Alice Blog

From a Dad

Question:

As a 47 year old man, I’m guessing that I’m not the target market for the Alice series, but I stumbled upon them about 10 years ago when I briefly taught 4th grade.  My daughter, who was a first grader (and early reader) at the time, immediately fell in love with Alice.  We have read the books together over the years and they have given us many interesting topics to talk about, many of which we might not have otherwise.  Alice has been a genuine positive role-model for years.  My daughter is now entering her junior year of high school, so she will coincidentally be going off to college at exactly the same time Alice does.  I have a little tear in my eye now, as I think about how they grew up together, and how our annual ritual will soon be coming to an end.I have been teaching high school, mostly seniors, for the past several years.  In Incredibly Alice,  I think you perfectly captured the uncertainty and sadness that accompanies the excitement of senior year, including the anxiety surrounding college acceptances.  So, as I help my daughter deal with this in real life, I also look forward to the final installment. 

 

Phyllis replied:

I loved your letter, and think readers will love it too.  It’s comforting in a way to know that parents share the same sadness, uncertainty, and yes, excitement, when a child leaves for college.  But once our children leave home, we don’t know when they are happy, depressed, scared, embarrassed….  Not that we always knew when they lived with us, but at least we were under the same roof.  Because of your close relationship with your daughter, my guess is that this will give her much of the stability and self esteem she’ll need to navigate through college. And she’ll always know you’re there for her.  Thanks so much for writing.

And So Will Alice….

Question:

 

I will be very sad when the alice series is over. But a few days ago I heard JK Rowling saying in a thank you speech about her harry potter series that “Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.” So I am going to think the same with the alice series. Its just like the title of the your last book “Always Alice.” to me that title is really powerful because alice will always be there for her readers to make them laugh, cry, advise, and relate. And I will definitely pass these books to my kids in the future! Hope you are having a wonderful summer!  🙂

Phyllis replied:

 

What a wonderful message.  Thank you.

Pencil test

Question:

 i wanted to know if the pencil test was real and
if every girl does it or is it just the books.

 

Phyllis replied:

An advice columnist of years ago suggested that as a way of determining whether ot not your breasts were large enough that you should wear a bra in public.  I don’t know if other girls tried it, but I did.  I know that I’m going to get a zillion letters asking in what Alice book the pencil test appears, and I don’t remember, so please tell me so I can list it here.

 

The End of the Series

Question:

 

thank you for creating the alice series!!!! i will cry when the very last book of the series comes out…i can’t believe it’s going to end 🙁
—

Phyllis replied:

I probably will cry a little too.

Growing Up With Alice

Question:

 

 I dont think that I can express to you the power that the Alice
series has had on me. I started reading them about 8 years ago and
every summer I reread every book. It has become tradition. I feel
like, having grown up with Alice, that she is a real person, that her
emmotions have altered me to become a better person. You made Alice a
character that feels almost every emmotion on the entire spectrum:
embarrasment, joy, guilt, happines, humorous, alone, depressed, proud.
She thinks like a normal person, which allows me to be able to relate
and enjoy her so much more. After growing up for so long looking up to
her, I am now so excited that she and I are the same age, and pleased
to find that she and I are very similar people!
     Every summer I look forward to sitting down and reading the only
books that can both make me cry and make me laugh. I take at least one
Alice book with me on every vacation and Thank you so much for
providing me with a role model that will always be there for me.
    

Phyllis replied:

 

Letters from fans make it all worthwhile.  Thank you so much for taking the time to write to me.

Never Realized There were More

Question

 

I grew up in a very isolated community in southwest Wyoming. My family didn’t have a television, and the highlight of every week was going to the library to pick out books.

I couldn’t say when I read my first Alice book, nor if the Alice books were recommended to me by someone else. I read all that there were at the time (by my guess, up to Alice in April) then moved on. I was young and naive enough that I never realized or considered that there could be more coming! I often thought of Alice fondly later, laughing at her follies and recognizing that the true ordinariness of Alice is what makes her a most admirable heroine.

Just this spring my younger sister Sarah and I started talking about “catching up” on some of our childhood favorite books. I had been home for a week with a severe cold and had ripped through Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Sarah mentioned she had read some Kenneth Thomasma. She then said that she thought there were more Alice novels! I was floored. More Alice novels! How could I have not known this! How could I have stumbled blindly through my teen years without Alice!?

Needless to say, with the aid of modern library technology, I swiftly remedied the situation. I’m just putting down Alice in Charge and I am so, so pleased – yet sad! I’m sad that the series seems to be wrapping up (or so I read on the blog) and I’m even more sad that I didn’t get to read the Alice books when I was in high school and junior high. I’ve never come across youth fiction that so honestly and openly covered teen sexuality, friendship, maturity and growing up. I wish I had found books like this in 1997 and 98 when I entered high school. I remember watching my friends making their college plans and feeling so left out and uncertain. I didn’t know that some high school students visit colleges and stay the night! I’m 29 and I’ve never heard of that before in my life! Perhaps it isn’t so common here out west –  I certainly never heard any of my acquaintances and friends mention it.

 I am sure that you hear all the time from awkward and embarrassed teenagers. I was one of the worst but I didn’t have a companion like Alice to commiserate with and instead I blundered hopelessly and most awkwardly through my teens – feeling, I’m sure, how every teen does – that no one understood, no one cared, and no one could help me!

I plan on sharing Alice with my nieces and, should I ever have any, my children. I hope that they will find Alice as endearing and educational as I do. Thank you for taking the time and effort to produce the Alice novels and your many other entertaining and enchanting books. I will remain forever a fan.
Phyllis replied:

 

I wish I had had Alice books when I was growing up too.  Back then no character ever mention the word sex, nobody had a menstrual cycle or went to the bathroom.  It was very much the feeling that the real world and the book world were entirely different.  So in a sense, I wrote the books for me, about a daughter I never had.  I’m so glad they resonate with you!  Thanks for writing.

 

Do Alice and Patrick continue their relationship?

Question: OMG I JUS FINISH READING INCREDIBLY ALICE AND IT WAS AWESOME  AND OMG ALICE AND PATRICK ARE GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT ON ANOTHER I WAS JUST WONDERING IF PATRICK AND ALICE STILL CONTINUE THERE RELATIONSHIP??????

Phyllis replied:

That will be answered in the final book, coming out in 2013.   I really can’t give any hints, because a great deal happens in Always Alice.

Hard to Wait

Kept Me Interested for 8 Years

Don’t Know What to Do

Question:

 I am 15 years old and I am completly ingrossed in your books. I have one chapter left of Intensly Alice and I am not ready to finish it because there arent any more out yet. I LOVE the fact that your books can be read in almost any order. Well kinda. I started with Alice’s freshman year while I was a freshman. She goes through so much that I have gone through. I am kinda having the same problem with The Penny-Patrick-Alice thing. I had just started dating a guy and I met his bestfriend. Now, this guy im dating is completly anti-social.. And his betfriend is outgoing like me. And we got along great. Till my boyfriend banned me from speaking and hanging out with him. But I am not the kinda girl to be pushed around, so I kept talking to him. But one of my bestfriends was dating this guy I was friends with, And when they broke up….. she blamed it on me. OH WAIT THERE IS MORE :/ So, This guy started dating another girl I was friends with and yep, you guessd it. I “Broke” Them up as well. I was kinda flattered… to tell you the truth, Because I didnt do anything. But now me and my “Boyfriend” broke up because he wanted sex and I didnt so he went crawling back to his Ex who smokes pot. And he did this the night after we went on a date and I went to my grandma’s house a few towns over. Nice huh? So anyway, now this guy I was banned from speaking to are hanging out again and I feel really comfterble around him. I dont have to be perfect, and as gross as it sounds, I can fart, burp, laugh my LOUDDD laugh around him. But I dont know if its too soon to do anything about it.  

 

Phyllis replied:

Anything about…..?   Sex?  Standard advice:  If you’re not sure, don’t.   Sounds as though you feel pretty comfortable around this guy, but he doesn’t come across to me as exactly first class material.  Does he to you?