Alice in Blunderland

Starred review from August 25, 2003
Readers need not be familiar with Alice, the effervescent star of the perennially popular series for the 12 and up set, to relish this encounter in the second of a "prequel" trilogy aimed at a younger audience. Followed through her fourth-grade year, the motherless, ever-embarrassed Everygirl copes with her older brother, Lester, here a less secure, adolescent version of the character familiar to series fans; attempts to drive away the humorless housekeeper their father hires when Alice gets into one too many scrapes; and learns about prenatal development when her teacher's wife is pregnant (and with Naylor, readers can be sure that all questions will be answered, even the ones about where unborn babies "go to the bathroom"). Some of the funniest moments revolve around Lester's relationship with Alice; she can never tell when he's putting her on, and when he feeds her a preposterous story about a girl he likes—that she has been adopted by people who feed her only scraps and that she plans to run away to work in a rice paddy in China—she and her friends start saving their money and send her a care package. There are poignant scenes as well, notably when the teacher's wife's joy in her newborn reminds Alice of her own immense loss from her mother's death. As in her best Alice novels, Naylor writes with such wit and insight that she turns the struggles of everyday life into optimistic comedy. Ages 7-up.

September 1, 2003
Gr 3-6-Fourth-grader Alice McKinley can't seem to do anything right. Her intentions are as good as gold, but her gullibility gets the best of her every time. Her older brother, Lester, has a great time pulling her leg, and usually his teasing is harmless. But one day he takes it too far and convinces trusting Alice that his new girlfriend is a child-abuse victim who plans to run away to China to escape her violent home life. Alice's kindhearted effort to help out leads to considerable embarrassment for everybody, especially the McKinleys. Add a few other world-class mistakes to the mix, and Alice's fourth-grade year starts to feel like a total failure. Naylor's straightforward, good-humored narrative provides series fans with extra insight into the events that shaped this beloved character into a favorite young adult heroine.-Catherine Threadgill, Charleston County Public Library, SC

Copyright 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2003
Gr. 3-7. Embarrassment has always been a big part of the wildly popular Alice series about a young, motherless girl trying to work out how to grow up female, but her bumbling is the heart of this story: "Blunderbuss" is her middle name. Following "Starting with Alice" (2002), this is the second of three prequels to the Alice books, which began with "The Agony of Alice "in 1985. Here, Alice, in fourth grade, can't get the unspoken rules right. Once again, it's all good fun--except for one troubling episode. Alice adores Tarzan movies, and with the boy next door she bumbles things as she tries to act out the romance of Tarzan and Jane as they flee from "ignorant savages." The book flap says that Naylor based this book on her own experience growing up. Still, some things aren't timeless. Haven't we gone beyond racist stereotypes about stupid, comic savages in the jungle? This might be a good title for class discussion: all the laughter close to home, and then the question of what's really funny. What should Alice be embarrassed about? (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)