Alice, woman of the house - Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Alice is about to turn thirteen - time to become Woman of the House, Aunt Sally tells her, since her mother is long dead. It is an awesome responsibility, and some of her attempts to be a grown-up - like planning a birthday dinner for her father - turn out pretty disastrously. School brings other crises, as the boys in the cafeteria assign each girl a geographical nickname according to her figure. And a shocking and unexpected event forces Alice and everyone she knows to grow up a little, and wonder more deeply about life and the future.