Alice in Blunderland

From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6-Fourth-grader Alice McKinley can't seem to do anything right. Her intentions are as good as gold, but her gullibility gets the best of her every time. Her older brother, Lester, has a great time pulling her leg, and usually his teasing is harmless. But one day he takes it too far and convinces trusting Alice that his new girlfriend is a child-abuse victim who plans to run away to China to escape her violent home life. Alice's kindhearted effort to help out leads to considerable embarrassment for everybody, especially the McKinleys. Add a few other world-class mistakes to the mix, and Alice's fourth-grade year starts to feel like a total failure. Naylor's straightforward, good-humored narrative provides series fans with extra insight into the events that shaped this beloved character into a favorite young adult heroine.Catherine Threadgill, Charleston County Public Library, SCCopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Gr. 3-7. Embarrassment has always been a big part of the wildly popular Alice series about a young, motherless girl trying to work out how to grow up female, but her bumbling is the heart of this story: "Blunderbuss" is her middle name. Following Starting with Alice (2002), this is the second of three prequels to the Alice books, which began with The Agony of Alice in 1985. Here, Alice, in fourth grade, can't get the unspoken rules right. Once again, it's all good fun--except for one troubling episode. Alice adores Tarzan movies, and with the boy next door she bumbles things as she tries to act out the romance of Tarzan and Jane as they flee from "ignorant savages." The book flap says that Naylor based this book on her own experience growing up. Still, some things aren't timeless. Haven't we gone beyond racist stereotypes about stupid, comic savages in the jungle? This might be a good title for class discussion: all the laughter close to home, and then the question of what's really funny. What should Alice be embarrassed about? Hazel Rochman
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Book Description
Can someone die of embarrassment? Everything seems to go wrong for Alice in fourth grade -- whether it's being seen in her underpants by Donald Sheavers from next door, or saying dumb things in class, or getting trapped in her own snow cave, or getting a vitamin pill stuck up her nose. Worst of all, she's managed to get her brother, Lester, really mad at her -- and gotten both of them saddled with Mrs. Nolinstock, the worst housekeeper in the world. Will life ever get any easier? Fourth grade can't end soon enough for Alice!


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Gr 3-6-Fourth-grader Alice McKinley can't seem to do anything right. Her intentions are as good as gold, but her gullibility gets the best of her every time. Her older brother, Lester, has a great time pulling her leg, and usually his teasing is harmless. But one day he takes it too far and convinces trusting Alice that his new girlfriend is a child-abuse victim who plans to run away to China to escape her violent home life. Alice's kindhearted effort to help out leads to considerable embarrassment for everybody, especially the McKinleys. Add a few other world-class mistakes to the mix, and Alice's fourth-grade year starts to feel like a total failure. Naylor's straightforward, good-humored narrative provides series fans with extra insight into the events that shaped this beloved character into a favorite young adult heroine.-Catherine Threadgill, Charleston County Public Library, SC Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.


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