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  • One Whole and Perfect Day
  • Hope Morrison
Clarke, Judith One Whole and Perfect Day. Front Street, 2007250p ISBN 1-932425-95-0$16.95 R* Gr. 8-12

Seventeen-year-old Lily has grown exhausted with the "sheer peculiarity" of her family members: her hopeless older brother, Lonnie, who can't seem to settle on any program of study; her hot-tempered grandfather, Pop, who regularly threatens to burn her house down; her gentle grandmother, Nan, who engages in long conversations with an imaginary friend; her overworked mother, Marigold, who consistently brings home elderly patients from the adult day care center where she works as a psychologist. Nan decides that what the family needs to really pull together is a celebration, and she begins planning an eightieth birthday party for Pop in hopes that it will prove the needed impetus for Pop and Lonnie to work out their differences. Lily is soon caught up in making the party happen, determined that even her wacky family deserves one whole and perfect day. While Lily's voice dominates, this quiet, moving novel rapidly shifts points of view, giving each family member as well as several secondary characters a voice. As in Kalpana's Dream (BCCB 4/05), with which this book shares characters, the eloquence lies in the perfect, fluid movement from character to character and the success with which the book ties all of those characters together in a conclusion riddled with elements of coincidence and destiny. Reminiscent of Perkins' Criss Cross (BCCB 9/05), this [End Page 408] Australian import will appeal especially to fans of strong character development and alternating points of view; the birthday-party plotline lies secondary to the portrayal of the characters' internal lives, and readers willing to follow that development will wholly embrace the gentle pacing and pointed exploration of the way lives interconnect.

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