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Summary
Summary
April is the cruelest month," said the poet, and Alice McKinley would agree. April is a hard month. Not that she doesn't have some fun. It does begin with a wonderful April Fool's Day joke on her brother, Lester. But it also begins with Aunt Sally reminding her that she will soon be thirteen (as if anyone could forget something so important) and then she will be Woman of the House, since her mother is long dead. It is an awesome responsibility. All her life she had assumed that her father and Lester were there to take care of her; now she is going to have to take care of them. Taking care of Lester, alone, could be a full-time job, she thinks. Being Woman of the House has all sorts of drawbacks. For example: It never occurred to her that when she suggested her father and Lester ought to have physical checkups, her father would insist that she have one too. How could you let a doctor see you naked?
Of course, Alice is still in school. And there she faces another crisis. She might be Woman of the House at home, but in school she needs a different kind of name, one given by a table full of boys in the cafeteria Depending on their figures, girls are being given state names -- some states have mountains and others do not. Will flat, flat Delaware or Louisiana be her fate? Alice lives in fear that it might be, though even worse is the fear that she might not get a name at all.
The month ends with a dinner party for her father's birthday (part of being Woman of the House) that has more downs than ups -- and with a totally unexpected event that makes Alice and everyone she knows grow up a little and wonder a little deeper about life and the future. April is a hard month, but reading about Alice in April is to find that most tragedies (though not all) pass and tears can turn to laughter and delight.
Author Notes
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor was born in Anderson, Indiana on January 4, 1933. She received a bachelor's degree from American University in 1963. Her first children's book, The Galloping Goat and Other Stories, was published in 1965. She has written more than 135 children and young adult books including Witch's Sister, The Witch Returns, The Bodies in the Bessledorf Hotel, A String of Chances, The Keeper, Walker's Crossing, Bernie Magruder and the Bats in the Belfry, Please Do Feed the Bears, and The Agony of Alice, which was the first book in the Alice series. She has received several awards including the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Night Cry and the Newberry Award for Shiloh.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Naylor plunges her forthright and unusually winning series heroine ( All but Alice ) into the middle of seventh grade, when the responsibilities that go with turning 13 loom just ahead. As Alice struggles to assume the role of Woman of the House in the motherless home she shares with her older brother and father, the trials of domesticity compete with the anxiety of waiting for the boys in her grade to name her figure after the topography of one of the 50 states (``I knew what would be worse than Delaware: Rhode Island. Not the shape, the size''). With characteristic humor and the support of her old friends, Alice forges ahead, monitoring the romantic mishaps of her father and brother while coping with her own minor disasters. A subplot involves an abused classmate, whose suicide ends the book on a tragic note. The issue is carefully explored, without melodrama, and although it may surprise readers accustomed to jocularity from the Alice books, it is to the author's credit that Alice's development includes some serious problems. Deftly written dialogue and an empathetic tone neatly balance substantial themes with plain good fun. Ages 9-13. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Aunt Sally reminds motherless Alice that when she turns thirteen in May, she will be 'the woman of the house.' Alice takes the responsibility seriously and momentarily loses sight of how well she, her father, and her older brother have been doing on their own. Carefully drawn, very real characters, humorous and often touching situations, and insight into adolescent concerns are evident in the fifth book about Alice. From HORN BOOK 1993, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Gr. 5-8. After her brief fling with the popular crowd in All but Alice [BKL Mr 1 92], Alice McKinley is back in agony. She's caught between her desire to be a domestic paragon (the Woman of the House who takes care of her widowed father and her older brother, Lester), and her irrepressible fascination with bodies, especially breasts, especially her own. With Alice now in seventh grade, Naylor continues to write with wit about the farce and embarrassment of growing up female today. There are beautifully paced laugh-out-loud episodes: Alice's physical exam--with a new male doctor; her banter with Lester, both furious and affectionate; her self-conscious desire to be her beautiful teacher and to imitate her every gesture. When Denise, the classmate who once bullied Alice, commits suicide, suddenly all Alice's melodrama and her constant comic complaint about "life being over" get a painful depth. However, Naylor is careful not to milk the situation, and though Alice grieves, her life goes on with all its daily trials and tribulations. Her dad's a little too wise and perfect, but he's quiet about it, and whether the messages are about family, friendship, feminism, or sex, the tone is gentle; and people have a lot of fun, even if no one lives happily ever after. ~--Hazel Rochman
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-- When Aunt Sally writes, ``Our little Alice is going to become a teenager. It's a big responsibility because you're the woman of the house now,'' it puts Alice under pressure. She discovers that running a household is not easy. On top of that, she feels helpless and out of control at school. And no wonder, for the boys in her class have started naming the girls after the U. S. states, based on their anatomy. Her father and college-age brother can't believe that she cares about such foolishness. But she does care and is sensitive about her changing body and facing other girls in the gym showers. Also, Al and her brother have to go for their first physical examinations. Curious preteens may be interested in the almost technical, systematic description of the exam. Al is also busy playing cupid for her father and her teacher, whom she would like to see him marry. On top of all these other concerns, a schoolmatke commits suicide, and Al feels guilty she did not recognize the warning signs. This third book about the likable heroine stands well on its own. It is light reading that will keep Alice's many fans happy. --Susannah Price, Boise Public Library, ID (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Building on her earlier books about the motherless, independent-minded Alice, Naylor flawlessly weaves concerns prompted by two birthdays--Alice's 13th, which prompts the girl to experiment with the role of ``homemaker''; and Dad's 50th, which gives her a chance to try out new skills with a surprise party--into another delightful chronicle, as perceptive as it is hilarious. There are poignant moments here when Alice's forays into womanhood recall her barely remembered, frequently yearned- for mother--especially when nice Miss Summers (Alice's teacher, who's dating Dad) helps Alice make the cake Mom noted as ``Ben's favorite.'' But from April Fool's Day, when Alice's teasing, good-humored relationship with college-age brother Lester is neatly dramatized by their tricks on each other, to the full-cast dinner party on the 30th, comedy is perfectly integrated into every episode--even a sensible, detailed account of a physical (brisk questions; no pelvic exam) that a relieved Alice finds less embarrassing than she feared. There's tragedy for a minor character near the end: startling but not gratuitous, it deepens the story's meaning while revealing how close Alice and Miss Summers are growing--regardless of Miss Summers's feelings for Dad, which remain in doubt. Next installment impatiently awaited. (Fiction. 9-13)