The Agony of Alice Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

119 Pages·2019·1.22 MB·English

by  Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Life is like a dumpster. As soon as you get rid of one embarrassment, you
pick up another. I knew that this was going to go on forever unless I found
someone to set an example for me, and by the time I got the mustard off my
shirt, I’d made up my mind: I’d adopt a mother.
THERE’S A LOT ABOUT GROWING UP THAT’S confusing to Alice
McKinley. Her mother died when she was five—how can her father and her
nineteen-year-old brother, Lester, teach her what she needs to know? Even
buying a pair of jeans can turn into a major embarrassment with Lester in
charge.
If only she had a role model, like the beautiful sixth-grade teacher Miss Cole.
But instead Alice gets assigned to plain, pear-shaped Mrs. Plotkin’s class. Is
Alice doomed to a life of one embarrassment after another?
DON’T MISS
Meet the author, watch videos, and get extras at KIDS.SimonandSchuster.com
COVER DESIGN BY JESSICA HANDELMAN
COVER ILLUSTRATION COPYRIGHT © 2011 BY JULIA DENOS
ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
SIMON & SCHUSTER • NEW YORK
AGES 10–14 • 0511
Here’s what fans have to say about Alice:*
“I have read your Alice books ever since 5th grade (I’m in 10th grade now)
and ever since the first one I read I can’t stop reading them! They are filled
with such intrigue! … Alice and her friends and family just seem so real that I
expect to look in a Maryland phone book under McKinley and find
‘Benjamin’!!”—Erin
“I absolutely love your books and am looking forward to your many others.
My friends love them too. We formed an Alice club at our school. On
Tuesdays we get together at the same table at lunch and have a book talk.”—
Katie
“I was reading some historical fiction books about the late 1800s and I think it
is amazing how little women really knew about their bodies and stuff like
that. I’m glad that now we as girls have books like yours to read so we aren’t
always clueless.”—Amy
*Taken from actual postings on the Alice website. To read more, visit
AliceMcKinley.com.
PHYLLIS REYNOLDS NAYLOR includes many of her own life experiences
in the Alice books. She writes for both children and adults, and is the author
of more than one hundred and thirty-five books, including the Alice series,
which Entertainment Weekly has called “tender” and “wonderful.” In 1992
her novel Shiloh won the Newbery Medal. She lives with her husband, Rex,
in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and is the mother of two grown sons and the
grandmother of Sophia, Tressa, Garrett, and Beckett.
The Agony of Alice
BOOKS BY PHYLLIS REYNOLDS NAYLOR
Shiloh Books
Shiloh
Shiloh Season
Saving Shiloh
The Alice Books
Starting with Alice
Alice in Blunderland
Lovingly Alice
The Agony of Alice
Alice in Rapture, Sort Of
Reluctantly Alice
All But Alice
Alice in April
Alice In-Between
Alice the Brave
Alice in Lace
Outrageously Alice
Achingly Alice
Alice on the Outside
The Grooming of Alice
Alice Alone
Simply Alice
Patiently Alice
Including Alice
Alice on Her Way
Alice in the Know
Dangerously Alice
Almost Alice
Intensely Alice
Alice in Charge
Incredibly Alice
Alice Collections
I Like Him, He Likes Her
It’s Not Like I Planned It This Way
Please Don’t Be True
The Bernie Magruder Books
Bernie Magruder and the Case of the Big Stink
Bernie Magruder and the Disappearing Bodies
Bernie Magruder and the Haunted Hotel
Bernie Magruder and the Drive-thru Funeral Parlor
Bernie Magruder and the Bus Station Blowup
Bernie Magruder and the Pirate’s Treasure
Bernie Magruder and the Parachute Peril
Bernie Magruder and the Bats in the Belfry
The Cat Pack Books
The Grand Escape
The Healing of Texas Jake
Carlotta’s Kittens
Polo’s Mother
The York Trilogy
Shadows on the Wall
Faces in the Water
Footprints at the Window
The Witch Books
Witch’s Sister
Witch Water
The Witch Herself
The Witch’s Eye
Witch Weed
The Witch Returns
Picture Books
King of the Playground
The Boy with the Helium Head
Old Sadie and the Christmas Bear
Keeping a Christmas Secret
Ducks Disappearing
I Can’t Take You Anywhere
Sweet Strawberries
Please DO Feed the Bears
Books for Young Readers
Josie’s Troubles
How Lazy Can You Get?
All Because I’m Older
Maudie in the Middle
One of the Third-Grade Thonkers
Roxie and the Hooligans
Books for Middle Readers
Walking Through the Dark
How I Came to Be a Writer
Eddie, Incorporated
The Solomon System
The Keeper
Beetles, Lightly Toasted
The Fear Place
Being Danny’s Dog
Danny’s Desert Rats
Walker’s Crossing
Books for Older Readers
A String of Chances
Night Cry
The Dark of the Tunnel
The Year of the Gopher
Send No Blessings
Ice
Sang Spell
Jade Green
Blizzard’s Wake
Cricket Man