Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

Bibliographic information:

Anonymous (Sparks, Beatrice). Go ask Alice.  New York: Simon Pulse 1971.  ISBN-13:  978-0-671-66458-9 

Plot Summary:

            Written as a diary, Go Ask Alice, tells the tale of a 15 year old girl who struggles with things that all many teens struggle with such as body image and finding a partner.  During a game at a party, this girl, who remains nameless throughout the diary, gets dosed with LSD and find that she enjoys it.  She constantly has doubts about her drug use, but becomes heavily involved with drugs slowly through different contacts.  Eventually she is selling drugs, even to very young children.  She and a friend escape from their dealer boyfriends and run away to San Francisco where they work a series of jobs.  After being drugged and raped, they decide to try to get clean and the two girls open up a small shop.  Eventually the protagonist returns to her family and tries to clean up her life.

            The pull of drugs is too much for her and she runs away again and has a number of entries in the journal without dates.  These seem to be a long blank spot where she writes very strange things and travels around growing slowly insane and is often physically ill.  She returns to her family and is able to quit drugs, but is constantly hounded by the drug users at school who think that she turned traitor.  She is purposely drugged and goes temporarily insane and winds up in an institution.  Eventually, she gets out and starts to return to a routine and thought pattern much like she had before her first drug use. The journal entries end on a positive note, finding peace with her family and finding a boy she likes.  The book ends by telling that the writer of the journal died a few weeks after the last entry, possibly of a drug overdose.

Critical Evaluation:

            The book sounds like it really is a journal by a real teen that goes through the experience of getting hooked on drugs.  The journal entries change depending on the stage of strung out or sober the main character happens to be in.  In some entries the tone is that of the girl next door, and in some it is the bizarre ramblings of a mad person.  The entire time I read this book I really felt for the situation that the girl was in.  She seemed to have very little control of herself and this really comes through in the writing.  This is a powerful book, one of those that need to be read.  I can see why the book has been challenged, but this is an instance of a title that seems to have a power which transcends the questionable material in it.   

Reader’s Annotation:

Go Ask Alice is the journal of a girl who gets caught up in a cycle of drug use.  She struggles with substance abuse and tries to gain control of her life with the help of family, yet she is hounded by her past.

Information about the author:

            The book was originally released as Anonymous, but there has been some dispute over that.  There is a theory that this work was an invention by the psychiatrist/editor Beatrice Sparks (b1918).  Sparks claimed that the journal came from one of her patients and was augmented by her own experience as a counselor.  Sparks has been the editor of a number of similar diaries.  The controversy is still going as to the factual basis of Go Ask Alice.

Genre:

Substance abuse/Journal

Curriculum Ties:
Health
Booktalking Ideas:

1.  Focus on the way that the girl changes throughout the journal because of her drug use.

2.  Talk about the authorship controversy and why it was published under Anonymous.

3.  Center the talk on substance abuse in the time this book was published and how this compares with today’s society.

Reading Level/Interest Age:

16+

Challenge Issues:

Drug use/Sex/Language

Challenge Defense Ideas:

1.  Read the book.

2.  Be Familiar with the policy of the ALA and your institution.

3. Make a note of the contents of the work and how they fall in with the collection development policy of your institution and the standpoint of the ALA. 

4. Gain an awareness of the awards, reviews, and criticisms of the work, as well as other works by the same writer.

5. Know the process for materials challenges at your library.

Why did you include this book? : 

The book was actually given to me by an older teen and I have heard it mentioned in a few different suggested reading lists.