kricketa's review against another edition
4.0
even though i grew up with the alice mckinley series, this is the first time i read the first prequel: alice in 3rd grade. it was adorable! naylor's characterization of a younger alice is spot-on.
bondtsou1's review
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
missprint_'s review against another edition
3.0
You could say that Alice McKinley (not to be confused with Alice MacLeod) has a bit of a cult following at my current place of employ. So maybe it was just a matter of time before I too got sucked in.
A word on the series before I start the review: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor began the Alice series with "The Agonies of Alice" in 1985. In that book Alice is 11 and starting sixth grade. She has just moved and started at a new school. Since then, Naylor has been writing a new Alice book approximately every year which certain librarians have pointed out has strong addictive qualities. Until about 2002, the books ran linearly. Then Naylor did something different, she wrote three prequel novels talking about Alice as a third, fourth, and fifth grader weaving in stories that Alice had previously reflected on in other books in the series. "Starting With Alice" is the first of these prequels (followed by "Alice in Blunderland" and "Lovingly Alice"). I like to read linearly whenever possible so, after reading "The Agony of Alice" and finding out about these prequels I decided to read the series straight through in terms of Alice's age instead of publication date (the series is supposed to end when Alice turns 18 and is already well-grounded in the Young Adult genre at this point).
Now that that's settled, let's talk about the actual book.
Alice, her father, and her older brother have just moved into a new house. Alice's first friend on the block is Donald Sheavers, her weird neighbor. Along the way, Alice makes other, less weird, friends. And also attracts some unwanted attention from one of the street patrol girls. It's not always easy being Alice. I can't say much more about the story without revealing everything. This book is more about Alice's day-to-day life as she tries to fit in and make friends than about any huge event.
Alice narrates in the first person. As a result, the novel is conversational and pretty mellow. Alice is a cool girl, even though she doesn't think so, and her narration is endearing. Naylor strikes the perfect balance here. Alice's voice is consistent with her debut novel, but she does sound younger--without being annonyingly young.
Alice also demonstrates that, although she's only eight, it's never to early to develop a strong character. In the novel Alice makes new friends and stands up to bullies among her other wonderfully positive characteristics. I don't know that children read books about children in search of role models, but if they do "Starting With Alice" definitely offers up a good one.
In terms of when to read this book, I think it would work either way. I enjoyed reading it already knowing about Donald Sheavers and an unfortunate poem written to the milkman. But readers could definitely read this without knowing anything about Alice and enjoy it just as much.
You can find this review and more on my blog Miss Print
A word on the series before I start the review: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor began the Alice series with "The Agonies of Alice" in 1985. In that book Alice is 11 and starting sixth grade. She has just moved and started at a new school. Since then, Naylor has been writing a new Alice book approximately every year which certain librarians have pointed out has strong addictive qualities. Until about 2002, the books ran linearly. Then Naylor did something different, she wrote three prequel novels talking about Alice as a third, fourth, and fifth grader weaving in stories that Alice had previously reflected on in other books in the series. "Starting With Alice" is the first of these prequels (followed by "Alice in Blunderland" and "Lovingly Alice"). I like to read linearly whenever possible so, after reading "The Agony of Alice" and finding out about these prequels I decided to read the series straight through in terms of Alice's age instead of publication date (the series is supposed to end when Alice turns 18 and is already well-grounded in the Young Adult genre at this point).
Now that that's settled, let's talk about the actual book.
Alice, her father, and her older brother have just moved into a new house. Alice's first friend on the block is Donald Sheavers, her weird neighbor. Along the way, Alice makes other, less weird, friends. And also attracts some unwanted attention from one of the street patrol girls. It's not always easy being Alice. I can't say much more about the story without revealing everything. This book is more about Alice's day-to-day life as she tries to fit in and make friends than about any huge event.
Alice narrates in the first person. As a result, the novel is conversational and pretty mellow. Alice is a cool girl, even though she doesn't think so, and her narration is endearing. Naylor strikes the perfect balance here. Alice's voice is consistent with her debut novel, but she does sound younger--without being annonyingly young.
Alice also demonstrates that, although she's only eight, it's never to early to develop a strong character. In the novel Alice makes new friends and stands up to bullies among her other wonderfully positive characteristics. I don't know that children read books about children in search of role models, but if they do "Starting With Alice" definitely offers up a good one.
In terms of when to read this book, I think it would work either way. I enjoyed reading it already knowing about Donald Sheavers and an unfortunate poem written to the milkman. But readers could definitely read this without knowing anything about Alice and enjoy it just as much.
You can find this review and more on my blog Miss Print
katrinky's review against another edition
4.0
Sweet little proto-feminist Alice, eight years old, clever, confident in a bone-deep, even-though-embarrassing-things-happen way that is SO RARE in young female characters. Lives with her single dad and brother in takoma park, Maryland, after moving from the Midwest following her mom's death. I can't wait to dive into this series.
Likes:
Puzzles
Anything with chocolate
Macaroni and cheese
My cat (oatmeal)
Dislikes:
Terrible triplets
People dying
War
Maps of the united states
Gas station rest rooms
Likes:
Puzzles
Anything with chocolate
Macaroni and cheese
My cat (oatmeal)
Dislikes:
Terrible triplets
People dying
War
Maps of the united states
Gas station rest rooms
stephann_4's review
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
clairetison29's review against another edition
Decided to reread this series because I loved it as a kid. This book is just as good as I remembered!
cetison's review against another edition
Decided to reread this series because I loved it as a kid. This book is just as good as I remembered!
lemonysnicket's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
I love the Alice books so much, they're funny and touch on a wide variety of topics.
finesilkflower's review against another edition
3.0
Look: [b:The Agony of Alice|66929|The Agony of Alice (Alice, #1)|Phyllis Reynolds Naylor|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386924191l/66929._SY75_.jpg|550624], the first Alice book written, is a better start to this series, although it occurs later (Alice's sixth-grade year, vs. her third-grade year in this prequel). It's one of the best-written of the series, and with its gentle story about Alice's learning to love her teacher, it engages more with the serieswide theme of mother substitutes. But this prequel isn't bad. Alice is believably eight, yet also recognizably herself; thoughtful, curious, and highly sensitive to embarrassment.
The theme of this book is friendship. We open with Alice friendless, having just moved to Takoma Park, Maryland, from Chicago. (This echoes Agony, which opens with her subsequent move to Silver Spring.) She feels especially jealous and isolated by the "Terrible Triplets," a set of 3 best friends who seem to delight in excluding her. Gradually, over the course of the book, she moves from a loneliness to friend-abundance, making friends with Donald Sheavers next door, mischievous Rosalind Rodriquez, imaginative Sara Evans, and even making peace with the Triplets.
This was released in 2002, around the middle of the Alice series, the same year as [b:Simply Alice|563485|Simply Alice (Alice, #14)|Phyllis Reynolds Naylor|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1392337178l/563485._SY75_.jpg|64893] (Alice's ninth-grade year). The writing is better than Simply, though not as good as the earlier middle school books. I think this is about when PRN started to really miss "young Alice," and you can see that she's channeling the quirky child antics into the prequels as the main chronology gets more dull-yet-Very-Special-Episode-y.
Content Warnings: g***y slur (in reference to a Halloween costume), violence against Barbie and playground kissing games with consent issues (see below).
Stray Observations
* I can see why friendship is the theme of this book - it's a good theme for a book about third-graders -- but having this whole prequel arc about Alice's elementary school social life does raise the question of why Alice didn't think about (or apparently care about leaving) these friends when she moves house the beginning of Agony. Takoma Park and Silver Spring are something like 2 miles apart, but they might as well be across the state for all Alice ever sees her old friends again. (You can tell when these were written vis a vis the mainline series because in [b:Including Alice|66905|Including Alice (Alice, #16)|Phyllis Reynolds Naylor|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386922292l/66905._SY75_.jpg|2980834] (2004), Alice suddenly gets back in touch with Rosalind, who she apparently forgot about between sixth and tenth grades. PRN lampshades it nicely by timing it along with Rosalind getting her license, a time when her world would open up.)
* I hate the first chapter of this book, which in which Alice "learns to hate Barbie" because Lester mocks Barbie's proportions (mockery which PRN apparently endorses, or at least doesn't contradict in the narrative, except possibly in the voice of Ben who objects to enacting violence on Barbie for pacifist reasons). It's like those people who try to correct for fat-shaming by skinny-shaming. (Come to think of it, Crystal does this exact thing in a later book, and it also passed unremarked on/tacitly endorsed by the narrative.) It is an attempt, I think, to be feminist and empowering, but it just comes across both heavy-handed and short-sighted, with all the limitations and edge of meanness that can come with second-wave feminism. Aside from that, this chapter has nothing to do with anything else in the book or the series. It is, I think, a horrible opener to the series.
* The other horrible scene in this book is when Alice runs away from a boy who was dared to kiss her, and Lester advises her that "the only way to stop him is to kiss him first," so Alice grits her teeth and does it. Again, I do understand that this is meant to be empowering, and it is true that children that age often experiment with intimidation but who is intimidating who can be malleable. (Just look at the game Tag.) But the fact that this takes the form of kissing just makes it so icky to me. The lesson is basically that if you don't want to be kissed or touched in a certain way, tough, the only way out is through. It's just a completely antithetical to the idea of consent and gives me the willies.
* Timeline is always weird in Alice books, because it's the eternal present (i.e. whatever year PRN wrote the book in), even though the books come out more slowly than Alice ages. So, she's 11 in 1985 in the first book, but by the time she's 15 in the series, it's 2002. The prequels add a whole other dimension, since it is now 2002 while Alice is a third-grader. Somehow I could deal with Alice aging slowly through time, but my mind absolutely melts when I try to reconcile her being younger in 2002 than she was in 1985. Luckily, there aren't too many specific temporal markers, so you can sort of pretend it's any year you like, but my brain shut down when I read that Lester had an iPod.
* Several things happen in this book largely because they were mentioned in future books. One is Alice and her family going to visit Ben's family for her uncle's wedding, and then the newlywed uncle dies of a heart attack two days later and they have to turn around and go back for the funeral. When Alice mentions this matter-of-factly in Agony, it seems like a darkly humorous story, but actually watching the family go through it is so sad.
* Another thing that was mentioned in Agony is Alice writing a poem to the milkman. This is also funnier in Agony, but it's fine here, though the fact that they even had a milkman (albeit one who is retiring) puts the whole issue of timing in stark relief. Is there ANY period in human history where both iPods and milkmen co-existed?
* I'm a little uneasy about Alice and Rosalind throwing a "shampoo party" and playing at having an ultrapolite tea party in order to gently fix up their new friend, Sara, who is a nice person but is unpopular because she has dirty hair and chews with her mouth open. Their ideas are inventive and face-saving, and in the book, they work, but I can't help but feel an edge of Pygmalion to the whole thing. It feels paternalistic.
* Is taking baths together for fun something eight-year-old girls really do?
* I like that Alice's break into the Triplets comes from her asking one of them for help, instead of helping.
* Alice is quite likeable in this book. Honestly, throughout the series, she shines when she is making new friends (as she also does in Simply and in [b:Alice on the Outside|66900|Alice on the Outside (Alice, #11)|Phyllis Reynolds Naylor|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388465981l/66900._SY75_.jpg|64867]). She is kind and generally nonjudgmental, just interested in people, and willing to see beyond first impressions. I wish the series had made more of an effort to have her grow into different friend groups, rather than sticking with the same crew for 6th grade through retirement. Also, tbh, I just like Alice's Takoma Park friends better than her Silver Spring friends. Elizabeth and Pamela seem like real downgrades from Rosalind and Sara.
The theme of this book is friendship. We open with Alice friendless, having just moved to Takoma Park, Maryland, from Chicago. (This echoes Agony, which opens with her subsequent move to Silver Spring.) She feels especially jealous and isolated by the "Terrible Triplets," a set of 3 best friends who seem to delight in excluding her. Gradually, over the course of the book, she moves from a loneliness to friend-abundance, making friends with Donald Sheavers next door, mischievous Rosalind Rodriquez, imaginative Sara Evans, and even making peace with the Triplets.
This was released in 2002, around the middle of the Alice series, the same year as [b:Simply Alice|563485|Simply Alice (Alice, #14)|Phyllis Reynolds Naylor|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1392337178l/563485._SY75_.jpg|64893] (Alice's ninth-grade year). The writing is better than Simply, though not as good as the earlier middle school books. I think this is about when PRN started to really miss "young Alice," and you can see that she's channeling the quirky child antics into the prequels as the main chronology gets more dull-yet-Very-Special-Episode-y.
Content Warnings: g***y slur (in reference to a Halloween costume), violence against Barbie and playground kissing games with consent issues (see below).
Stray Observations
* I can see why friendship is the theme of this book - it's a good theme for a book about third-graders -- but having this whole prequel arc about Alice's elementary school social life does raise the question of why Alice didn't think about (or apparently care about leaving) these friends when she moves house the beginning of Agony. Takoma Park and Silver Spring are something like 2 miles apart, but they might as well be across the state for all Alice ever sees her old friends again. (You can tell when these were written vis a vis the mainline series because in [b:Including Alice|66905|Including Alice (Alice, #16)|Phyllis Reynolds Naylor|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386922292l/66905._SY75_.jpg|2980834] (2004), Alice suddenly gets back in touch with Rosalind, who she apparently forgot about between sixth and tenth grades. PRN lampshades it nicely by timing it along with Rosalind getting her license, a time when her world would open up.)
* I hate the first chapter of this book, which in which Alice "learns to hate Barbie" because Lester mocks Barbie's proportions (mockery which PRN apparently endorses, or at least doesn't contradict in the narrative, except possibly in the voice of Ben who objects to enacting violence on Barbie for pacifist reasons). It's like those people who try to correct for fat-shaming by skinny-shaming. (Come to think of it, Crystal does this exact thing in a later book, and it also passed unremarked on/tacitly endorsed by the narrative.) It is an attempt, I think, to be feminist and empowering, but it just comes across both heavy-handed and short-sighted, with all the limitations and edge of meanness that can come with second-wave feminism. Aside from that, this chapter has nothing to do with anything else in the book or the series. It is, I think, a horrible opener to the series.
* The other horrible scene in this book is when Alice runs away from a boy who was dared to kiss her, and Lester advises her that "the only way to stop him is to kiss him first," so Alice grits her teeth and does it. Again, I do understand that this is meant to be empowering, and it is true that children that age often experiment with intimidation but who is intimidating who can be malleable. (Just look at the game Tag.) But the fact that this takes the form of kissing just makes it so icky to me. The lesson is basically that if you don't want to be kissed or touched in a certain way, tough, the only way out is through. It's just a completely antithetical to the idea of consent and gives me the willies.
* Timeline is always weird in Alice books, because it's the eternal present (i.e. whatever year PRN wrote the book in), even though the books come out more slowly than Alice ages. So, she's 11 in 1985 in the first book, but by the time she's 15 in the series, it's 2002. The prequels add a whole other dimension, since it is now 2002 while Alice is a third-grader. Somehow I could deal with Alice aging slowly through time, but my mind absolutely melts when I try to reconcile her being younger in 2002 than she was in 1985. Luckily, there aren't too many specific temporal markers, so you can sort of pretend it's any year you like, but my brain shut down when I read that Lester had an iPod.
* Several things happen in this book largely because they were mentioned in future books. One is Alice and her family going to visit Ben's family for her uncle's wedding, and then the newlywed uncle dies of a heart attack two days later and they have to turn around and go back for the funeral. When Alice mentions this matter-of-factly in Agony, it seems like a darkly humorous story, but actually watching the family go through it is so sad.
* Another thing that was mentioned in Agony is Alice writing a poem to the milkman. This is also funnier in Agony, but it's fine here, though the fact that they even had a milkman (albeit one who is retiring) puts the whole issue of timing in stark relief. Is there ANY period in human history where both iPods and milkmen co-existed?
* I'm a little uneasy about Alice and Rosalind throwing a "shampoo party" and playing at having an ultrapolite tea party in order to gently fix up their new friend, Sara, who is a nice person but is unpopular because she has dirty hair and chews with her mouth open. Their ideas are inventive and face-saving, and in the book, they work, but I can't help but feel an edge of Pygmalion to the whole thing. It feels paternalistic.
* Is taking baths together for fun something eight-year-old girls really do?
* I like that Alice's break into the Triplets comes from her asking one of them for help, instead of helping.
* Alice is quite likeable in this book. Honestly, throughout the series, she shines when she is making new friends (as she also does in Simply and in [b:Alice on the Outside|66900|Alice on the Outside (Alice, #11)|Phyllis Reynolds Naylor|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388465981l/66900._SY75_.jpg|64867]). She is kind and generally nonjudgmental, just interested in people, and willing to see beyond first impressions. I wish the series had made more of an effort to have her grow into different friend groups, rather than sticking with the same crew for 6th grade through retirement. Also, tbh, I just like Alice's Takoma Park friends better than her Silver Spring friends. Elizabeth and Pamela seem like real downgrades from Rosalind and Sara.