Alice Blog

UU books

I am working with a small UU church Religious Exploration library. I am trying to collect all the Alice books for this little library. I currently have 6. However, I would love to have some books for boys and other books where a main character is UU. Do you know of some? Thank you

I’m afraid I don’t know of any other fiction books where a character is Universalist/Unitarian.  As I remember, Alice is first acquainted with this church when she’s trying to get her Dad and Sylvia together by inviting her to a Christmas program.  Later, her Dad sets her up in a sex-education course at the church when she’s a teen.   I’m not sure that I mention the UU in other Alice books; there are 28 of them…. I had heard good things about this particular class for seniors in high school, and I found out that there was a parents’ night to attend before the students began their class at a later date.  So I signed myself up as the parent of a girl named “Alice” and used my own experience for what happened to Alice when she attended the first class….

Thanks

I discovered the Alice books when I was younger in my public library and unfortunately never got around to reading them. Now during quarantine, I’m reading the entire series and I’m on the last book right now. It brings back so many childhood memories and Id like to thank you for writing the series and making it so long so it feels like I can grow up with Alice no matter what time period I’m reading it in.

I love to hear that adults are reliving those agonizing years.  I still cringe when I think of some of mine, but writing the Alice books was very cathartic for me.  Thanks so much for your email.

Just wanna say thank you

I’m 26, from Germany. I just finished your last Alice book and found out that there´s a website where I can find more information about Alice and even will be able to contact you. So here I am sitting in front of my computer and thinking about the right words to write.

First of all, I want to thank you so much for creating this character. The Alice series is a part of my life since I was around 12 years old. I found the first 17 books in our public library and still remember devouring them. I even remember reading one of the books in only one long long afternoon. I just couldn’t stop reading and laughing about all the embarrassing things that happened to her.

When my sister, ten years younger than me, entered her teens I introduced her to your books, and she began loving them too. A few years ago, our public library replaced a lot of old books (including all Alice books) with new ones. Gladly my sister was at the library that week. She saved them from going into the trash and brought all of them home. 😊 Since then, we treasure them at our parent´s house and I still sometimes go into my sister´s room on some rainy Sundays, pick one of the books and start reading them again.

Around three years ago I found out that the series didn´t end after the 17th book. I was shocked and happily surprised. All those years we thought Alice adventures just ended in her 9th grade. But the rest of the books just weren´t translated into the German language anymore. (What a pity by the way.) But gladly my sister and I are both not too bad in English, so I decided to buy all of the 11 missing books and give them to her as Christmas and birthday gifts in the following years.

There are so many wonderful life lessons you can learn from Alice. When I tell my friends about the books, I always tell them there are all kinds of social issues included into the story. It´s so funny and educational and I just think it´s so important especially for teenagers to read about all those topics like racism, sexuality and all those insecurities we all face whilst growing up.

Now we both finished the last book and here ends our journey together. At least for now. We both already agreed that if we are ever blessed with daughters, we will pass the books on to them.

Thank you again for all the wonderful, exciting and cheerful hours my sister and I had while reading your books.

I smiled a lot while reading your letter, and was delighted to learn that your sister rescued the Alice books.  Some libraries have the policy of tossing out all books older than a certain number of years, regardless.   It was a delight for me to read that you and your sister enjoyed many of the books together.  I’m sure I must have been thinking of my beautiful older sister, Norma, when I wrote about some of Lester’s girlfriends.   She was three years older than I, so we each had our own set of friends, but I was always grateful that she taught me how to put on makeup and to how to play the piano by ear.   That gave me hours and hours of pleasure over the years, playing some of the songs we both loved.  Thank you for taking the time to write to me.

your 3 favorite parts?

Hello! I’m from Bangor, Maine. I’m 16 years old and I love the Alice series with every fiber of my being! I’ve read all the books and I absolutely 100% love the way you ended it! The final book is my most favorite because that’s where everything unfolds and we see who Alice becomes. If I had to list my 3 favorite parts of the book, I would say my first one would be when Alice married Patrick, the second one where Alice and Patrick have kids, and the last one would have to be when they found the time capsule. The whole series was beautiful! Thank you so much for writing it! What are your 3 favorite parts of the last book if you have them?

Oh, don’t ask an author to do that.  It’s like making a mother choose one of her children for her favorite!

Alice’s Friendship with Mark

How would you describe Alice’s Friendship with Mark? We know she was very hurt after his death but when I read the series as a young girl, it seemed to me that Mark was more of Patrick’s friend than Alice’s especially when he sided with Patrick when he went after penny (ugh). Mark also seemed the most immature out of all the boys (Like when he put on Pamela’s bra) and I don’t really remember Alice and Mark ever having any heart to hearts or one on one talks and if they did it must’ve been rare.

It was that Mark was a part of the “family”– the “gang.”  You just always expect him to “be there” for the rest of you, even though his personality doesn’t stand out.  And suddenly, Alice got a taste of life she’d never had before, and realizes that something is out of place with Mark gone, the gang has changed slightly, that it was all unfair and not his fault and it doesn’t have to be a person she’s had heart-to-heart talks with–she just knows that nothing will be quite the same.  She’s grown up quickly in a way she didn’t expect and has to adjust to it.

Alice’s Dad’s death

I’ve read every single Alice book and they’re my all time favorite! Some parts have made me cry my eyes out especially when Alice’s Dad died and it was so painful because he was one Alice’s biggest supporters and was always there for her trying to point her in the right direction and gave her the best advice she could and when I read the chapter he died, I broke down in tears just like Alice. How were you able to have the strength to write that chapter? How sad was it for you to make a character that was so special die? and also, What was the saddest chapter you wrote in the Alice Series?

The saddest for me, but also most comforting, was when Mark was killed in the auto accident, and Alice just stayed in her room mourning for days.  She finally comes downstairs to announce that she’s not sure she believes in God anymore for allowing that to happen, all she knows is that the just wants to believe in anything that is true and good, etc.  and her father invites her to sit down, saying “that’s a good place to begin.”   It brings tears to my eyes just writing this–he was so THERE for her.

Alice’s Cancer

So I’ve read all the Alice books and thought they were all incredible!! They always found a way to touch my heart in the end and want to flip back to the first page, especially the last one. The scariest part in the last book was 1.) When Patrick was tempted by the other woman and I thought he would cheat (Thank you for not letting that happen!) and when Alice got breast cancer. Did you ever have breast cancer? When and how did you decide you wanted Alice getting cancer in the plot? and why?

No, thankfully, I’ve never had any cancer, but it is so common that I felt it would be an unnatural life if Alice didn’t face some kind of physical problem.   As we grow older, it would be very unusual if people got by without something to affect their health–diabetes,   spinal problems, high blood pressure,  broken bones, etc.  and I wanted to see how Alice and Patrick dealt with it.

Their thoughts

After all their years of marriage (Now being in their 60’s) What do you think Alice & Patrick think of each other? Does Patrick still see Alice as a beautiful young woman? Does Alice still sometimes see him as that immature young boy she new in middle school?

Of course.  Don’t you remember one of those wedding ceremonies–Marilyn’s, perhaps–when the minister told the couple to remember that inside every woman was a little girl, and inside every man, a little boy?

Will we ever get to read more about Patricia and Tyler’s children, as a modern-day sequel?

I am 13 years old and have read the entire alice series, and am so thankful that you have wrote this series. I was a big fan of it back in 4th grade and recently finished the last book, Now I’ll tell you everything. I was so happy to see, when I checked the website, that you are still replying to comments. Reading Alice’s stories was like escaping into a whole new world, for me. although it was a generation before my time, many of the topics in the series are still very important right now. Reading the book provided guidance of how I presumed teenagers word as a kid. Well, I am still a kid now and am still learning, ofcourse, but am all the wiser and more confident of myself, thanks to reading Alice. You did not shy away from any topics, and it was the most realistic depiction i have ever read of a teenager;s life.
The last book, however, really rushes Alice’s college years. and while it is still amazing (no complaints here!) I was wondering if you will ever consider writing more on that, or maybe a modern-day sequel about Patricia Marie and Tyler’s kids? I would love to know more about them! If not I totally understand, I already love what you have written, and this is just a question.
I am sorry if this is a mess, I am excitedly typing this, at the prospect of getting a response from an author whom I admire so dearly.

I’m glad that the books meant so much to you, and can understand that you wished there had been more about Alice’s college years.  I wish I could have written more about college too.  The fact is, I just didn’t feel I knew enough because I never went away to college.  I married at 18, right after I graduated from high school, and took my first two years of college going back and forth from our apartment to the junior college.  Then I took some classes by correspondence, and finally finished up the rest that I needed for a BA degree, planning to become a clinical psychologist.  But, as I’ve told before, the man I married became paranoid schizophrenic five years into the marriage, and I spent three more years trying to find the right hospital and treatment for him.  Nothing worked and we finally divorced.  I married again, we had two sons and a good marriage, but I never had the experience of living in a dorm with other girls and doing goofy college things, and it just seemed more honest to write what I did know instead of making up too much stuff.  I just don’t know Patricia and Tyler well enough to write a whole new book about them.  Sorry.

Elizabeth’s embarrassing period experience

Hello, I am a gigantic fan and I love the Alice Books and although I was sad it ended I’m so glad it ended with a happily ever after especially Alice marrying Patrick, She and Pamela and Elizabeth being friends for all those years, her becoming a counselor and helping kids through the same things she faced and writing a book series of her own life! It was all wonderful! I remember when Alice and Pamela taught Elizabeth how to use a Tampon when she was bleeding when she got out of the pool and I remember how embarrassed she was, was that something that happened to you? or was it something that happened to one of your friends or family?

It was worse than that.  We were horsing around in a public pool and a girlfriend and I were each riding around on a boy’s shoulder,  trying to push the other girl off into the water.  Once we did, we climbed back on again, and the boys were laughing a lot.  My girlfriend whispered to me that we should go inside to the shower room, and told me that  a very private part of my body was peeking out of the very narrow portion of the bathing suit between my legs.  I forced myself to fix it up and go right back in the pool and we found other things to do. But it’s still embarrassing to think about it.