Alice In-between

In between, that's what Alice decides she is. During the spring of seventh grade and the summer that follows, she feels she is neither child nor woman, and waits, not so patiently, for beauty to blossom. As she turns 13 and her older brother, Lester, takes her out on the town, some almost grown-up things happen to her, but there are unexpected dangers attached. And a marvelous trip to Chicago with her best friends, Pamela and Elizabeth, proves that "in-between" may not be such a bad place to be after all, when Pamela, acting too old for her age, attracts some unwanted attention, and Elizabeth promptly goes into shock. And when Patrick comes back into Alice's life again, she realizes she doesn't have to rush things. Being 13 has its advantages, she decides. Taking the pencil test, buying a hermit crab, and taking part in long conversations about life and sex are all a part of her world now. Alice is glad that the first seven grades are over with and she's a teenager at last, but she's also happy she does not yet have to face some of the problems -- mostly with girls -- that her brother faces, or even her father. For anyone who is in-between (and who isn't?) "Alice in-Between" is a book to savor.