# 1-One Whole and Perfect Day

Clarke, Judith. One Whole and Perfect Day. North Carolina: Front Street Press,2006.


Annotation:
Families-and love-come in all shapes and sizes! Sensible,sixteen year old, Lily, lives with her working mom, worries about her whimsical brother and sometimes wonders about her absent father.She longs for that 'perfect' day when all will seem right!

Justification for Nomination:
The beauty of Judith Clarke's, One whole and Perfect Day, is how seamlessly she connects together all the characters within the life of her admirable protaganist, Lily. Cleverly, Clarke has created a whole cast of oddballs who play an important part in Lily's life; there is her wacky some-what racist grandfather, her nan, a brother Lonnie and his Chinese girlfriend , her wanna-be boyfriend , Daniel Steadman and the loony senior citizen,Mrs. Nightingale, from the adult day-care center.  Lily has no choice,but to be the 'sensible' one!

 Amazingly, Judith Clarke is able to direct all these voices into a meaningful and poignant body of work.In the case of Lily's absent father , his absence, is almost as effective as his presence could  have been. Similarly, the plot is absent of a huge amount of action ,but due to the strength of Clarke's writing, the reader never (even for a moment) misses it. This amazingly fluid narrative always keeps the reader hungry for more.

Searching for identity  at school- and at home- is one of the main themes of this book. Lily  feels isolated and 'unique' within her unconventional 'small' family; feelings of  self-consciousness, curiousness, fearfulness and hopefulness exist within her on any given day. Idealized versions of herself are bounced off others, in hopes that she may catch a glimpse of her true self; a collage of bits and pieces which will eventually create a whole. Clarke nudges us to realize how much a young girl's support system affects the kind of adult she will eventually become.

I appauled this YA novel  for the variety of real life teen issues condensed within it's 250 pages; 'When will he notice me?',  'Who am I ?', 'Who do I want to be?', 'Why is my face so red? and 'When will anything special happen to me?' are all sentiments expressed by the main character. Clarke has an amazing ability to link all the relationships together in a very  honest and believable way. She also adds a bit of humor, here and there, to lighten the load!

One Whole and Perfect Day  is definitely a satisfying read! It has the 'glue' to keep the pages turning! Judith Clarke has created realistic characters who positively keep trying to figure out  the questions put before them. What more could anyone ask for?

Genre Category: Realistic Fiction /Coming of Age/ Problem/ Printz Honor Selection