Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Alice in the Know
    Alice in the Know
    Alice in the Know
    Ebook260 pages3 hours

    Alice in the Know

    By Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    It’s the summer before junior year, and Alice is looking forward to three months of excitement, passion, and drama. But what does she find? A summer working in a local department store, trying to stop shoplifters, and more “real life” problems than she could have ever imagined: A good friend becomes seriously ill, Lester has more romance problems than even Alice knows what to do with, and the gang from Mark Stedmeister’s pool is starting to grow up a bit faster than Alice is comfortable with….Fortunately for Alice her family and friends are with her through it all, and by the end of the summer, Alice finds she knows a whole lot more than she had in June.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAtheneum Books for Young Readers
    Release dateJun 19, 2012
    ISBN9781439115503
    Alice in the Know
    Author

    Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

    Phyllis Reynolds Naylor has written more than 135 books, including the Newbery Award–winning Shiloh and its sequels, the Alice series, Roxie and the Hooligans, and Roxie and the Hooligans at Buzzard’s Roost. She lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland. To hear from Phyllis and find out more about Alice, visit AliceMcKinley.com.

    Read more from Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

    Related to Alice in the Know

    Titles in the series (28)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    YA Social Themes For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A Puzzle Of Nostalgia

      Aug 26, 2022

      A Puzzle Of Nostalgia
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ita “Believe In Yourself ”

      Jun 15, 2022

      Ita “Believe In Yourself ”
      12 min read

    • Article

      Little House

      Jun 5, 2023

      On Monday nights our mother made popcorn and served it to us in mugs with milk poured over. My younger sister and I carried our mugs into the family room and ate the popcorn with spoons, like cereal. We were five and seven. Until we were allowed to s

      21 min read

    • Article

      BITS & PIECES

      Apr 2, 2024

      On cold, gray Saturdays when I was 11 years old, I often would go to the local “picture show” at the local theater. The movies were always cowboy shows, and you could pay for a ticket and stay to watch it over and over. Well, on one particular Saturd

      4 min read

    • Article

      Now Is the Time

      Nov 24, 2020

      Now Is the Time
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Stuff Of Happiness

      Feb 26, 2020

      Growing up, I didn’t have much, so I remember all of it. And that may be a promise of future joy in my life.

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Letter Box

      Feb 1, 2023

      Dear Everybuggy, This is my first time writing to the Letterbox, and I think it is going to be great! I love reading, and some of my favorite books include Blended, Out of My Mind, and Out of My Heart by Sharon M. Draper. I also like horseback riding

      7 min read

    • Article

      Class ACT

      Mar 18, 2020

      Class ACT
      6 min read

    • Article

      Isla No Place Like Home

      Nov 2, 2022

      Isla No Place Like Home
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Letterbox

      Mar 1, 2020

      Dear Cricket, Hello! I absolutely love the one and only Cricket magazine. My little sister gets them, and I like to read them to her. I’ve always wanted to publish a story in your magazine, but my older sister (I have six) says I’d have to be older.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Isla No Place Like Home

      Nov 2, 2022

      Isla No Place Like Home
      10 min read

    • Article

      Birthday Party With Spider And The Gang

      Jan 1, 2024

      Birthday Party With Spider And The Gang
      6 min read

    • Article

      “I Was Insatiable!”

      Sep 19, 2019

      “I Was Insatiable!”
      10 min read

    • Article

      Class Act

      Oct 27, 2020

      Class Act
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Class ACT

      Dec 29, 2020

      A Class ACT
      6 min read

    • Article

      Nancy Sinatra

      Feb 8, 2021

      Nancy Sinatra
      5 min read

    • Article

      Anything Goes For Me And My Chums

      Aug 25, 2021

      In my neck of the woods, it’s back to normal. How’s it with you? On the bus and the London Underground, I am still wearing a mask, but other than that, everything is much as it was before the pandemic struck – except that my office-worker friends rea

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Last Waylon Party

      Jan 18, 2019

      The Last Waylon Party
      14 min read

    • Article

      The Letterbox

      Apr 1, 2024

      Hi, Everybuggy!I’ve been getting Cricket for two years now and I love it. I’m a major bookworm, and some of my favorite books are The School for Good and Evil, The Hunger Games, and all the books by Judy Blume and Raina Telgemeier. Does anyone else l

      7 min read

    • Article

      Lineal Gaps

      Apr 6, 2021

      Lineal Gaps
      15 min read

    • Article

      In the Grass

      Jun 3, 2019

      In the Grass
      23 min read

    • Article

      Diamonds

      Jun 4, 2018

      Diamonds
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Letterbox

      May 1, 2019

      Dear Everybuggy, Last time I wrote to you, I lived in North Carolina, but we have moved. We live in Virginia now. I love Cricket! I like space. I’m homeschooled and like to look at our map. I’ve discovered towns like Philadelphia in Mississippi! Phil

      7 min read

    • Article

      Alan Cumming

      Nov 1, 2021

      Alan Cumming
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Alice in the Know

    5/5

    4 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      During the summer before her Junior year in high school, Alice learns that a friend is suffering from leukemia, goes to the beach with Pamela and Elizabeth, watches as Lester is rejected by the woman he loves, and has her first job away from the Melody Inn, where her father is her boss. This is one of the entries in the series that follows a variety of sub-plots without a major focus.

    Book preview

    Alice in the Know - Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

    Bummer Summer

    It’s the summer before junior year, and Alice is looking forward to three months of fun, excitement, and good times with her friends. Instead, she finds herself with a boring job at the mall and more real-life problems than she could have imagined. Lester’s romance with the woman of his dreams ends unhappily, a good friend is battling cancer, and the gang at Mark Stedmaster’s pool is into some stuff that’s more than Alice wants to deal with. It’s certainly not the summer Alice fantasized about, but she learns a lot along the way.

    Here’s what fans write Phyllis Reynolds Naylor about Alice:

    * "Please, please, please, I’m begging,

    never EVER stop writing them!" —Ellie

    * "My family thought I was rather insane because

    I was laughing so hard." —thesoundofair

    * Taken from actual postings on the Alice website.

    Share the ups and downs in the lives of Alice McKinley and her friends.

    picture

    Look inside for a complete list of the Alice books.

    picture SIMON PULSE

    Simon & Schuster, New York

    Cover photograph copyright © 2007

    by Johnathan Smith/Cordaiy Photo

    Library Ltd/Corbis

    www.SimonSchuster.com

    0907

    Alice in the Know

    Books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

    Shiloh Books

    Shiloh

    Shiloh Season

    Saving Shiloh

    The Alice Books

    Starting with Alice

    Alice in Blunderland

    Lovingly Alice

    The Agony of Alice

    Alice in Rapture, Sort Of

    Reluctantly Alice

    All But Alice

    Alice in April

    Alice ln-Between

    Alice the Brave

    Alice in Lace

    Outrageously Alice

    Achingly Alice

    Alice on the Outside

    The Grooming of Alice

    Alice Alone

    Simply Alice

    Patiently Alice

    Including Alice

    Alice on Her Way

    Alice in the Know

    Dangerously Alice

    The Bernie Magruder Books

    Bernie Magruder and the Case of the Big Stink

    Bernie Magruder and the Disappearing Bodies

    Bernie Magruder and the Haunted Hotel

    Bernie Magruder and the Drive-thru Funeral Parlor

    Bernie Magruder and the Bus Station Blowup

    Bernie Magruder and the Pirate’s Treasure

    Bernie Magruder and the Parachute Peril

    Bernie Magruder and the Bats in the Belfry

    The Cat Pack Books

    The Grand Escape

    The Healing of Texas Jake

    Carlotta’s Kittens

    Polo’s Mother

    The York Trilogy

    Shadows on the Wall

    Faces in the Water

    Footprints at the Window

    The Witch Books

    Witch’s Sister

    Witch Water

    The Witch Herself

    The Witch’s Eye

    Witch Weed

    The Witch Returns

    Picture Books

    King of the Playground

    The Boy with the Helium Head

    Old Sadie and the Christmas Bear

    Keeping a Christmas Secret

    Ducks Disappearing

    I Can’t Take You Anywhere

    Sweet Strawberries

    Please DO Feed the Bears

    Books for Young Readers

    Josie’s Troubles

    How Lazy Can You Get?

    All Because I’m Older

    Maudie in the Middle

    One of the Third-Grade Thonkers

    Roxie and the Hooligans

    Books for Middle Readers

    Walking Through the Dark

    How I Came to Be a Writer

    Eddie, Incorporated

    The Solomon System

    The Keeper

    Beetles, Lightly Toasted

    The Fear Place

    Being Danny’s Dog

    Danny’s Desert Rats

    Walker’s Crossing

    Roxie and the Hooligans

    Books for Older Readers

    A String of Chances

    Night Cry

    The Dark of the Tunnel

    The Year of the Gopher

    Send No Blessings

    Ice

    Sang Spell

    Jade Green

    Blizzard’s Wake

    Title

    This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

    SIMON PULSE

    An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

    1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

    www.SimonandSchuster.com

    Copyright © 2006 by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

    All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction

    in whole or in part in any form.

    SIMON PULSE and colophon are registered trademarks

    of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

    Also available in an Atheneum Books for Young Readers hardcover edition.

    Designed by Ann Zeak

    The text of this book was set in Berkeley Old Style.

    The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

    Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds.

    Alice in the know / Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.—1st ed.

    p. cm.

    Summary: Alice fills the summer before her junior year of high school

    with a job at the mall, hanging out with her friends,

    and wishing she had a bigger family.

    ISBN-13: 978-0-689-87092-7 (hc)

    ISBN-10: 0-689-87092-2 (hc)

    (1. Family life—Maryland—Fiction. 2. Stories, Retail—Fiction.

    3. Friendship—Fiction. 4. Maryland—Fiction.] I. Title.

    PZ7.N39689Ali 2006

    [Fic]—dc22

    2005020514

    ISBN-13: 978-0-689-87093-4 (pbk)

    ISBN-10: 0-689-87093-0 (pbk)

    ISBN: 978-1-4391-1550-3(eBook)

    To my granddaughter Sophia, with love

    Contents

    Chapter One: Hired

    Chapter Two: Dinner for Three

    Chapter Three: Busted

    Chapter Four: Extreme Mortification

    Chapter Five: Facing Up

    Chapter Six: Planning

    Chapter Seven: What Happened on Wednesday

    Chapter Eight: Utter Humiliation

    Chapter Nine: Talk

    Chapter Ten: Families

    Chapter Eleven: Sad

    Chapter Twelve: Sun and Sand

    Chapter Thirteen: Lost

    Chapter Fourteen: Living Dangerously

    Chapter Fifteen: Songs with Aunt Sally

    Chapter Sixteen: Junior Year

    Chapter Seventeen: Party

    Chapter Eighteen: And Life Goes On

    Alice in the Know

    1

    picture

    Hired

    My knees were red from kneeling at my bedroom window, but I was obsessed. Elizabeth’s family was having a reunion, and I couldn’t stop watching.

    For three days there had been a half dozen cars parked across the street. Relatives spilled onto the porch and steps, playing croquet in the side yard and badminton out front. A boy about twelve started a water fight with the hose, and all the cousins joined in, grandparents cheering them on from the porch.

    I’d watched one of the uncles swing Liz’s little brother around by his ankles. I’d seen an aunt braiding a new twist in Elizabeth’s hair. Liz whispering to cousins under the linden tree at the curb. And I’d wanted it to be me surrounded by relatives. Me laughing and teasing and sharing secrets.

    My mother’s closest relatives were in Chicago. Dad’s were in Nashville, and Sylvia’s were out west. All over the map, that’s what we were—spread so far apart, we rarely saw each other. How sad is that?

    Look what I’ve been missing, I thought, as Liz hugged everyone good-bye and people packed up to go home. I would have loved to have a gang of cousins to hang out with—more siblings, at the very least.

    Why couldn’t you have been triplets? I groused to Les when I finally went downstairs. Les doesn’t live here anymore, but he stops by for dinner whenever he can.

    What? said Les. Can’t get enough of me, huh?

    We’d had a barbecue out back the day before, and I’d gone with Dad and Sylvia to watch fireworks at the Mall. I’d liked sitting there on the blanket between them, enjoying the July night, the Washington Monument lit with flood lamps against the dark sky. But Liz, I knew, was there in the crowd with several dozen relatives, and I felt a little cheated that the rest of the people I love—my people, I mean—lived so far away

    Grow up, I told myself. Dad and Lester had done their best to raise me, and now I had Sylvia to fill in for the mom I’d lost. I thought of the way Les and Dad and I used to cook dinner together; of Dad and Les teaching me to drive; of Sylvia helping me buy a dress and Dad letting me work for him during the summer. Small family or not, they were always there for me. So when I walked into the kitchen for supper, I said, I just want to thank you, Dad, for letting me work at the Melody Inn. It sure saves a lot of hassle.

    Dad smiled at me and stabbed a chunk of melon. You’re welcome, he said. But you know . . . I’ve been thinking . . . it would be good for you to work someplace else for the rest of the summer if you can find something.

    What? I choked.

    March to a different drummer, he said.

    I could only stare. Dad is manager of the music store over on Georgia Avenue, and I’d been working there part-time ever since we moved to Silver Spring.

    You mean . . . I’m being fired? I cried.

    Of course not. We could still use you some Saturdays and sale days if you’re free, but it might do you good to work for someone else for a change.

    "Why? Haven’t I been doing a good job? I’d been running the little Gift Shoppe there at the store all by myself on Saturdays. It’s the counter under the stairs to the second floor where we sell all kinds of musical stuff—Mozart mugs and Chopin scarves plus jewelry with a musical motif. I knew the merchandise! I could handle the cash register! Are you hiring somebody new?" I asked.

    Yeah, Al, Les cut in. He’s outsourcing your job. Someone over in India’s going to be running the Gift Shoppe on eBay.

    What? I screeched.

    He’s kidding, said Dad. But you can’t see what the rest of the world is like if you spend your spare time working for me.

    If you want me to see what the rest of the world’s like, Dad, send me to Paris! I said. Let me work at a sidewalk café! Let me work at a bookstore in London!

    Dad smiled. No such luck. But if you can find a job somewhere else this summer, go for it.

    "Dad, it’s July!" I protested.

    Yeah, it’s a little late for that, said Lester. She should have started looking in March.

    I realize that, said Dad. If nothing turns up, you still have your job at the Melody Inn. But if you do find something, it won’t be hard to get someone to take your place at the store.

    Thanks a lot! I said, and glared down at the potato salad on my plate. The good jobs were already taken! Pamela was working at Burger King; Liz was helping out at a day camp; Patrick was doing grunt work for a landscaper; and all my other friends had found jobs at Montgomery Doughnuts or Sears or the Autoclean or something.

    It was Gwen who had the choicest job of all, and she wasn’t even getting paid: She was working as a student intern for a new program at NIH—the National Institutes of Health—a one-of-a-kind job due to her grades and her interest in biology. There was no way in the world I could do something like that.

    After dinner I called everyone I could think of and asked if they knew of any job openings where they worked. Zero, zip, zilch. It was turning out to be the Horrible Summer of My Sixteenth Year. Little did I know that: (1) it would be a far worse summer for someone else; (2) there would be two trips coming up—one happy, one sad; and (3) I would come to hate Brian Brewster with every cell of my body.

    Partly because I was angry at Dad for even suggesting I get another job so late in the summer, and partly because I was sort of excited that he had, I got up early that Saturday, put on my best stretch top and chinos and a pair of string sandals, and drove to Wheaton Plaza. Scary as it was, there were sixty or more stores with dozens of possibilities. My new boss could be in his late twenties and single; I could be helping customers select from the latest novels; maybe I’d be working in a jewelry store with a uniformed cop at the door; or I could be dressing mannequins in a store window. Suddenly almost anything seemed more exciting and glamorous than selling underwear with BEETHOVEN printed on the seat of the pants.

    I decided to start at one end of the mall and fill out an application at every store I’d consider working in—twenty, at least. Part of me wanted about twenty rejections to throw in Dad’s face; the other part wanted to get hired and earn a lot more than he’d been paying me. What I really wanted, I guess, was to have enough money to pay for my own car insurance and gas and oil, so I could persuade Dad to buy me a used car for my junior year.

    The first store wouldn’t even give me an application. Full up, the manager said. Sorry.

    Come by around April of next year, a woman at The Limited said. We won’t be hiring again till spring.

    You can fill out an application if you like, but we’re not hiring, said a third.

    This was such a waste! Dad just comes up with these ideas about what will be good for me without any consideration for what I feel about it. Like that sex education class at church, even though I ended up liking it. But this string of refusals wasn’t just a waste of time; it was an embarrassment.

    How dumb can she be? the managers must have been thinking, my applying in July. I could hear a couple of clerks laughing when I left a store. No way was I going to go through this twenty times. I decided to pick a couple more places and then go home and tell Dad to forget it. You just don’t give an employee one day’s notice to find another job when she hasn’t done anything wrong. I had a notion to demand two weeks’ severance pay and then quit my job. If Dad was going to be my employer, he’d have to act like one. I’d tell him that.

    I took the escalator up to the employment office at Hecht’s and began filling out an application. I’d completed about three fourths of the page when I became conscious of a woman in a gray suit passing through the room and stopping behind me to look over my shoulder. I could feel my cheeks start to redden, sure I must have misspelled a word.

    When can you start? I heard her say.

    I turned and saw a Hecht’s name tag on her jacket. Excuse me? I said.

    She reached for my application and gave it the once-over. Are you willing to do rack work? she asked. We need someone to free up our salesclerks so they don’t have to spend so much time clearing out the fitting rooms. When are you available?

    Uh . . . anytime, really, I said.

    Now?

    I swallowed. Well . . . yes! But I need to call my stepmom first. I’ve got her car.

    Will transportation be a problem? she asked.

    No. I can always take a bus.

    Okay. Finish filling out the form and then meet me in the women’s department. That’s the section downstairs for extra-large sizes, she said. They’re having a big sale, and the fitting rooms are piled high with clothes that need to go back on hangers. You’ll be a floater. We’ll use you in whatever department you’re needed. Lauren! she called to a woman behind a desk. She needs to call home, then have someone bring her to the women’s department. She shook my hand, and I read JENNIFER MARTIN on her name tag. I hope things work out, Alice, she said.

    Thank you, Miss Martin, I said excitedly. I do too! I couldn’t believe it! Hecht’s! The biggest store in the mall. I suddenly wasn’t angry at Dad anymore and called Sylvia to tell her what happened.

    Really? she said. That’s wonderful! How long will you be there?

    I don’t know. I didn’t ask, I told her. Do you need the car?

    Not till tomorrow.

    Thanks. I’ll take the bus most days. I’m really psyched! I said.

    I realized when I got to the women’s department that the supervisor in the gray suit would probably have hired anyone who had been filling out an application that morning, because the place was a madhouse—the annual post-Fourth of July sale.

    Miss Martin met me there and introduced me to a woman named Estelle, who led me back to the fitting rooms. A line of women, size fourteen and up, were already waiting to get in, heaps of clothes draped over their arms. Dress hangers tried to snag me as I passed by in the narrow hallway, and I stared as a woman in pants and bra darted out of a fitting room, snatched another shirt off a rack, then hurried back to her cubicle.

    Estelle waved one hand at the rack, almost hidden by clothes. All of these need to go back in stock, the sooner the better, she said. Button the buttons, reattach belts, straighten collars—make them look presentable. I’ll come in from time to time to get the clothes you’ve finished and put them back out on the floor. Every time you get a chance, go into a fitting room between customers and bring out all the items that are piling up in there. Let me know if there’s anything you don’t understand.

    Okay, I said. What’s to understand? I wondered. Anyone could button buttons, fasten belts. I reached for a shirt and began.

    It was warm in the fitting room hallway. The air didn’t seem to circulate, and it smelled of new fabric, old carpet, and perspiration. I wished I’d worn a tank instead of the stretch top, sneakers in place of sandals. I’d wanted to look older, more sophisticated, but every step in my string sandals let me know the straps were there.

    I pushed the first shirt to one side and reached for a dress with a zillion buttons down the back, tiny cloth-covered buttons that were difficult to push through the holes. One . . . two . . . three . . . Pants were next . . . clip to the hanger. Sundress . . . secure the straps.

    Estelle came back a little later. You’ll have to work faster than that, she said. When we’re this busy, just do a few of the buttons and keep checking those fitting rooms. We’re drowning back here!

    I’d been working only an hour when I thought I knew the meaning of the word sweatshop. My scalp was damp beneath my hair, my feet hurt. There was no place to sit, and women constantly jostled me as they shoved past with loads of garments to get the next fitting room.

    Honey, could you find me a size twenty-two in pink? someone asked, handing me a shirt, but I didn’t know where to look and wandered out to find Estelle.

    Tell them to ask a salesclerk if they want another size or color, she said. You don’t have time for anything except getting clothes ready to go back on the floor.

    I had started work about eleven, and it was now almost one thirty. I hadn’t even gone to the restroom. I hadn’t had a drink, hadn’t sat down. . . .

    For a brief moment I felt tears welling up in my eyes. This wasn’t what I’d had in mind. I couldn’t see anyone here in this hot hallway except women in their underwear grabbing things out of my hands. If

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1