About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherMilkweed Editions

ISBN-101571316515

ISBN-139781571316516

eBay Product ID (ePID)127435483

Product Key Features

Book TitlePerfect

Number of Pages232 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2004

TopicFamily / Parents, Social Themes / Death & Dying, Family / Siblings, General, Health & Daily Living / Diseases, Illnesses & Injuries, Social Themes / Friendship, Girls & Women

GenreJuvenile Fiction

AuthorNatasha Friend

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.5 in

Item Weight7.4 Oz

Item Length8 in

Item Width5.2 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceJuvenile Audience

LCCN2004-006371

Dewey Edition22

Dewey DecimalFic

SynopsisDepicting with humor and insight the pressure to be outwardly perfect, this novel for ages 10-13 shows how one girl develops compassion for her own and others' imperfections. For 13-year-old Isabelle Lee, whose father has recently died, everything's normal on the outside. Isabelle describes the scene at school with bemused accuracy--the self-important (but really not bad) English teacher, the boy that is constantly fixated on Ashley Barnum, the prettiest girl in class, and the dynamics of the lunchroom, where tables are turf in a all-eyes-open awareness of everybody's relative social position. But everything is not normal, really. Since the dealth of her father, Isabelle's family has only functioned on the surface. Her mother, who used to take care of herself, now wears only lumpy, ill-fitting clothes, cries all night, and has taken every picture of her dead husband and put them under her bed. Isabelle tries to make light of this, but the underlying tension is expressed in overeating and then binging. As the novel opens, Isabelle's little sister, April, has told their mother about Isabelle's problem. Isabelle is enrolled in group therapy. Who should show up there, too, but Ashley Barnum, the prettiest, most together girl in class., In the world of thirteen-year-old girls, everything's fine--at least on the surface. Isabelle Lee is a typical, wisecracking, middle-of-the-pack girl who just happens to be dealing with some big issues. Her father has died and no one--especially her mother--wants to talk about it. Meanwhile, Isabelle's sister, who "used to be nine and charming," has messed everything up by ratting Isabelle out to their mom about her eating disorder. At school, there's Mr. Minx, the self-important (but really not bad) English teacher; Ashley Barnum, the prettiest girl around; and the lunchroom, where tables are turf in an all-eyes-open battle for social status. Isabelle has measured the distance to being cool and she thinks it's long shiny hair, a toothpaste smile, and perfectly broken-in size-zero jeans. Perfect is the story of one girl's attempt to cope with loss, define true friendship, and figure out the difference between appearances and reality., Isabelle Lee has a problem, and it's not just Ape Face, her sister, or group therapy for an eating disorder, or even that her father died and her mother is depressed and in denial. It's that Ashley, the most popular girl in school, is inviting Isabelle to join her at lunch and at sleepovers at her house, and this is presenting Isabelle with a dilemma. Pretty Ashley has moved Isabelle up the social ladder, but is it worth keeping the secret they share? Caught in the orbit of popularity and appearances, Isabelle must navigate a world with mixed messages, false hopes, and potentially harmful turns, while coping with her own flailing family and emotions. The author brings a depth of characterization, humor, and a real adolescent's voice to this multileveled story about the desire to be perfect in an imperfect world.

LC Classification NumberPZ7.F91535Pe 2004