Alice, I Think

To all you offended homeschoolers - this is fiction! Relax. Sure the characters are quirky - they're supposed to be! Who would want to read a bland story about some well-adjusted kid who has 'normal' parents and a wonderful life where every moment is perfect and... dull? Susan Juby does a great job with this book. I laughed out loud many times. I never figured it was a preteen book - I found it in the young adult section and I didn't think the issues Alice pondered were anything unusual for a kid her age to be thinking about. This is based on having recently raised teenagers, myself. Kudos to Susan Juby.

I loved Alice, I Think. It isn't often (for me, anyway) that a book makes me laugh out loud, but this one did. Alice's quirky take on life, combined with her snarkiness, reminded me (in a good way) of Louise Rennison's Georgia from Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging--only Alice obviously has more fashion sense. Readers lacking in a sense of humor, stay away--Alice isn't the girl for you. But for the rest of us, Alice is a godsend. I can't wait for the sequel...and I'm hoping there will be many more to come.

This hilarious novel captures the essence of northern small-town life, filtered through the self-centered angst of its narrator, Alice McLeod, a fifteen-year-old misfit, returning to (alternative) school after a ten-year hiatus of home-schooling by her macramé-weaving, granola-eating mother. In preparation for her re-entry, Alice is receiving encouragement from a counselor (whom she dubs "Death Lord Bob" because of his appearance) at the "Teens in Transition (Not in Trouble) Center". The novel's plot revolves loosely around a "Life Goals List", but the story's real interest lies in Alice's off-centered insights, which, while exposing her own limitations, often provide profound observations on her wider-ranging social sphere. The object of most of her concern (documented in a diary format) is her family: her mother, an unregenerate product of the sixties; her father, an indigent writer of unpublished "bodice-rippers"; her fish-raising younger brother, whose unpretentious common sense serves for both Alice and the novel as a stable norm, in the vortex of eccentric characters that comprise Smithers, British Columbia, her home-town. This broader cast of quirky characters flesh out the daily dramas in which Alice finds herself, or tries to find herself.Juby's novel will have you laughing aloud at every page, but the humor is never simple-minded, and the laughter is often a little uneasy. For a Young Adult novel, "Alice, I Think" is refreshingly adult-not a book for mindless young readers with an appetite for pablum.

What a delightful read Susan Juby's book "Alice, I Think" is. Young readers will be able to identify but so will their parents. Susan has captured the somewhat difficult teenage years with a refreshing sense of humour. What a gifted writer to make us identify so strongly but want to laugh also and all without using foul language. I look forward to her next book. Edith MacKay, Smithers, B. C.

The whole time I was reading Susan Juby's Alice, I Think I was transported into a mind and life that was so compelling and funny I never wanted to stop. It was so true to my own experiences as a teenaged girl that I really identified with Alice, her screwy but lovable family, and the bizarre assortment of locals in Smithers, BC. I was so tired of reading all the usual books in the local and school libraries that I took a chance on this one, and I can't wait for more from Ms. Juby. I highly recommend this to readers of all ages as one of the funniest, most charming books you'll ever have the pleasure of experiencing.