18 books like Alice on the outside

What to read after Alice on the outside — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Alice in April Phyllis Reynolds Naylor · 1993 · ★ 4.0 · 170p · ≈ 5h · Moderate While trying to survive seventh grade, Alice discovers that turning thirteen will make her the Woman of the House at home, so she starts a campaign to get more appreciated for taking care of her father and older brother. Shares: Single-parent families, School Stories, Schools, Children's fiction

Shredderman Wendelin Van Draanen · 2006 · ★ 4.5 · 169p · ≈ 5h · Moderate Alvin Bixby: Hulking, knuckles of steel, hideous breath, foul temper. Kids call him: Bubba. Nolan Byrd: Puny, power walker, math genius, can’t keep shoes tied. Kids call him: Nerd.Bubba has been the bane of Nolan’s existence for five long years. So when Mr. Green asks the class to become reporters, Nolan decides he’ll write an exposé—on Bubba. He doesn’t want to sign his name to it (that’d be… Shares: Écoles, School Stories, Schools, Children's fiction

The real question Adrian Fogelin · 2006 · 249p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Fisher Brown, a sixteen-year-old over-achiever, is on the verge of academic burnout when he impulsively decides to stop cramming for the SATs for one weekend and accompany his ne'er-do-well neighbor to an out-of-town job repairing a roof. Shares: Single-parent families, Interpersonal relations, Schools, Children's fiction

Upside Down Magic Sarah Mlynowski · 2015 · ★ 3.0 · 208p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Nory, Elliott, Andres, and Bax are just four of the students in Dunwiddle Magic School s Upside-Down Magic class. In their classroom, lessons are unconventional, students are unpredictable, and magic has a tendency to turn wonky at the worst possible moments. Because it s always amazing, the trouble a little wonky magic can cause. Shares: Écoles, School Stories, Schools, Children's fiction

Muggie Maggie Beverly Cleary · 1990 · ★ 3.7 · 71p · ≈ 2h · Moderate Maggie resists learning cursive writing in the third grade, until she discovers that knowing how to read and write cursive promises to open up an entirely new world of knowledge for her. Shares: Écoles, School Stories, Schools, Children's fiction

Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade Barthe DeClements · 1981 · ★ 4.0 · 137p · ≈ 4h · Moderate Jenny knows one thing for sure - Elsie Edwards is a fat thief who steals people's lunch money to buy candy. So when the book club money disappears, why is the whole class punished? Nothing's fair! But soon Jenny realizes some things aren't fair for Elsie, either. Elsie is on a strict diet, but when she starts losing weight, her mother won't buy her new clothes. Instead, she plans to send Elsie… Shares: Écoles, School Stories, Schools, Children's fiction

Lock-in Jonathan Mary-Todd · 2011 · 112p · ≈ 3h · Moderate When a high school lock-in, meant to ease tensions between the lacrosse team and a group that likes to play werewolf, goes awry, Jackie does not know if she is safer in the panic of the dark hallways or with the crazed student council president determined to maintain control. Shares: Interpersonal relations, School Stories, Schools, Children's fiction

Is He a Girl? Louis Sachar · 1993 · ★ 3.7 · 75p · ≈ 2h · Moderate After Casey Happleton tells him that if he kisses his elbow he will turn into a girl, nine-year-old Marvin experiments and finds himself very confused about his identity. Shares: Écoles, School Stories, Schools, Children's fiction

Boy Who Owned the School Gary Paulsen · 1990 · ★ 4.0 · 85p · ≈ 2h · Moderate Jacob Freisten's goal in life is to go about unnoticed. He's perfect at gliding past the jocks' lockers and sneaking into his English class. That was, until now. If Jacob wants to pass English, he must work for extra credit on the stage crew of the school production of The Wizard of Oz. Jacob, who is usually in a fog anyway, has the the job of running the fog machine. The problem is that Maria… Shares: School Stories, Schools, Children's fiction

The Nursery Alice Lewis Carroll · 1889 · 62p · ≈ 2h · Challenging A little girl falls down a rabbit hole and discovers a strange world inhabited by all sorts of unusual characters. Shares: Alice, Children's fiction

The day the teacher went bananas James Howe · 1984 · ★ 4.3 · 31p · ≈ 1h · Moderate A class's new teacher, who leads the children in a number of very popular activities, turns out to be a gorilla. Shares: School Stories, Schools, Children's fiction

Fourth Grade Rats Jerry Spinelli · 1991 · ★ 3.8 · 90p · ≈ 3h · Moderate A fast, fun, friendship read from the Newbery-award winning author of Maniac Magee. Fourth graders are tough. They aren't afraid of spiders. They say no to their moms. They push first graders off the swings. And they never, ever cry. Suds knows that now that he's in fourth grade, he's supposed to be a rat. But whenever he tries to act like one, something goes wrong. Can Suds's friend Joey teach… Shares: Interpersonal relations, School Stories, Schools, Children's fiction

Agostino Alberto Moravia · 1944 · ★ 3.5 · 128p · ≈ 4h · Challenging Thirteen-year-old Agostino is spending the summer at a Tuscan seaside resort with his beautiful widowed mother. When she takes up with a cocksure new companion, Agostino, feeling ignored and unloved, begins hanging around with a group of local young toughs. Though repelled by their squalor and brutality, and repeatedly humiliated for his weakness and ignorance when it comes to women and sex, the… Shares: Sex, Children's fiction

Be more chill Ned Vizzini · 2004 · ★ 3.6 · 287p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Badly in need of self-confidence and a change of image, high school nerd Jeremy Heere swallows a pill-sized super computer that is supposed to help him get whatever he wants. Shares: Interpersonal relations, School Stories, Schools, Children's fiction

A Flying Birthday Cake? Louis Sachar · 1999 · ★ 3.7 · 86p · ≈ 2h · Moderate Two days after Marvin sees a glowing green thing like a flying birthday cake in the night sky, his third-grade class is joined by a mysterious new boy with peculiar behavior. Shares: School Stories, Schools, Children's fiction

The Nutcracker and the King of Mice E. T. A. Hoffmann · 1853 · ★ 3.7 · 82p · ≈ 2h · Challenging Young Marie Stahlbaum falls in love with the handsome nutcracker Godfather Drosselmeier gives her family as a Christmas gift, and has adventures with him as he faces the monstrous, seven-headed Mouse King. Shares: Alice, Children's fiction

The Misfits James Howe · 2001 · ★ 3.8 · 274p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Kids who get called the worst names oftentimes find each other. That's how it was with us. Skeezie Tookis and Addie Carle and Joe Bunch and me. We call ourselves the Gang of Five, but there are only four of us. We do it to keep people on their toes. Make 'em wonder. Or maybe we do it because we figure that there's one more kid out there who's going to need a gang to be a part of. A misfit, like… Shares: School Stories, Schools, Children's fiction

Me, the Missing, and the Dead Jenny Valentine · 2009 · 224p · ≈ 7h · Moderate Me: Lucas Swain—I'm nearly sixteen years old and live in London. I was fairly normal until the night I found Violet. Then everything changed. The Missing: Dad. He disappeared five years ago. Nobody knows what happened to him, and nobody cares except me. It's enough to drive you crazy. The Dead: That's Violet . . . in the urn. Speaking of crazy—I know she's trying to tell me something, and I think… Shares: Single-parent families, Children's fiction

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