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I Like Him, He Likes Her

3-BOOK BIND-UP

Includes: Alice Alone; Simply Alice; Patiently Alice

Find a Penny pick it up and all day long you’ll have good luck… except, of course, if that Penny is charming and pretty and funny, and the person picking her up just happens to be your boyfriend. Alice McKinley’s freshman year is not as “lucky” as she was hoping it would be. But she’s is trying to look on the bright side. There are worse things than being single for a semester… for a school year… for the whole summer… At least Alice can count on her best friends for support — in theory, anyway. Lately they haven’t been all that there-for-her. In fact, it seems like Pam and Liz are suddenly involved in intense, secret conversations whenever Alice is around.

Single is starting to feel a whole lot like solo.

It’s Not Like I Planned it This Way

3-BOOK BIND-UP

Includes: Alice; Alice on Her Way; Alice in the Know

The ups and downs of high school life continue in the second and third bind-ups in the Alice series. In It’s Not Like I Planned It This Way, Alice’s sophomore year is chock full of change, from a new living arrangement, to a possible new relationship, to the newfound freedom that comes with driving. And in Please Don’t Be True, the adventure of growing up continues in Alice’s junior year, when she and her friends deal with issues like a pregnancy scare and a heartbreaking good-bye. But no matter what changes, Alice is as relatable as ever.

Please Don’t Be True

3-BOOK BIND-UP

Dangerously Alice; Almost Alice; Intensely Alice

Everything can change in an instant. Everything. And then there is only before and after. Alice had a plan for her junior year. She’d laugh a lot, reinvent herself a little, and always have her friends right there with her. But, lately hanging out hasn’t be as easy as it used to be. Maybe it’s because everyone is a little over their heads with relationships and school and too much to do … or maybe something has changed between Alice and Liz and Pam and Gwen. Before Alice can even get her head around what that might mean, something does change. Something big. And, now nothing can ever be the same again.

You and Me and the Space In Between

3-BOOK BIND-UP

Includes Alice in Charge, Incredibly Alice, and Alice on Board.

It’s Alice’s senior year in high school, and with this three-book compilation, you won’t miss a moment of it.

Senior year is a big deal, but is Alice ready for it? Big decisions (college). Big parties (senior prom!). Big heartache (Patrick is in college — halfway across the country!). Alice needs to step up in a big way — to weather unexpected storms of all sorts.

King of the Playground

Kevin loves to go to the playground, but not when Sammy is there. And Sammy, who boasts that he is King of the Playground, is there most of the time. If he catches Kevin on the swings or the slide or the monkey bars, Sammy says he will do awful, terrible things to him. Kevin tells his dad what Sammy says and they talk it over.

And then one day Kevin gets his courage up and goes to the playground even though Sammy says he can’t come in. Even though Sammy tells him to go home. Even though Sammy says he will put Kevin in a cage with bears in it. Will Kevin stay, or will he go home? How will he deal with Sammy?

I Can’t Take You Anywhere!

Amy Audrey Perkins’s parents like to stay at home. And that’s no wonder. Because when Amy Audrey goes out, she can’t go anywhere without spilling something, falling down, or generally embarrassing any family member who she happens to be with.

Can Amy Audrey avoid disaster at Aunt Linda’s wedding? Aunts, uncles, Mom and Dad soon see that Amy Audrey can behave just as “perfectly” as they do. And that they, too, can behave just as clumsily as she does.

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor writes an amusing and supportive tale for kids who, like Amy Audrey, can’t seem to get out of anybody’s way, and assures them that everyone can be clumsy at one time or another.

The Red and Black and Purple Banana-Pineapple Shirt

In The Red and Black and Purple Banana-Pineapple Shirt, brothers Jim and Jake are nothing alike, but both brothers love a good joke! When Jake comes across “the ugliest shirt in the world” and decides to send it to Jim for his birthday, he launches a silly competition that grows more ridiculous each year, as the brothers send the hideous shirt back and forth between them, in ever-more-outrageous attempts to one-up each other.

Finally, one brother learns his lesson. Or does he…? This whimsical, thought-provoking tale is for “children” of all ages and readers.

Sweet Strawberries

He wasn’t the worst man in the world, but he wasn’t the nicest, either. That’s what this man’s wife understands as they head off to market to sell a basket of fish. And when he is grumpy with the various people they encounter along the way — a young girl herding geese, the boy guarding the village gate, even the man with whom they trade their fish — she is hardly surprised. After all, when husband and wife have been married a good long time, they get used to each other’s ways. But when she catches sight of a table of plump red strawberries and her husband is too stingy to buy any, it’s simply the last straw! Now, what will it take for this stingy, grumpy, impatient man to cheer her up again?

Please DO Feed the Bears

Percy’s family is going on a picnic, and he can’t imagine being at the beach without his favorite stuffed animals. There’s his teddy, his grizzly, his old black bear, his panda…

But the car is jam-packed, and his family warns him that there isn’t room. In order to bring his bear family, they’d have to leave something behind.

And so, without thinking it through, Percy leaves something behind, with disastrous results. But in the end, Percy and his bears save the day.

The Baby, The Bed, and The Rose

When their baby sister Molly begins to cry, David and Tom try everything to comfort her, but nothing works. Later, when she struggles to her knees and works her tiny hands up the crib railing, she takes her first wobbly steps and they discover what Molly had her eye on all the time.