The Alice “Bible”

Question:

I just wanted to take the time to thank you for the Alice Series. Alice has felt
like a real friend to me, she has brought me comfort by showing me that I’m not
the only person who embarrasses herself on a daily basis, or questions and
doubts certain aspects of her life, and is having the complicated and chaotic
life of a normal teenage girl. The books are relevant and relatable, and I have
been addicted ever since I started reading them 5 years ago (I’m 16 now). I
can’t wait for the next book, and Always Alice, and the Alice Bible. So thank
you so much for giving me a friend as loyal and lovable as Alice.

Phyllis replied:

Thank you for your email.  For those who don’t know, the Alice “bible” is a bound 100-page list of all the information our wonderful copy editor could gather, from all the Alice books, that I refer to when I write a new Alice book and that she refers to when she checks each new manuscript to see if I have changed somebody’s name or hair color.  In this “bible” it lists all the presents Alice every received, all the boyfriends Liz ever had, what their rooms look like, their teachers’ names, as well as all the mistakes that have popped up in the books–things we didn’t catch before we made the “bible.”  Readers have expressed an interest in reading this, or buying it, and recently I talked to my editor about it.   She says that after the very last Alice book is published in 2013 and the Bible is “finished,” they will put it online so that any of you who would like to relive all the Alice books, all her embarrassments, her entire life, can read about them, item by item, category by category, in the “bible.”