I’ve read every book

Question:

I read my first Alice book in the public library at age 10, and I just finished Alice on Board this afternoon, so I’m completely caught up. I turned 30 two weeks ago. 🙂 Alice was a friend throughout my childhood and teen years, and every couple of years I request the last 2-3 books all at one shot just to see what going on with her, and I’ve never been disappointed. I’m glad she’s still with Patrick in a non-codependent way that works for both of them, vaguely philosophical about Lester EVER finding the right girl for him, slightly disappointed about William & Mary for Alice, but hoping she’ll be happy in College Park. (When did Liz get off the Bennington wait list? I must have skipped over that somehow – but good for her!) Very excited to read Always Alice – next year will be here before we know it! 🙂

After having read every book, the one scene that still sticks with me most out of every single one of them is the Passing By arc from Alice In-Between. I still remember reading that scene for the first time as a highschooler, standing in the checkout line with my mother at the grocery store – I was supposed to help carry the bags out to the car, but I was bawling just as Alice was after she stood up in class and the wrong poem came out of her mouth. I’ll always remember Ms Summers’ reaction to the situation — “sometimes a poem can move us in ways we didn’t expect”. It’s been at least a dozen, if not fifteen, years since I first read that scene, but it plays out in my head like a movie. Ms Summers’ calm, measured thoughtfulness and immensely respectful reaction to Alice’s moment was the exact compass the rest of the class needed to know how they should react themselves, and she absolutely could not have hit any harder of a homerun as a educator and a human being.

Sometimes moments in literature stick with us in ways that nobody would ever expect. 🙂 This series may merely be “silly fluffy YA novels” to some, but I will always carry that moment with me, and I thought you might like to know about that.

Phyllis replied:

I don’t know that the Alice series has ever been considered silly YA fluff, but it’s great to know that the books have meant so much to you.  It would be wonderful, after the final book is published next year, to know of readers’ very favorite moments in Alice’s life.  Thanks so much for sharing yours.