Terinspirasi kata-kata gurunya di sekolah, Alice akan berhenti mengeluh dan menunggu sesuatu terjadi padanya. Dia yang akan membuat berbagai peristiwa hebat itu terjadi! Prioritas utamanya? Tentu saja menjodohkan ayahnya dengan Miss Summers, guru bahasa Inggris-nya yang cantik dan memesona itu. Alice sampai harus berbohong... sedikit sih, tapi tetap saja berbohong... agar hubungan ayahnya dan Miss Summers langgeng.
Prioritas Alice lainnya? Selain memutuskan karier apa yang kira-kira cocok untuknya, Alice juga ingin mengenal cowok-cowok lain dengan lebih dekat. Nah lho, padahal Alice kan sudah punya Patrick?
Lalu, akankah Miss Summers dan ayahnya menuju jenjang pernikahan seperti yang selalu diangankannya? Dan akankah Alice memilih Sam, cowok keren yang ia kenal di Klub Kamera, dan meninggalkan Patrick?
Phyllis 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.
I remember reading this as a middle schooler and not knowing exactly what a NordicTrack instructor was. Now I always think of Pamela’s mom and her boyfriend when I see the NordicTrack treadmills at the gym.
I had followed Patrick and Alice together for a while while I was binging this series, and this was a welcomed change of pace. It was nice to see how Alice grew, and she's just enjoyable to be around- a friend I needed in middle school.
Finished! In love with this book, although I don't think that this is the best book to read after reading "The Grooming Of Alice" (another book in the series) because the plot of this book was all before the plot in "The Grooming Of Alice"however, it's a really great book and I would recommend it to any 12 or teenage girl to read.
Achingly Alice can be an adventure, after you get over the run on sentences and incorrect punctuation. Although, I couldn’t relate to any of the problems, I still enjoyed reading how the problems were solved. The author taught me many things, I could have went the rest of my life without knowing, but they’re still nice to know. In my opinion, the main character, Alice learned some valuable lessons that some people can apply to their life. There are also a few jokes scattered about.
Achingly Alice simply explains that life can’t always go your way. For example, Alice’s best friends don’t have the “perfect” little family. One of Alice’s best friend’s mom ran off with another man (A NordicTrack instructor) and her other best friend is “stuck” with her baby brother. Some scenes in the book were slightly confusing. Achingly Alice May have its ups and downs, but it might be worth a try.
I've been following the Alice Series for several years, and I think they're really good! Alice McKinley is a very relatable character and I think she makes a good role model. She's not slutty, rude, overly-dramatic, or the kind of girl you just wanna slap in the face(well, ok she can be when she does really stupid things, but oh well...). She's just average, and although she makes mistakes sometimes, you always know that she means well and is somehow always able to fix the problem at hand. I love the way she treats Amy, a girl with special needs. I also think she is the kind of girl that younger girls should look up to, as opposed to the infamously cruel and in-your-face Massie Block, one of the main characters from Lisi Harrison's "The Clique Series".
Massie is rude, insensitive, selfish, and everything else that a tweenage girl should NOT want to be, but of course, they do because Massie is the most popular, rich, beautiful girl in school who leads their group "The Pretty Committee". My point is that Alice is the kind of girl that you should look up to.
Reynolds Naylor is so great at writing about adolescence, and this book explores many topics. One of Alice's friends gets her first pelvic exam, and goes into detail about it. While it could've come across as didactic, it is absolutely needed as girls reading this book are desperate to learn about what happens during an exam. Alice also has honest discussions about sex with her brother and dad. Her brother is a bit mortified, but her dad goes along with it and answers her with the truth. He is definitely rising to the top of my favorite dad characters of all time in child/teen lit.
The story also has Alice crushing on another boy (while still liking Patrick), relationship issues between her father and Miss Summers, and Alice apologizing for a lie she told.
*For the first book in a "child/teen/middlegrade/nostalgic" book, I am going with the rating younger me would have gone with, then if I read on in the series, I will rate the books what adult me believes it should be rated. If the book is a stand alone, I will go with whatever rating I feel most comfortable giving the book. Please note, I do not really think books should have an age limit. People should read what they want to regardless of the intended age group, except for kids reading erotica or something, of course.*
I was surprised that Sam wasn't as prominent as the summary made him sound, but I guess that could be chalked up to his quiet personality. Also, life has many aspects. Nice to read about Mr. McKinley and Miss Summers' relationship developing. A little scary to see Alice want to try guys other than Patrick. I wonder what Crystal had to tell Lester so soon after her wedding - some sort of problem with her new husband? Read this in a morning and afternoon at the library and on a bench in front of a grocery store.
I liked this one - and it even had a curve ball or two! My main objection is to the medical advice to douche! Um, no, please don't! - what year was this written again? But Alice's heart-to-heart with Miss Summers at the end was awesome. Each book has another incremental step toward Alice growing up.
Alice Alice Alice, i love this books. this one is one of my favorites for sure. i gave this book four stars because it was wonderful. it kept me laughing. i laughed so hard i cried. it was hilarious. you should read this book if you have read and love the alice books. the next book in this series is Alice Alone.
Another good Alice book. I get the sense that even though Alice is with Patrick, something might happen with Sam. Guess I'll keep reading the series to find out. And in this book, Alice tells a lie to Miss Summers which she agonizes over privately, and Miss Summers makes an announcement. I won't spoil what it is. On to the next Alice book...
I love a good christmas read! it really puts me in the mood for the holiday season! I think my favorite part of the book is Alice whispering marry him into Sylvia’s ear while she sleeps 😂 I also like how the girls experience more and more of adulthood as they grow through the series. I also really enjoy the dinner table conversations Alice always brings up! Great read! Can’t wait for the next!
Although I didn't enjoy this one as much as the rest I do like that we're starting to see Alice grow up & deal with more complicated problems. In this book we see everything from love to pelvic exams, and really get a small window into how awkward & confusing this time of your life is.
I don't know why everyone has such a tizzy about these books. They are quite wholesome in my opinion. It's nothing that girls on a playground aren't discussing everyday in any town.
Good continuation (and appreciate how Alice's life is mirroring Ms. Summer's). However, this is not quite the same level as some of the other books in the series. Plus, more Patrick please!
I want Miss Summers to be avoiding marrying Dad because she's happy being single and living her own way in her own cozy house, dating at will, helping Alice as much as Aunt Sally and Cousin Carol do but not being a live-in Mom. Of course, Dad might not want to be just special friends with Miss S., so that'd be difficult.
But the three girls do often talk about not getting married, and it should be seen as a totally viable option. After all, Lester is doing his own thing first and has no real plans to ever marry, why can't a female character?
The winter of Alice's eighth grade year poses a whole new set of challenges and excitements.
As the title suggests, Alice finds herself aching in a multitude of ways. She desperately wants her dad and favorite teacher, Miss Summers, to tie the knot, but Miss Summers is torn between Alice's dad and an old flame (who just happens to be the middle school vice principal, Mr. Sorringer).
While Alice is at first angry at Miss Summers, she soon finds herself feeling a little more sympathy when Alice herself is unsure about wanting to stay with her boyfriend Patrick when she finds herself attracted to a different guy in her Camera Club. She struggles between her attachment to Patrick while wanting to maintain her independence and explore other options.
I generally think the Alice books are pretty feminist in nature, but there are definitely some moments that make me shake my head. Alice's obsession with her dad marrying Miss Summers is particularly out of control in this book -- she goes as far as to lie to Miss Summers about seeing Mr. Sorringer out with another woman, which blows up in her face later. She also fantasizes that Miss Summers should quit her job teaching in order to become a wife to Ben and a mother to Alice, as if these two are mutually exclusive. Part of this is Alice's desperation to have a 'normal' family again (Alice's mom was a homemaker), but this underlying message of traditional gender roles bothers me.
I'm pretty exited that Miss Summers has decided to move to England for a year, for my sake as well as her's. Alice seriously needed to stop obsessing over her dad's love life, and I'm sick of reading about it.
Not one of the strongest books in the series, but it moves the plot along at a decent page and clears the way for brighter installments ahead.
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.