Dangerously Alice

Title: Dangerously Alice
Author: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Publisher: New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers (2007)
ISBN: 9780689870941 0689870949
Pages: 294

4 bookmarks

I was first introduced to the Alice series of books when researching puberty in children's literature for a class last year. The series was mentioned repeatedly in the literature I read so I thought, what better series to read a book from than the Alice series, which has received a lot of acclaim for being realistic.

I have to admit that I was not disappointed. High school is a rough time for a lot of teens. You struggle between living up to the expectations of your teachers, parents, and peers. Most of the time during high school, it is the expectations of peers that we actually wind up living up to. This is exactly the case with Alice. It seems that through most of high school so far, Alice has pretty much followed the rules- made good grades, worked for the school paper, didn't really go out drinking and partying. When she is labeled MGT, she decides that she needs to show that she really isn't a "Miss Goody Two-shoes". When interviewed for the paper she says she wants to be a bubble dancer, dates Tony (who is notorious for being "fast"), and writes a story for the paper after pretending to be a teenage runaway. She also fights with her stepmother about the new family pet and having a car. Alice realizes that she is in over her head when she goes to a party without her parents permission and tragedy almost strikes. It's then that Alice realizes that she can't keep being the bad girl and that every action has possible consequences.

If the rest of the Alice series is as good as Dangerously Alice was, then the entire series is pretty good. While not at all one of my favorite books, Dangerously Alice was enjoyable. Phyllis Reynolds Naylor did accurately depict what it is like to be a teenager. She didn't shy away from some touchy issues that parents might not necessarily like their teens to read including fighting with parents, teenage drinking, and masturbation. This would be a great book to read to facilitate a discussion about actions having consequences if it could be approved for a reading list. We need to have books that deal with real life in our English classes.