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    One Whole and Perfect Day
    One Whole and Perfect Day
    One Whole and Perfect Day
    Audiobook6 hours

    One Whole and Perfect Day

    Written by Judith Clarke

    Narrated by Gretal Montgomery

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Sometimes Lily wishes she weren't so sensible. If she were less reliable, then perhaps she'd have more fun. As it is, her hardworking but flaky mom and her dreamy older brother count on her to run the house. She wishes things could be different, but how can she change her responsible ways? Perhaps, she thinks, she should fall in love!

    Meanwhile, her scheming grandmother is planning a family party and, as is typical, Lily worries. Her fears are not entirely unfounded. Her grandfather has recently disowned her brother, and her brother has a new girlfriend who might not fit in. Her mother will probably bring the loony Mrs. Nightingale from the adult day care center where she works. And these are only the predictable complications. Lily is beginning to understand how easily unimaginable things can happen, too.

    Back to the question of love, what is this new feeling Lily experiences when Daniel Steadman is near? Could it be the cure?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateDec 20, 2008
    ISBN9781423366683
    Author

    Judith Clarke

    Judith Clarke was born in Sydney, Australia, and lives in Melbourne. She is the author of many award-winning books for young adults, including Kalpana's Dream, Wolf on the Fold, Night Train, and Friend of My Heart.

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    Reviews for One Whole and Perfect Day

    3.5/5

    76 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Pretty good. A different sort of story, for a YA novel, which was a nice change of pace. Not overly romantic, or melodramatic, and not set in any kind of dystopian/futuristic/dysfunctional society. :)

      I enjoyed the characters, but I wanted even a little more of all of them. They were all interesting enough that I'd have liked the book to be twice as long so I could get to know them better. But in all, I have no real complaints about this book (other than that maybe the last page was just one bit of "perfect" too far).
    • 3/5
      Most of us have experienced some time in our lives when we wished we could change our families. A brief moment in which they would either disappear or magically change overnight. It is often the typical nightmare of a teenager to have mom or dad pick them up at high school and show up in horrid clothes or greet them in some other bizarre manner. It seems to be a right of passage to have at least one embarrassing experience with a loved one. As we age we come to understand that those moments that made us cringe as children were not all that bad. Perhaps age shows us that what we once thought was strange was actually unique. This book is about one such teenager named Lilly who suffers from one embarrassing situation after another. Her mother is a woman who brings home the forgotten elderly, her brother is ADHD at best, her grandmother speaks to an imaginary friend, and her grandfather is profoundly unstable. Lilly's family is the true definition of dysfunctional and makes a person question why certain people breed. She is tired of playing the role of housekeeper, student, mother, and mediator each day. Lilly longs for a normal life with a father, mother, and a brother that can make her proud. In her misery she decides to make a change. A change that will force her family to evolve into something more normal like. Will she accomplish this or will she be let down once again? Is her life truly defined by the past and can her family heal from old wounds?

      This book started off somewhat interesting, but soon became rather dull. I reached the half way mark and had to put it down. I just could not get into the whining and depressive personalities of the characters. It seemed like each person was a walking disaster that tried to out do the prior. I honestly cannot see myself finishing this book and cannot recommend it. It was just too slow for me and there was no story line. It seemed like one descriptive monologue of one person after another. I found it chaotic with the constant introduction of one new character after another or minor characters that had no part in the story. I often was confused on what was actually going on in the story. This book was written as if a person were taking notes and not really writing a story. I would ask a person to check this book out at the library before they bothered to buy it. Going to have to pass on this one. Sorry :(
    • 4/5
      Lovely book. Good characterisation. All the threads coming together at the end was a bit far fetched but I didn't care because it was such a lovely, satisfying read. Y9+
    • 4/5
      One Whole and Perfect Day is marketed as a young adult novel, although only one of the "point of view" characters is in high school. The rest of the characters are adults, several of them are elderly.

      Clarke does an admirable job establishing an individual voice for each of the rather several characters who alternate telling the events culminating in the "whole and perfect day" of the title.

      My disappointment with this book is that the plot is contrived of coincidences. Granted, that is the implicit promise of the novel, but for me it cheapens the hard work the author did to create these characters.
    • 4/5
      The story is slow, but for readers who persist, they will find this book has a satisfying ending. Another view of immigrants and bigotry, this one Australian, will broaden perspectives and engender meaningful discussion. Australian words and slang will increase readers’ interest.
    • 4/5
      Yr 9 - Yr 12.
      Lily's family aren't exactly freaks but they are all peculiar in their own way. And Lily had always been the sensible one. Sometimes she wished she could be like the other girls in her year. Maybe she should fall in love. What could be less sensible than that? Fall in love? Ridiculous! But as she hurried down the corridor she saw Daniel Steadman and their eyes caught, only for a second, but the tiny encounter gave Lily a strange light woozy feeling inside her head. It made her brain feel funny, like a tablet fizzing, dissolving away inside a water glass.