Almost Alice is the twentieth book in the series about Alice Mckinley and her triumphs and travails growing up, though her life seems surprisingly short on travails. All the really bad stuff seems to happen to her friends, like her friend Molly who has leukemia and Pam whose mom deserted the family for a boyfriend. Even though motherless Alice has a new stepmother, her former sixth grade teacher, she is very close to her dad and older brother Lester and often discusses her life and problems with them. This may seem far-fetched to most teens. In this volume she reunites with her ninth grade boyfriend, Patrick, but not quite as romantically as Alice would like. She is tortured about what she means to Patrick, who is graduating early because he is so driven and directed, but then things seem to resolve themselves by the end of the book. She worries obsessively about her own minor problems--does her crush Scott like her or is he just going to the Sadie Hawkins dance with her because she asked?-- and those of her friends: how can she get Liz to be more approachable to boys so she can find a boyfriend, or get Gwen to lighten up and have more fun or convince Pam to try out for the spring musical? It is unnecessary to have read the earlier volumes to follow along here because enough of the backstory is woven into this volume seamlessly. This is a mostly light-hearted romp through the latter part of Alice’s junior year in high school including proms, SATs, and thoughts about the future. There is a trauma for one of her friends that causes some dramatic tension but even this problem resolves itself happily, if unrealistically. ( )

(Spoilers)
Alice continues trying to figure out exactly who she is, Pamela gets on the cast of the high school production of Guys and Dolls, and in the last third of the book learns that she is pregnant.
The Alice series walks a difficult tightrope, sometimes successfully and sometimes less so. Primarily, the series is a light, easy-reading, fun and sometimes funny series about a suburban teen girl coping with all the day to day trials of being a suburban teen girl. But with many of the books, Naylor also throws in, usually towards the last third of the book, a much more serious issue. Suicide, physical abuse, death of a family member, homosexuality, and a wide array of sexual issues... While admirable to try to deal with these serious issues, there are several potential problems with throwing them into a light book. A) The serious issue is trivialized by being thrown quickly into a fun quick read, and B) The fun aspect of the book is dragged down by the heavy material and C) Serious issues that rarely if ever have quick easy resolutions are quickly and easily resolved for the sake of wrapping up the story.
There was a bit of all three of these problems with Almost Alice. Because the big issue - teen pregnancy - happens to Pamela Jones, one of Alice's four best friends, it is inherently a more serious plot issue than if it were a secondary character we rarely hear much about. And for two or three chapters, the issue was handled with appropriate gravity. But then, at the end of the book, Pamela quickly has a spontaneous miscarriage, thereby solving the problem without her having to make any of the difficult decisions she was facing. It was too easy, trivialized the issue of the teen pregnancy, and still left the book with a heavy weight on it, after a largely light, fun story.
The Alice series is a odd phenomenon in books to me. No single book stands out as being great. Some are pretty good and some are just average. But taken as a whole, they are completely delightful. If a new reader started with this book, they would likely not read another. But if new reader starts with the first two or three, as I did, they'll likely find themselves working through the entire (vast) series, because most of the characters are likable, it's easy to see ourselves and our friends in aspects of Alice and her friends, and eventually, reading the next book almost feels like catching up with a friend instead of reading the fictional tale of an average American teen girl. ( )

I do like this series. Each book last half of a year in Alice's life. This, the second installment of her Junior year, did not disappoint. I like the characters, the situations mostly ring true, and the messages are not delivered via baseball bats. There are perhaps no surprises, but there's something to be said for fiction imitating life. Some people, I've heard, do have relatively pleasant teenage years. It's a treat to read about them. ( )

I'm tentatively saying this was for work, because I don't think I'd have picked it up if it hadn't wandered across my desk. As usual, Alice is--well, not quite as pure as the driven snow, but certainly has herself under much better control than her friends. The writing still clunks across the page--I doubt if that will ever change--but on the whole this volume of Alice's life seems far more tame than the previous ones. I'm all for frank discussions of sex and bodies, but Judy Blume did it much more naturally than Naylor--I don't think high school girls would refer to the enhancing effects of a push-up bra by saying "look at your breasts!", for instance.

So, eh. After 20 (yes, twenty) volumes of Alice's life, she's only just finished her junior year of high school.

I don't need to read these. I can quit any time... ( )

Reviewed by hoopsielv for TeensReadToo.com

Alice is finishing up her junior year and things couldn't be brighter for her: Patrick asked her to his prom, she is now features editor of the school newspaper, and she's getting along better with her stepmother. Life is good!

Scott, her secret crush, agrees to go to the Sadie Hawkins dance with her. Patrick remains close to her heart, though she isn't quite sure what their relationship truly is. Her friends are busy, too, with school and boys. Alice starts to feel like she's always there rooting for them, but where are they when she needs them? It takes a pregnancy test to bring the friends together again.

This is the twenty-third book in the ALICE series. Reading an ALICE book is like catching up with an old friend. I've been a loyal fan for several years and wait anxiously for the next book to come out each time! If you are a new reader to the series, it would be easy to start with this book and read the others in the future. ( )