Alice I Think ***+

I enjoyed this book. I was totally entertained and would not have guessed that a novel written for a young teenage girl audience would be so absolutely amusing.

It basically traces Alice MacLeod in her search for some kind of identity through the tribulations of “home schooling”, “being bullied”, “old fashioned ‘hippy’ parents, “first boy friend” “loss of first boy friend”, “alternative high school”, “neurotic counselors”, “first job and first being fired”, “driving without a license”, “the challenge of using makeup” but all of this clothed in the bigger issue of a teenager unrelenting search for a distinctive identity. The pursuit is described in a totally humorous style. The following quotes give a snapshot of the level of humor in the book, and there is much more when the description are contextualized.

It is refreshing to read a book that has a Canadian setting; this time it is Smithers, British Columbia with additional references to Prince George, Terrace and Ponoka.

Alice starts the narrative commenting on her initial experience in elementary school. As a result of being raised by parents who failed to prepare a person for real life and encouraged to be creative.

On starting school:

There is probably no worse thing to be in the first grade than a newcomer who thinks that she is a hobbit.

Don’t send your kids to school dressed like a character from a fantasy book unless that kid has a lot of friends who also dress like fantasy characters.

My parents looked around and realized that the home-schooled kids weren’t exactly what my dad called “Paragons of normalcy”. A disturbing number of them were still breast-feeding at an age when most kids were taking up smoking.

On her parents:

Although it seems to me that if ninety percent of the adults that I know, including my parents, don’t know what they want to be when they grow up, it’s a bit much to ask of me at the tender age of fifteen.

I once heard my Uncle Laird describe my dad’s life as being ‘a remarkable combination of obsessive busy work and near catatonic sloth.

Mom put a plate of her version of comfort food, whole-wheat macaroni and some kind of cheese substitute, just inside my door.

On her brother:

I think McGregor might be a genius. Anyone so oblivious to the horrors of the human world must be.

On reading literature:

I have begun reading “Fellowship of the Rings”…I’m on page two and really enjoying it.

I continue to make progress reading “The Fellowship of the Rings”. I’m on page five. I really understand why it’s such an important book. I can’t believe I didn’t read it sooner.

Her mother and the bully.

Linda kicked viciously until she knocked my mother down with her. They pummeled each other like a couple of kindergartners in a fight over who gets to eat the Play-Doh…

On using makeup

Mom’s makeup was extremely old and crusty. I wonder if it’s possible to get poisoned through your facial skin. I just hope I don’t get salmonella or something.

Grandma hardly puts makeup on, but when she does it looks like she’s been in Mr. Dressup’s Tickle Trunk. It seems the older people get the harder it is to put lipstick on between the lines – probably because the lines start going all over the place.

The author’s autobiography at the end of the book is a revealing, entertaining description, and the interview section is enlightening. The C.B.C. Television series “Alice, I Think” (2006) was based on this manuscript.

I do not know how to rate this book in terms of stars...it is a good entertaining read so would rate it highly, and at the same time, it is quite different than the other material because of the intended audience. In contrast, although both books are about teenagers, this book is as far from being different from "My Sisters Keeper" as can be imagined.