Simply Alice

We're starting to notice a pattern. In Alice Alone, ninth grader Alice gradually becomes too busy to see much of her boyfriend. Now, in Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's next installment in the Alice series, Alice and Patrick have broken up, and our heroine decides to throw herself into new activities to drown her sorrows. And suddenly, best friends Elizabeth and Pamela are starting to feel the dearth of Alice, too. After all the girls have been through together (The Grooming of Alice, Alice on the Outside, etc.), can they maneuver this latest bump on the road through adolescence?

Starting out with the most embarrassing high-school situation imaginable (no, really!), and wending its way through various family crises and side plots, Simply Alice reveals a newly single, steadily stronger heroine experiencing all the bittersweet turmoil of high school. But will she be single forever? Don't count on it. Romance lurks, as Alice fields e-mails from a secret admirer. Friends of Alice, old and new, will be simply delighted. (Ages 12 to 15) --Emilie Coulter