always amazes me that this series is still as entertaining as the 1st time I read it. HIGHLY recommend this series for all of my fellow bookworms!
April 12, 2018
Unbelievable.
August 12, 2019
Alice Knows Best
I am so intrigued by this series. As an almost forty year old woman I really love reading about Alice's life and how she overcomes anything that is thrown her way.
I am so intrigued by this series. As an almost forty year old woman I really love reading about Alice's life and how she overcomes anything that is thrown her way.
February 2, 2020
Love love love!
May 7, 2020
Gak pernah diterjemahin GPU ya, pantes waktu baca All but Alice rada2 bingung.
September 18, 2020
Great message and this one made me laugh out loud!
October 17, 2020
I read this one to my kid. We enjoyed it! 4 Stars.
March 21, 2021
Great story about overcoming bullying
Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews