176 pages
This is the fifth book in the beloved but controversial Alice series, which is about a young girl growing up with her dad and older brother after her mother died of cancer when she was four. In "Alice in April," Alice is about to turn 13, and Aunt Sally says that means she is Woman of the House. To prepare, Alice sets out to learn how to sew, clean, cook, etc. Meanwhile, she is worried about her dad's relationship with her English teacher, Miss Summers. Alice wants them to hurry up and get married so the fantastic Miss Summers can be her mom, but the relationship is moving slowly and Alice is afraid that her dad will let Miss Summers get away. On top of that, she's starting to become friends with rough-around-the-edges Denise and noticing that Denise's home life isn't so good--in fact, it might be dangerous.
I read a few Alice books when I was younger and loved them, and I enjoyed this one just as much as an adult. The series has been widely banned for its frank discussions of sex and puberty. While I don't think the books are appropriate for young kids, they seem pretty tame to me compared to a lot of the children's and young adult lit out there now ("Alice in April" was published in 1993). I LOVE the characters in the Alice books. I totally relate to Alice and her confusion about boys, her family, her body, school, and everything else. I adore her family, especially her goofy twenty-year-old brother who teases her sometimes but is ultimately kind-hearted and sweet. This book has a good combination of light-hearted humor and tough real-world stuff, though I do think that the tragedy at the end of the book is glossed over a little too much. The middle school drama cracked me up and made me remember my own adolescence, but there's plenty of heavier subject matter, too, to give the story depth.
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