Come and meet Alice. Here she is on the brink of being a teenager and discovering that life is just one big embarrassment.

Things are not made any easier by the fact that she has no female role model - Alice's mother died when she was four - so there is just her father and older brother - and what could they possibly know about being a girl and growing up?

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's lively, witty style, mixed with poignance and perception, has captured the essence of adolescent anxieties as we follow Alice through the trials and tribulations of growing up.

It's August, and the whole gang is having a terrific time, hanging out at Mark Stedmeister's swimming pool - except Alice, who has a secret even from her best friends Pamela and Elizabeth.

Alice is deathly afraid of deep water, and just as afraid of what will happen if her secret gets out.

When disaster strikes, it's even worse than Alice imagined.

How can she face her friends? And how can she face her boyfriend, Patrick, who's coming home from summer holiday and looking forward to joining the eighth grade swimming team with Alice?