«Alice on Her Way» by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

It’s the moment Alice has been looking forward to for years—her sixteenth birthday is coming up, and that means getting her driver’s license, with the freedom that entails. And before that important milestone, there’s another delicious taste of freedom awaiting Alice and her friends—a class trip to New York City, promising some serious partying once chaperones have gone to bed.

But sophomore year and driving lessons are a lot harder than Alice thought they would be, and then there’s the problem with her new boyfriend, who is sometimes too attached to her. The older Alice gets, the more complicated her life seems to become.