A Note About the Alice Series

comment:

I have never before written to an author, which is strange, because I am 23 and have been a bibliophile for as long as I can remember. But when I told my dad how I felt after finishing the Alice series, he said, “Why don’t you write to her?” And so here I am.

I first picked up the Alice books when I was a teenager, maybe between 13 and 15. My sister and I saw them in the library and liked them, then doubled back and started from the beginning. Over the years, I’ve probably read the first third of the series about 6 times – I kept starting over from the beginning every time it’d been too long since I’d last read Alice.

And most recently, I started the series over once again maybe two years ago, while I was still in college. I kept track of which book I was on, and would try to read a few every time I was back home. And before I knew it, there were only a few books left.

I was so excited when I realized that you would be ending the book with Alice, Liz, Pam, Patrick, and the rest of the gang who was still alive and around going back to that same spot from middle school to pull up the capsule. I loved that Alice was the one who remembered everything.

There is always a special, sweet kind of sadness that comes upon me when I turn the very last page of the very last book of a series that I love. I recall especially having this feeling with the Chronicles of Narnia series. But after having read all 28 of the Alice books, that feeling had never been so magnified as when I read the last page of Now I’ll Tell You Everything. As I told my dad, it felt a little bit like saying goodbye to a friend – one who you know you’ll probably never see again, but who you will always hold tightly to in your memories.

So thank you for these books, thank you for Alice, thank you for answering all the questions that even me who has a mom was always too afraid to ask, or didn’t even know to ask. I learned and grew up right along with Alice. Thanks for all the laughter – these books have made me laugh so much, have been the kind of books that I have stayed up until the early hours in the morning to finish, the kind of books that you always want to read “Just one more chapter” of. And I am proud of Alice. She had a good life, and even though the series is over, I think there’s quite a bit of life left in her yet.

I like to say that books are my friends, and this has been one of the best ones.

Phyllis replied:

I’m so glad that you discovered the Alice books.  Your letter means a great deal to me and I forwarded it to my editor.  I know that it will make her day, just as you’ve made mine.  Best of luck in all you do, and hello to your dad.