Starting With Alice
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
 The book begins with Alice moving from Chicago to Takoma Park, Maryland with her single father, Ben Mckinley, and older brother, Lester Mckinley. As the new girl in school, she doesn't know a single person except for her next-door neighbor Donald Sheavers, who is not only a boy, but also seems to be a little bit peculiar. She gets off to a rough start when she meets three snooty girls, Jody, Dawn and Megan, whom Alice nicknames "The Terrible Triplets" after they make it clear they don't want to get to know her. Along the way, she makes some new friends, gets a cat, attends a wedding, attends a funeral, confronts bullies and continues to learn about the world around her.