Just Plain Al

Al #5

by Constance C. Greene

Al is finally turning fourteen, and this birthday is going to bring a lot of changes—starting with a new name!

Al has reached the most important point in her her fourteenth birthday. Her biggest worry is how boring her life has been so far—nothing exciting has ever happened to her. What if nothing ever does? What’s more, she no longer feels like an Al, but she still hates her real name, Alexandra. She needs to find a more dignified name—and fast—so that she can unveil the new her in time for her birthday.

With her new name and her newfound adulthood, Al wants to start leading a meaningful life. But it turns out that saving the world is a little harder than it sounds—even for a girl like Al.

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult

133 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 21, 1986

About the author

Born on October 27th, 1924, Constance C. Greene, the daughter of newspaper reporters, published A Girl Called Al (Viking, 1969) the story about a very intelligent girl who is an under-achiever and latch key kid, although Greene says that at the time of the writing the term wasn't being used yet. Al was a likable character and other books followed.

One of Greene's most popular books, Beat the Turtle Drum (Viking 1976), came from personal experience. At the age of eleven, Greene's sister died. The story relates how a young girl learns to cope with the accidental death of her sister. The book was adapted for television in 1976 as Very Good Friends and was shown on the ABC After-school Special.

Greene also wrote other juvenile and adult novels, among them Nora: Maybe a Ghost Story and Isabelle the Itch.

—Leslie Greaves Radloff

Reviews

[Sandy Hearn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book did not seem to have a plot, just 2 girls interacting, the narator is Al's friend and she does not seem to give her own name at all during the book, that was very distracting.
So Al is about to have her 14th birthday and thinking of changing her name, considers Alex and Sandy, not thrilled with them, a lot of discussion about it. Al and her friend have been invited to a fancy restarant with her mother a man she is dating, then he goes on a trip out of town and cancels the dinner. Al's friend's mother giver her a birthday dinner at their house.
Al becomes concerned about homeless people and underpriviledged people. Then school starts, one of thier teachers has recently had to put his father in a nursing home and tkes some of the kids with him to cheer up the residents. Not much happens in the book. It was hard to finish, just too boring, although Al is quite a character and the narrator's little brother Teddy is quite funny at times.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Revisiting a childhood favorite author. I didn't read all the Al (Alexandra) books then, but it is a delight to read them all now.