On the HahaFiction shelf
Alice, I Think
by Susan Juby
Fifteen-year-old Alice MacLeod has spent years being homeschooled. Now she and her new therapist draw up a list of goals that includes high school, a social life and a job. Finding a decent haircut in Smithers, British Columbia, proves a challenge of its own.
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What makes it funny?
Alice feels responsible for keeping her new counselor from falling apart, having already seen off his predecessor. Her parents’ approach to fitting in once involved sending her to school dressed as a hobbit, complete with furry toes.
The comedy at work
Alice records the failures of the adults around her with sharp certainty. Her journal gives her room to mock therapeutic jargon and parental advice, even as her own reinvention produces another embarrassment.
Try this if…
Readers who enjoy prickly teenage narrators and parents whose attempts to help make school life worse will find plenty to recognize here.
Good to know
Written as a teen diary with adult crossover appeal, it includes bullying and counseling. The UK edition is called I’m Alice, I Think.
A few distinguishing details
- A homeschooled teenager plans her return to school
- A patient trying to protect her counselor
More funny coming of age
Sources & further reading
- Publishers Weekly review
Review
- Author
Author commentary
- Publisher edition
Publisher
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