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Everygirl: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Alice.

Article Excerpt
Life, as far as I could see, was going to be a sort of obstacle course, with detours, yield signs, stop signs, and cautions.

--Alice in Lace

For over twenty years, Alice McKinley, the protagonist of Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's twenty-plus book series, has been a trusted friend and guide to legions of girl readers. Starting with The Agony of Alice in 1985, Alice has been navigating life's obstacle course from sixth grade through high school (in 2007's Dangerously Alice, she's a junior). Focusing on Alice's social, sexual, and emotional development, Naylor takes advantage of the popular series format to let the narratives mature along with her heroine. While Alice's interests and problems change realistically along the way, she always offers honest and authentic observations about family and friends, school and boys, body image and self-perception, sexuality and values.

That's not to say Alice has all the answers. She'd be the first to admit she doesn't, and that's a big part of what makes her such a likable and easy-to-relate-to character. Where her best friends, Pamela and Elizabeth, are firmly entrenched in their positions (thrill-seeking risk taker and naive good Catholic girl, respectively), Alice doesn't approach life with ready solutions, sending girls a reassuring message that it's okay not to know everything. She's not shy about asking questions--which is a good thing, as some of her misconceptions (about, for example, bathroom etiquette on one's wedding night) are pretty funny. Realistically imperfect, Alice makes...

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