Breaking up is hard to do Alice is starting high school, and everything is new. But it’s the new girl, Penny, who’s making ninth grade a real challenge for Alice. Penny is tiny and perky and a real flirt, and she seems to be focusing her attention on Patrick. Even worse, Patrick seems to be enjoying it. Alice and Patrick have been a couple so long Alice can’t imagine life without him. Suddenly she feels lost and unattractive and scared—not quite whole. How can Alice get back her confidence in herself, when she’s not even sure who she is? Don’t miss any of the Alice books: Look inside for a complete list of the Alice books. SIMON PULSE SIMON & SCHUSTER, New York Cover photograph copyright © 2001 by Paul Christensen Cover design by Debra Sfetsios www.SimonandSchuster.com 0902 Phyllis Reynolds Naylor remembers very well the things that Alice is feeling in this book. When she dated back in junior and senior high school, most of her relationships lasted a year or more. She knows how it feels to like a boy more than he likes you, and to have a boy care for you more than you care for him. But what happens to Alice in this book is … well, really hard. Phyllis lives with her husband in Bethesda, Maryland, and is the author of over one hundred books, including twelve other books about Alice McKinley, and the Newbery Medal-winner Shiloh. Books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Witch’s Sister Witch Water The Witch Herself Walking Through the Dark How I Came to Be a Writer How Lazy Can You Get? Eddie, Incorporated All Because I’m Older Shadows on the Wall Faces in the Water Footprints at the Window The Boy with the Helium Head A String of Chances The Solomon System The Mad Gasser of Bessledorf Street Night Cry Old Sadie and the Christmas Bear The Dark of the Tunnel The Agony of Alice The Keeper The Bodies in the Bessledorf Hotel The Year of the Gopher Beetles, Lightly Toasted Maudie in the Middle One of the Third Grade Thonkers Alice in Rapture, Sort Of Keeping a Christmas Secret Bernie and the Bessledorf Ghost Send No Blessings Reluctantly Alice King of the Playground Shiloh All but Alice Josie’s Troubles The Grand Escape Alice in April The Face in the Bessledorf Funeral Parlor Alice In-Between The Fear Place Alice the Brave Being Danny’s Dog Ice The Bomb in the Bessledorf Bus Depot Alice in Lace Shiloh Season Ducks Disappearing Outrageously Alice The Healing of Texas Jake I Can’t Take You Anywhere Saving Shiloh The Treasure of Bessledorf Hill Achingly Alice Danny’s Desert Rats Sang Spell Sweet Strawberries Alice on the Outside Walker’s Crossing Jade Green Peril in the Bessledorf Parachute Factory The Grooming of Alice Carlotta’s Kittens and the Club of Mysteries