It started when she was served a soft drink laced with LSD in a dangerous party game. Within months, she was hooked, trapped in a downward spiral that took her from her comfortable home and loving family to the mean streets of an unforgiving city. It was a journey that would rob her of her innocence, her youth -- and ultimately her life.
Read her diary.
Enter her world.
You will never forget her.
It started when she was served a soft drink laced with LSD in a dangerous party game. Within months, she was hooked, trapped in a downward spiral that took her from her comfortable home and loving family to the mean streets of an unforgiving city. It was a journey that would rob her of her innocence, her youth -- and ultimately her life.
Read her diary.
Enter her world.
You will never forget her.
Add to your library to track progress and write reviews
Add to your library to track progress and write reviews
Find Go Ask Alice Beatrice Sparks in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find Go Ask Alice Beatrice Sparks in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
1 books in catalog
Cautionary young adult books presented as the authentic personal journals of struggling adolescents gained widespread popularity in the late twentieth century, beginning with the anonymous release of the landmark drug abuse diary Go Ask Alice. Author Beatrice Sparks compiled and edited these high-profile accounts, which aimed to warn readers about the dangers of substance abuse, mental health crises, and social pressures facing American youth.
Though promoted as edited real-life accounts, these works functioned as framed narratives designed to reach teenage audiences through dramatic first-person storytelling. The immense commercial reach of Go Ask Alice established a distinct subgenre of cautionary adolescent literature that sparked national dialogue and ongoing debate regarding authenticity and authorship.
Born Beatrice Ruby Mathews in Goldberg, Idaho, Sparks attended the University of California at Los Angeles and Brigham Young University before beginning her work with teenagers in 1955. Her professional background included working as an American therapist and music therapist at Utah State Mental Hospital, as well as serving as a Mormon youth counselor and teaching continuing education courses at BYU. Sparks stated that her direct encounters with troubled adolescents inspired her to craft cautionary tales intended to keep young people from falling into the same traps.
Questions regarding Sparks' credentials and authorship arose as her books gained national attention. Although editorial credits on several diaries identified her as Dr. Beatrice Sparks, PhD, journalist Aileen Pace Nilsen interviewed Sparks for School Library Journal in 1979 and was unable to find any confirmation of where or when Sparks earned her doctorate. Nilsen noted that Sparks was vague about specifics when asked about her counseling qualifications and professional experience. Furthermore, while Sparks always presented herself as merely the discoverer and editor of the diaries, records at the U.S. Copyright Office show that she was listed as the sole author for all but two of them.
The books credited to or edited by Sparks focus on pressing social issues affecting teenagers, including drug abuse, Satanism, teenage pregnancy, and AIDS. Written in an intimate, diary-entry format, the narratives employ intense first-person perspectives to highlight the rapid downward spiral of vulnerable protagonists. This stylistic approach aimed to create an immediate emotional impact, presenting severe real-world consequences as an explicit warning to young readers.
1 books in catalog
Cautionary young adult books presented as the authentic personal journals of struggling adolescents gained widespread popularity in the late twentieth century, beginning with the anonymous release of the landmark drug abuse diary Go Ask Alice. Author Beatrice Sparks compiled and edited these high-profile accounts, which aimed to warn readers about the dangers of substance abuse, mental health crises, and social pressures facing American youth.
Though promoted as edited real-life accounts, these works functioned as framed narratives designed to reach teenage audiences through dramatic first-person storytelling. The immense commercial reach of Go Ask Alice established a distinct subgenre of cautionary adolescent literature that sparked national dialogue and ongoing debate regarding authenticity and authorship.
Born Beatrice Ruby Mathews in Goldberg, Idaho, Sparks attended the University of California at Los Angeles and Brigham Young University before beginning her work with teenagers in 1955. Her professional background included working as an American therapist and music therapist at Utah State Mental Hospital, as well as serving as a Mormon youth counselor and teaching continuing education courses at BYU. Sparks stated that her direct encounters with troubled adolescents inspired her to craft cautionary tales intended to keep young people from falling into the same traps.
Questions regarding Sparks' credentials and authorship arose as her books gained national attention. Although editorial credits on several diaries identified her as Dr. Beatrice Sparks, PhD, journalist Aileen Pace Nilsen interviewed Sparks for School Library Journal in 1979 and was unable to find any confirmation of where or when Sparks earned her doctorate. Nilsen noted that Sparks was vague about specifics when asked about her counseling qualifications and professional experience. Furthermore, while Sparks always presented herself as merely the discoverer and editor of the diaries, records at the U.S. Copyright Office show that she was listed as the sole author for all but two of them.
The books credited to or edited by Sparks focus on pressing social issues affecting teenagers, including drug abuse, Satanism, teenage pregnancy, and AIDS. Written in an intimate, diary-entry format, the narratives employ intense first-person perspectives to highlight the rapid downward spiral of vulnerable protagonists. This stylistic approach aimed to create an immediate emotional impact, presenting severe real-world consequences as an explicit warning to young readers.
