Alex is a young girl (starts at around 8 years old and ages a bit through the series) who just can't seem to keep out of trouble. Seemingly innocuous decisions have a tendency to snowball out of her control, despite her best intentions to get things back on track. Her patient parents help her to see what she could have done differently and what she should learn from her mistakes.

This was my first time reading this book, so I don’t know whether my view of it would have been different if I’d read it when I was a kid, as I did two of the other books in the series. However, the circumstance in which Alex finds herself in this book is also not one that I think I would have connected as much with back then. I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so competitive as she is, and I definitely would not have made the one final, terrible choice she made (at least, I can certainly hope not). However, the story itself, and the lesson learned, is on par with the other two books.

This book series is pretty old, and I don't think they're in print anymore (first one came out in 1987). At some point, they came out with different cover versions, too, though I'm a fan of the originals. If you have an opportunity to pick up any of the Alex series books, I recommend them. They're short, quick reads that children will be able to connect to.

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