Seventh grader Alice decides that the only way to stave off personal and social disasters is to be part of the crowd, especially the "in" crowd, no matter how boring and, potentially, difficult.
Alice fills the summer before her junior year of high school with a job at the mall, hanging out with her friends, and wishing she had a bigger family.
While planning a wedding as part of an assignment for her eighth-grade health class, Alice thinks about her father's and older brother's love lives and learns that you cannot prepare for all of life's decisions.
Eleven-year-old, motherless Alice decides she needs a gorgeous role model who does everything right; and when placed in homely Mrs. Plotkin's class she is greatly disappointed until she discovers it's what people are inside that counts.
Alice experiences a lot of changes during the summer of her freshman year when she gets to work as an assistant camp counselor for three weeks, and then returns home to find the orderly world she left behind in turmoil.
Fifth grade is tumultuous for Alice as she tries to help others through the many changes occurring at home and in school, including learning about sex when Rosalind gets her period and shares a book that explains what is happening.
In the second semester of her junior year of high school, Alice gets back together with her old boyfriend Patrick, gets a promotion on the student newspaper, and remains a reliable, trusted friend.
As Alice prepares to start her senior year in high school, she begins to wish she could go back to a simpler time, when she did not have to worry about sex, college, growing up, and grief.
As Alice prepares to start her senior year in high school, she begins to wish she could go back to a simpler time, when she did not have to worry about sex, college, growing up, and grief.
Seventh grader Alice decides that the only way to stave off personal and social disasters is to be part of the crowd, especially the "in" crowd, no matter how boring and, potentially, difficult.
