Instead, I took a novel called Alice Anderson from my backpack. I'd checked it out from theStoneybrookMiddle School library. (SMS is my school.) Alice Anderson, the main character, is a seventeen-year-old girl who lives in a small farming town. She is the only girl in a family of four brothers.Alice dreams of going toHollywood and becoming a movie star but she has no idea how she'll make it out of her small town, because her family is poor.

I had taken Alice Anderson from the library because I needed to do a book report. It looked interesting, but I never expected it to be so hysterically funny. It doesn't sound like it would be, but it is.Alice 's brothers are always getting in messes. WhenAlice tries to help them out, she ends up in worse trouble.

In the last chapter I had read,Alice 's brothers wantAlice to perform the lead role in the town play because they think some big talent scout is in the audience, so they lock the nasty lead actress in the closet. WhenAlice hears what they've done she goes wild trying to get the closet door open. She succeeds in setting the actress free, but accidentally knocks over the man who plays the back half of the mule.Alice is the only one who can fit the mule costume, so she takes his part, and makes her brother, Sven, put on the maid's costume and take her small part. Sven keeps forgetting the lines, soAlice whispers them to him from the back of the mule outfit, which makes everyone in the audience laugh.

Crazy things like that are always happening toAlice . But the cool thing about the book is the way her family sticks together. No matter what happens, Mrs. Anderson, the mother, always manages to make a big dinner and the family sits arOund laughing about whatever it was that went wrong.

I stretched out on my bed and opened Alice Anderson. In a second, I felt as if I were there with theAndersons . Henrietta Hayes, the au8 thor, had to be a genius. How could she think of so many funny things to write? Her characters were so happy and full of fun. Just reading the book gave me a great feeling.