*Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

Bibliographic Information:

· Title Go Ask Alice

· Author Anonymous

· ISBN10: 0-671-66458-9 ISBN13: 978-0-671-66458-1

· Publisher Simon Pulse, New York

· Date 1971,

· Website (read it online):

· Reading Level: ATOS 5.6, Reading Level 5.6, Reading counts 5.6, Lexile 1010

· Interest Level:

Genres: Problem fiction, Nonfiction (or at least it purports to be); partial Autobiography (or at least it purports to be).

Curriculum Ties: Health: drugs and sexuality/Family Life; Social Studies: History of the 1960s and 70's--flower children, summer of love, etc.

Booktalking Ideas: Everyone knows not to take drinks from open containers at a party today. Everyone knows drugs are dangerous. Everyone knows that drugs have many, many intangible effects upon the user... but if you want to see and understand, read one girl's own words about her experiences. If you don't believe drugs are dangerous, go ask Alice.

Challenge/Censorship Issues: This book is about a young teenager's journey through the drug scene of the 1960s and includes scenes of drug usage, sex, rape, and physical assault. (Alice mentions the sex, rape, and assault, but does not describe any in detail.) Profanity abounds. "Alice" lies to her parents and grandparents; she later runs away from home. Alice talks about her enjoyment of drugs, alternating between her hatred of them and her desperate need for them. The cumulative effect is a strong anti-drug message that young people will find refreshing in its directness and the fact that the author does not preach at them. Unfortunately, in order to get that message, the reader must wade through the filth that becomes Alice's life. Alice eventually has a bad trip where she hallucinates that worms are eating her body. Common Sense Media http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/go-ask-alice suggests that parents discuss the following issues with their children:

• How does the main character view herself when she's sober?

• How does her self-image change when she uses drugs?

• Do you think she really believes her excuses for her actions?

I might use the following quote to help concerned parents: "Many realistic young adult books use frank language, but none more so than this book. Purportedly based on the real diary of a middle-class, nice teenage girl who became a drug addict in the 1960s, this story is nothing short of harrowing -- and that's why it works. Teenagers who read the book easily sense that it tells the truth" (Common Sense Media, http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/go-ask-alice ).

Why did you Choose to Include this Title?: I included this title because I had heard that this book sends a strong message about drug usage, and I wanted to find out what kind of a message it sends.

Reader's Annotation/Teaser: This book is based on the diary written in the mid 1960s by a 15-year old girl who is unknowingly exposed to LSD at a party. She soon becomes addicted. Go Ask Alice chronicles her descent into the chaos of the drug scene and her struggle to escape therefrom.

Plot Summary: "Alice" is the fifteen year-old daughter of a college professor who is given LSD at a party. Terrified at first, she discovers that she enjoys the "trip" and soon begins dabbling in other drugs, becoming an addict in a relatively short period of time. In order to support her habit, she begins selling drugs to other teens and younger children. Feeling that her family does not understand her or her plight, she runs away from home, to San Francisco and Berkeley, California. Time and time again, "Alice" attempts to escape from the drug world, whether by working to maintain her own apartment, by returning home to her family, or by other means. Each time she is determined to stay clean, but with a reputation for being both a pusher and a user, the other kids in her school drag her back into the drug scene again and again. This is a very frank telling of Alice's world, where she trades sex for drugs, where she meanders from loving drugs and vowing never to quit them, to hating drugs and vowing never to return to them. The reader is caught in Alice's maelstrom of divergent feelings as she struggles to find her place in the world.

Critical Evaluation: This book portrays how a teen entered into the world of drugs and how she became a drug addict during the 1960s. Teen characters are involved in drugs, prostitution, and so forth. I ran accross several reviews stating that this book has been credited with keeping many teenagers from trying drugs.

I was totally unprepared for... and totally shocked by this book. I was not surprised by its subject matter, and I was even prepared for what my friend calls "Gore-Porn," that is, when authors portray every last dirty detail, turning the reader into a virtual voyeur. What surprised me is that this is (allegedly) the diary of a real teen who died, probably from an overdose. The other thing that surprised me was that the teen died before I was even thought of.

I first heard of Go Ask Alice the semester before I started the SLIS program. I thought it was a new novel about today's teens. So when the author sounded archaeic, and not at all like today's teens, I wondered about the author's sanity... what did she mean, writing as if she were a teen... and yet using language that is 50 or 60 years old? "Alice" then started describing how her PE teacher taught the girls that they had to keep their bodies strong and graceful for childbearing. I flipped out! I was raised in the 70's and 80's. By the time I was in 1st grade, not one of my teachers would have ever used such language... they were feminist to the core and would have rather died than given birth to a child or done anything unmasculine, never mind tell a young lady that she needed to keep fit for childbearing! By the time I got to page 32, I knew something was wrong. Very wrong. I turned to the CIP page and looked up the date. 1967 and 1971. Wow! This happened before I was born! No wonder things were so strange for "today's" teen novel...

After I discovered the date, the entire book read like an historical fiction work for me. I was five years old, going to kindergarten and hearing my parents' warnings about not to take candy from strangers, because the candy could really hurt me. I was six years old, overhearing a conversation about how one of my older cousins had not guarded her milk in the cafeteria; someone put something in her drink and she became a drug addict and a prostitute (although it was several years before I understood what happened to her). I was in 7th grade, finally realizing that my parents had been talking about drugs, and trying to figure out how a joint could get slipped into someone's milk, or whether eating marijuana would be as dangerous as smoking it. I was a high schooler, avoiding the needles bandied about campus, a college student, seeing cocaine paraphenelia... and wondering if my parents had been on drugs themselves when they told me about candy and strangers.

Finally, the pieces clicked into place and I realized that my Dad, a high school teacher during the 1960s, who had seen the drugs and sexual revolution of the flower children, was trying to warn my 5-year old self about LSD. I read the entire novel that way, for the first time understanding the generation that had gone before me.

I remember being 3 years old, understanding that my alcoholic uncles smelled and acted somehow different when they were drinking, and deciding that I would never have part in what made them act so strangely. I remember being 12, and hearing that my Uncle John had almost died in a car accident because he was so smashed from alcohol (and possibly drugs?) that he had driven his car up an LA freeway embankment, flipping it. It was a miracle he survived. If I had not already decided to stay clear of drugs and alcohol by that time, what happened to my uncle decided things for me. I have never understood the desire or the craving for drugs and alcohol. This book helped me to see things through the eyes of someone who was going through that hell.

I found myself hoping with "Alice" each time she thought that "this time" she would be able to break free from the addiction cycle that she would be right. I found myself agonizing for her each time she succumbed to the world of drugs. And I cried when "Alice" died. As I said, I was totally unprepared to read this book.

This is a very strong statement about what it is like to be addicted to drugs, and I believe that it could be helpful for a teen who is deciding whether to experiment for the first time. But it is very dark, and parents would do well to read this with their child... and not just hand it to them in the hopes that they will be able to handle it on their own.

Information about the Author: This book is allegedly "Alice's" diary, and as such, is an autobiographical work. Although we never learn her true name, reading this book will tell you all about the author's life... at least during her final years.