Too Tall Alice

Too Tall Alice by Barbara Worton

From the dustjacket:

Alice is tall. Not T-Rex or Empire State Building tall. Just four inches taller than the other girls in her class, and Alice is worried.

FOUR INCHES! That’s a lot of inches taller than everyone else. Her mom says it’s okay to be tall, and her dad says it’s okay to be tall. IT’S OKAY FOR THEM TO SAY THAT. THEY’RE NORMAL!

Alice wishes, really wishes, she was just like everyone else. Then, her dream takes her to the place where the tall girls live, and she sees, really sees, herself for the first time.

My thoughts:

I love the message in the story. Alice learns to accept herself for who she is and that she is special. She learns that being “too _” isn’t so bad, after all. It’s a great message for all girls, not just the too short, too tall, too __ ones. The story is definitely designed to raise girls’ self-esteem.

The part I didn’t like about the book was her parents and their friends. I didn’t like the neighborhood parents sneaking back over to play more cards after their kids were asleep and I didn’t like the way Alice’s parents talked about her when they thought she couldn’t hear them. Parents all know that kids have huge ears.

Overall, the message is good. I’ll be passing my copy on to my niece. My rating is 3 out of 5.