She Thinks I Shouldn’t Read the Books

Question:

I really love your books. Me and two of my friends are just like 
Alice, Pamela, and Elizabeth. I’m probably Alice. Haha. But to get to 
the point… so I love the Alice books but I’m only 13 and my mom is 
sort is behind on what teens these days read. She thinks I shouldn’t 
read the books cause they have sex in them. I don’t care that they do 
cause it ads character to the stories, but my mom always says that, 
“Alice is growing up very fast.” hint hint. I don’t know what to say 
to her. Then we don’t talk for hours cause it gets really awkward 
between us. Please help me!

Phyllis replied:

Well, timewise, Alice is growing up very slowly, because I write three for each year of her life.  So it takes her three times as long to get from 13 to 14.  On the other hand, I started writing these books many years ago, and if you are reading one right after the other, then yes, Alice is growing older as fast as you can read about her.  Why don’t you suggest that your mom read the books too, either together with you, or separately, and then you can talk about them afterwards.  And she can give you her take on what Alice and her friends do.  Would that work?