6. Go Ask Alice

Go Ask Alice
By Anonymous
Prentice Hall, 1967
Narrated by Christina Moore

Genre
Realistic Fiction

Honors

• YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults (2000, 2003)
• YALSA Best Books for Young Adults (1971)

Review
A fictional story written in the style of a teenager's diary, Go Ask Alice addresses serious questions about growing up and presents an uncensored look at part of the 1970s drug culture that can still be translated into today's substance using population.  A book that address difficult topics like running away, drug use, sex, rape, body image problems, and profanity, it was still on the 2003 ALA list of the top 10 most challenged books.  The unnamed "author" of the diary experiences the normal troubles teens do growing up, struggling with her body image, dating, questions about sex, testing limits with parents, and being curious about drugs.  However, this story follows the young writer as she deals with these concerns in what could be argued to be an abnormal way.  While the book is often dark and explores hard to answer questions, it also focuses on themes of the importance of family and getting to know and accept oneself, even if it means forgiving oneself and moving forward to another stage in life.  The narrator, Christina Moore, has a wonderfully expressive voice, successfully conveying all the emotions felt by this teenage writer, including her often communicated fear and confusion.

Opinion
Beatrice Sparks is the editor of Go Ask Alice and many other books that are supposed to be based off diaries of anonymous teens addressing other contempory teen issues.  The problem is she was heavy-handed with her editing, which has landed all her "edited" diaries with a Fiction label.  She also made some parents, who gave her the diary of their teenage son to publish after he committed suicide, very angry by completely adding what became the premise of the diary - a completely fictional telling of a satanic cult, leaving little of the original diary left.  So, while this book, and her others, may be in some way based on a legitimate diary of a real teen, the books we see published may be far from the actual lives of the specific teens who inspired Sparks's stories.  Go Ask Alice is a popular, classic book for teenagers since it addresses so many key issues.  I feel like this book is appropriate for the upper ends of the tween age range, late Jr. high or high school.  It has profanity in it, young character runs away, describes having sex and being raped, describes the intensity of her "trips" and her addiction, and details her psychotic break, so it may be too disturbing and graphic for some users. But for those who can handle it, some powerful lessons may be learned.

Ideas
Go Ask Alice is a great book for any discussion about substance abuse, running away, and the general struggle teenagers go through during adolescence.  This is a good book for parents/teachers and teens to read together, or simultaneously, to help provoke discussion and open up communication lines about serious topics teens may be reluctant to discuss. Due to the authorship issues, it's also a great book to start a discussion about trustworthy information sources.