Long the “number one most stolen book” on our fiction shelves, Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous, continues its 35-year reign as one of the HHS Library’s most popular reads. If you’re a fan of gritty, realistic, don’t-end-up-like-me novels, then Alice has much to offer: drugs (lots of them), promiscuity, running away, abuse, hospitalization, suspicion, and death (to name a few.)
Some think that Beatrice Sparks, “editor” of other cautionary tales (Jay’s Journal, It Happened to Nancy, Annie’s Baby, Finding Katie) is the anonymous author behind Go Ask Alice. Many think the book is poorly written and not quite believable. But the fact remains: years after its publication in 1971, it still makes a splash.
Do you have thoughts on Go Ask Alice? Send ‘em in!
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3 comments:
Do we have other books edited by Beatrice Sparks in the High School Library?
Go Ask Alice was A book I read a long time ago, and some of the excerpts are still with me. Her use of language is astounding and you can really find the visuals but the language and graphic use is not over the simple reader's heads. Yes the book can get a little um....intense, but thats why I think it's the most stolen book in every library. The thought of reading something you shouldn't be reading...It can be invorgrating to some.
I still love this book, but if you want something a little more challanging, pick up Oh, The Glory Of It All. by Sean Wilsey (its in Borders Bookstore, Concord) or almost anything by Hunter S. Thompson "Rum Diaries, Fear and Loathing in Las Vagas. Or, if you like authors who are a little more blunt in their writing, pick up A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, I know it really isn't 100% true, but it's still a really good book about addiction.
Kelsey - Thanks for the comment! We have It Happened to Nancy, PB Ano. Will you come make a note on the clipboard if I should pick up some of the others?
There is a recent, anonymous diary-type title, "Finding Katie," that is edited by Beatrice Sparks, PhD, whom the cover says was the editor of "Go Ask Alice." But "Finding Katie" is nowhere near the quality of "Alice." It's supposed to be by a teenager, but sounds like an elementary-school kid. It doesn't express much feeling. And it leaves out so much that what's left, because unexplained, seems unrealistic. I wouldn't recommend the purchase.
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