The Agony of Alice (Alice Books)

by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Paperback, 1997

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Publication

Aladdin (1997), Paperback, 144 pages

Description

Eleven-year-old, motherless Alice decides she needs a gorgeous role model who does everything right; and when placed in homely Mrs. Plotkins's class she is greatly disappointed until she discovers it's what people are inside that counts.

User reviews

LibraryThing member abbylibrarian

In this first book in the Alice McKinley series, Alice is in 6th grade and starting over at a new school. Her mother died when she was little and now Alice decides that she needs a female role model because she feels embarrassed at some of the 'childish' mistakes she's made. She sets her sights on

a teacher at school, the glamorous Miss Cole, but is disappointed when she's placed in Mrs. Plotkins's class instead. Throughout the year, Alice begins to grow up, although she sometimes feels like she's growing backwards.

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LibraryThing member Omrythea

Eleven year old Alice, growing up without a mother, decides she will “adopt” a mother and hopes to be in a popular teacher’s class. When she is instead placed in frumpy Mrs. Plotkin’s class, she learns that it is what’s inside a person that counts more. Mixed in to the story are Alice’s

encounters with boys, friends, and the pains of growing up.

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LibraryThing member JeanneZ

I enjoyed this book about a fifth grade girl who lived with her widowed father and college age brother. As she searched for a substitute mother amongst her teachers she came to realize you can't judge a book by it's cover. An easy read.

LibraryThing member stephxsu

Alice is motherless, and going into her new school’s sixth grade. She desperately wants to fit in and act more grown up, but without a mother, how does she know how to go about it? She decides that the best way to do this is to be in the sixth grade class of Miss Cole, the beautiful and graceful

lady she wants to emulate.

Instead, she gets stuck in Mrs. Plotkin’s class. Mrs. Plotkin is dumpy and has no physical attributes to her name. Alice can’t believe her luck…until it gets worse! When she tries to fit in, it seems as though she’s humiliating herself instead. Like how she is rude to Mrs. Plotkin in an effort to get transferred to Miss Cole’s class. Or when she wears too much perfume to try to emulate Miss Cole. Or when she walks in on a boy in his dressing room, only for him to turn out to be Patrick, the safety patrol in her class.

Will the humiliations ever end? Or will Alice just learn to accept the good with the bad, and thus begin to grow up as a result?

This is the beginning of a marvelously realistic series about a girl going through puberty, social changes, love, family, and friendship. Alice is sweetly vulnerable yet lovingly feisty, a girl caught in the web on the way to being a teenager. Every girl will be able to relate to Alice on some level.

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LibraryThing member francescadefreitas

The first chapter threw me a bit, with Alice looking back over the 'mistakes' of her past, but once she moved into the present, I was entirely charmed by her voice. Alice is 11, starting at a new school, and wants terribly not to do anything awful, and to find a mother. Needels to say these two

wishes do not come true - and plenty of hilarity happens all round. I loved Alice's relationship with her father and brother, and her interactions with the teachers at her school were wonderfully written. I didn't find it dated, and I look forward to reading the rest of the book in the series. I'd give this to tweens looking for realistic, funny stories.

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LibraryThing member clshelkoff

This book is about a 6th grade girl that is living with her father and older brother. Alice's mother died when she was young. Alice is trying to grow up, but it is hard with two men living in the house. Alice is disappointed when she does not get into the teacher's class that she wishes. Read this

book to see if Alice makes it through sixth grade!

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LibraryThing member amandacb

Alice’s mother died when she was four, and now Alice is looking for a mother figure. She has her sights set on Miss Cooper, a sixth-grade teacher, but instead Alice is assigned to Ms. Plotkin’s class. Ms. Plotkin is dumpy and frumpy, not the kind of woman Alice figures she can get advice from

about transitioning from a young girl to a young woman. Alice gets a boyfriend, her period, and puberty hits. These elements combine to put this book on the banned list, but I think it is an insightful and eye-opening piece of literature for middle-school and older elementary students. The writing is excellent, as well, as the author utilizes a natural speech pattern for dialogue. She also includes believable characters and situations that perhaps many young women could relate to.

While this book is skipped over by many of the elementary studenst at my school, it is almost a rite of passage for girls growing into young women (especially at the middle school level). Most young women can relate to the trials Alice goes through.

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LibraryThing member Emma_Manolis

Now that I am reading the series in order I am surprised to see how much younger Alice seems in this book compared to the last prequel. That's not to say that I don't enjoy this book. I just think she seems younger than she really is. This book is definitely enjoyable for both children (I first

read this in fourth grade) and adults. It is a quick and easy read.

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LibraryThing member fingerpost

(The Agony of Alice is the first Alice book Naylor wrote, but the fourth if one is reading chronologically as she grows up.)
The Mikenley's (Alice, her father, and her older brother, starting college) move to a new home and she will be stating a new school.
Alice sets out to find the perfect mother

figure to help her out, since her own mother died when she was young. Her first choice is the beautiful 6th grade teacher, Miss Cole, but she ends up in the class of Mrs. Plotkin, a dumpy, gray-haired slow moving woman.
Of course, Alice learns many life lessons during the course of the book, some of them hard ones.
In spite of a few spells of meanness early in the book, Alice remains a sympathetic, likable character - and a completely believable one.

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