ALA Booklist

The ninth affectionate comedy about Alice continues to serve as a kind of road map for a girl coming of age today, not in any direct self-help way but as a candid view of how hard it is to follow the unwritten rules. Alice is 13 now, in eighth grade, and much of her confusion is about sex and gender roles. The last thing Alice wants to look like is a virginal cupcake, but she is pretty shocked by the women's talk at a lingerie bridal shower. It is easy for her to be outrageous by going to school with her hair in green spikes, but what does she do when a boy grabs her in the dark during a Halloween game and French-kisses her? Was she violated, the next thing to being raped, as her friend Elizabeth insists? Is it Alice's own fault for dressing as a sexy showgirl? What if the kisser turns out to be Alice's boyfriend? As always, her dad and her older brother are warm and funny, even if they can't always give her the answers. And as usual, there is an underlying seriousness to the humorous play. In the end, Alice is both innocent and tough, very much a bridesmaid in a conventional wedding, very firm when she pushes herself away from the drunken fumbling of the groom's handsome brother. (Reviewed May 15, 1997)

Horn Book

As part of her campaign for a new image Alice dresses as a showgirl for Halloween, hoping to be seductive; she doesn't bargain for being French-kissed by an unknown schoolmate in a dark closet. With help from family and friends, Alice sorts out her feelings about the incident and proves she has learned something about handling herself. The book is best suited to the older middle-school readers who have themselves been growing up along with Alice.

Kirkus Reviews

At 13, Alice thinks her life deserves a prize for ``most boring''; she can't see anything special or interesting about herself. She's mortified by her ignorance when she takes a sensuality quiz at a bridal shower, certain that if her mother were alive, she'd be more on top of the things an eighth grade girl should know—instead, she's still just muddling through with her father and her brother, Lester. Alice decides to change her image, donning green eyeshadow (a lot of it) and one day even spiking her hair with green mousse. Her self-improvement campaign includes trying some new activities, and she develops a real interest in photography. For readers, it's what Alice does when she's not trying to be outrageous that counts: She helps her friend Pamela with family problems, keeps a cool head when her father falls off a ladder, roots for him in his quest to win Miss Summer's hand, and knows how and where to draw the line when an older boy makes unwelcome advances. Naylor (Alice in Lace, 1996, etc.) makes sure Alice is herself, the same girl readers have loved in eight previous books. As usual, her story is told with grace and economy, liberally laced with humor, and brimming with serious feelings as well. (Fiction. 9-13)"