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.

My mom has owned this book since I was young, and while I don't remember reading it as many times as Peanut Butter and Jelly Secrets (which I owned), I still remember identifying with Alex. As an adult, I can see where it would have made her whole life easier by simply telling her mom about the incident that prompted her to tell the First Lie, which then snowballed into more lies. But as a kid, I know I made plenty of my own similar bad choices to try to save myself.

This book series is pretty old, and I don't think they're in print anymore (first one came out in 1987). 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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