A Little Bit of Everything

Question:

I would just like to say how greatful I am for your books. Yeah, Alice is great, Patrick seems like the perfect boyfriend, and the drama with Jill, Karen, Brian, Penny, ect. is so interesting, but what I really love about your books is how you add a little bit of everything, even if its controversail to a point of having your books banned. I had read all the Alice books up to Dangerously Alice by the time I was 10 and I never fully understood lots of what you were talking about. Me and my friend wondered a loud what ‘giving head’ was, and didn’t know half the things Lester was doing that was in the books. SO I have just been back and read all the books of Alice in highschool and now that I fully understand everything, I realize just how much flavor is in your books. I love that you can talk about religion in extreme cases (take Mavis and Shelly. I think that was their names?) and me having never been to church, I like that you can adress both sides. And you talk about sex without making a huge deal and you talk about masturbation because I beleive it is normal and it makes me feel normal to hear of other people thinking the same things. And I liked that Mark died, not because i didn’t like Mark, I loved Mark, but i best friend died recently, and it really shows how anything can happen. So thank you so much for your books because they just have a bit of everything.

Phyllis replied:

Thanks so much for your letter. I’m glad the Alice books seem just right to you. Some people think Alice experiences too much; some think she experiences too little. But having developed her character for 25 years, I simply have to go with what I think she would actually do and feel, and I’m very happy that you’re OK with that.

Posted on: October 25, 2010