  | Now I'll tell you everything Author: Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds | |
| Price: $6.50 | ||
Summary:
As Alice McKinley begins a new phase as a student at the University of Maryland, College Park, she experiences many changes, both expected and surprising, that lead her into a future her seventh-grade self could only have imagined.
| Accelerated Reader Information: Interest Level: UG Reading Level: 5.70 Points: 20.0 Quiz: 168101 |
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (05/15/13)
School Library Journal (08/01/13)
Booklist (08/01/13)
The Hornbook (00/11/13)
Full Text Reviews:
School Library Journal - 08/01/2013 Gr 9 Up—This final book about the popular character begins with Alice McKinley heading off to college and continues up to her 60th birthday. Longtime readers of the series will enjoy following Alice; her older brother, Lester; and her lifelong friends Pamela, Elizabeth, and Gwen as they choose careers and life partners. Alice has two children who teach her a few things about what it must have been like to parent her when she was young. Naylor discusses controversial issues, especially those relating to sex, with an admirable frankness, but readers may find her stilted language and didacticism off-putting. Most of the earlier books cover a few months and, in cramming more than 40 years into this final entry, The author sacrifices some of the character and plot development that grounded her earlier works. Now I'll Tell You Everything can feel like an outline of itself, with sketchy details added in around major life milestones. Beautifully described moments-like Alice and her former classmates opening a time capsule compiled by their 12-year-old selves-pepper the novel, but unless readers have grown up loving Alice, there may not be enough to keep them reading.—Gesse Stark-Smith, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR - Copyright 2013 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
Booklist - 08/01/2013 Naylor has given fans a gift: the chance to see how life unfolds for a beloved character. This 500-page farewell is the twenty-eighth title of a series that began in 1985, and it opens when Alice is 18 and headed off to the University of Maryland. Alice remains “the practical, sometimes funny girl who never met a question she didn’t ask” throughout her life, as we follow her from college to marriage and babies, all the way up until the eve of her sixtieth birthday. Because Naylor is covering forty years here, the pace moves at quite a clip, particularly once Alice graduates from college. Obviously, teen readers will be most interested in those college and postcollege years and may find their interest waning as Alice deals with the challenges of middle age. Oh, and you’re probably wondering about Patrick, Alice’s boyfriend since the sixth grade (well, apart from that brief ninth-grade breakup). Do they end up together? Not telling. It’s a long good-bye, but devoted fans won’t want to miss it. - Copyright 2013 Booklist.
