I think therefore I am

Alice, I Think

by Susan Juby

Genre: Fiction

I was drawn to this book because it was set in Smithers, BC (Go Canada) and the author is from BC. It is difficult to find books that are set in Canada, at least, I find it to be so. I will admit that I picked this book up because I got it confused with "Go Ask Alice", but that's ok. I had high hopes for this book, DO NOT LET ME DOWN... and it did...

Alice is a home-schooled girl who's had many problems integrating with "normal" school students. Her new therapist tells her to make a list of goals and the book follows her as she tries to achieve them. It it written in diary form.

I quite enjoyed the voice of the character, however, I did feel that the voice and use of language was too old for her actual age. Some of the scenarios were crazy and fun, but somewhat unrealistic. While I did laugh at many of these, it seemed as though Alice and her family were so unusual it was hard to believe. Suspend my disbelief I can do, but it was to wacky for me.

Great and smart writing style, excellently wacky character, laugh out-loud commentary, highly unbelievable, hard to relate to (this coming from a small town girl), and overall, I did not like it.

 2/5 STARS

Use in the classroom:
This is a good book to discuss being yourself. Alice is unafraid of being herself, but like most of us, suffers an identity crisis only to overcome it all on her own. Some readers might struggle with the high level of vocabulary. Best suited for an individual book study.