One Perfect Day: Book Review

I was given One Perfect Day by Lauraine Snelling as a gift, and I began reading this book not knowing what to expect. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading One Perfect Day and loved how emotional the story was. *the book summary contains spoilers for anyone who hasn't finished the book.
       
One Perfect Day tells the story of two mothers on Christmas, Nora Peterson and Jenna Montgomery. Nora Peterson and her husband Gordan have two twins who are seniors in High School, Christi and Charlie. Nora is determined to make their last family Christmas perfect. Nora is already stressed when she receives news that Charlie has been in an accident.  Nora, Christi and Gordan wait at the hospital, praying for a miracle, when their worst fear is confirmed.

Charlie has died.

Knowing what Charlie would've wanted, they decide to donate Charlie's organs and are forced to accept his death. Jenna Montgomery only wants her daughter's health this year for Christmas. Jenna's daughter, Heather, is losing her life to a heart defect she's had the majority of her life. Jenna knows that this is probably their last Christmas together, and wants to give Heather a memorable Christmas. Jenna and Heather's prayers are answered when the death of a young boy leads to Heather receiving a heart transplant. While Jenna and Heather begin their new joyous life, Nora and her family are trying to learn to live their life without Charlie.

Not only did this tell the story of one family's emotional Christmas, Snelling went above and beyond to include the story of a second family's emotional Christmas. These two stories were an emotional roller coaster, I didn't expect to be as emotionally invested as I was. When Nora fell into a depression following Charlie's death, I actually found myself tearing up and was unable to stop reading. I don't react to books emotionally usually, but the way Snelling wrote made it easy for the reader to be pulled into the book. Snelling focuses on Nora's thoughts while she is depressed, this really lets the reader connect to Nora because they are able to understand her thoughts. One of the most emotional lines in One Perfect Day, is:
"Tears leaked from eyes seared raw. Surely, there could be no more tears. Where did they come from? What well that knew no bottom"
This is one of the thoughts Nora has one morning while she is trying to force herself to wake up. This line really drew me in, the idea that Nora should be out of tears made me feel very sympathetic for her.

The connection between the two stories was thoughtful on Snelling's part and granted closure to both stories. I had anticipated a tearful meeting between the two mothers, I thought that they would meet and be able to comfort each other. While that would have made for a good ending, it would have been predictable and wouldn't be memorable to the reader. Snelling choose to go a different route with her ending, I was happily surprised by the ending and loved the hopeful tone it gave the ending.

I would rate this book exceptional due to the emotional content and the surprising connection. For anyone looking for an emotionally engaging book I would seriously recommend reading One Perfect Day.

Fahrenheit 451: Handout

Engaging with difficult, uncomfortable thoughts and experiences is the only route to true happiness.   

Timeline of the Development of Theme:

Montag Montag Montag’s house Granger tells The group

meets witnesses is burned due Montag his leaves to

Clarisse woman die to the books plan for society rebuild society

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Montag and Montag begins   Montag meets Montag and the

Mildred grow to secretly read Granger and a men watch the

distant group of men city blow up

Three Quotes:

Beginning: Montag’s unhappy	Middle: Montag engages in difficult thoughts	End: Montag is more happy
Montag is living in a society full of censorship, hardship, and tragedy. Montag doesn’t question society and enjoys his job to burn houses. When a girl name Clarisse questions his marriage, job and life in general he realizes he’s unhappy. We chose this quote to show how Clarisse had effected Montag, and how Montag wasn’t happy.	Montag begins to question society and wants to change the rules regarding books. Montag doesn’t wants to be a fireman and doesn’t want to burn books. This is an example of Montag beginning to go against society. This is the main conflict throughout the book. We chose this quote to show how Montag is beginning to think that books are important and he wants other people to know.	Montag joins a group of men who enjoy reading and want to change society. Montag and the group watch the destruction of the city. They plan to memorize books and eventually when society is rebuilt they will rewrite the books. We chose this quote because it shows how Montag is doing better and is already beginning to move on from the evil society.
“He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.” (Bradbury 9)	“This afternoon I thought that if it turned out that books were worthwhile, we might get a press and print some extra copies” (Bradbury 81)	“Perhaps later in the morning, when the sun was up and had warmed them they would begin to talk, or just say things they remembered, to be sure they were there, to be absolutely certain things were safe in them.”(Bradbury 157)

The Theme is important to understanding the story because the theme shows how Montag has been able to change from being sad to happy by going against society.

It is important to understand the theme because it shows that you need to confront your fears/concerns in order to be happy.

One Perfect Day: How do the characters deal with conflict?

I just began reading One Perfect Day by Lauraine Snelling, so far I love how Snelling conveys the characters' emotion. One Perfect Day takes place in two households, the grieving house of Nora Peterson and the rejoicing house of Jenna Montgomery.

Nora Peterson and her husband Gordan have two twins, Christi and Charlie. As this is their last Christmas before Christi and Charlie leave for college, Nora wants it to be perfect. Jenna Montgomery and her daughter Heather, who is struggling with a heart defect, are praying for a donor and trying to forget that this could be their last Christmas. One event will change both families lives forever. *Spoilers* When Charlie dies in a car accident, Nora falls into a depression and can't figure out how to move on with her life.

Nora struggles the most outwardly to deal with her grief, while Gordan and Christi resume their normal schedule to try to move on. Nora avoid talking about anything that relates to Charlie, and refuses to enter his bedroom. After a few days Nora's friend Susan comes over to try to convince Nora to leave the house. Nora is reserved and considers ignoring Susan, she would rather sleep all day than live a normal life without Charlie. Nora agrees to go skiing with the condition that Susan "will not ask me any questions or make any comments." I think that Nora's actions show how caring a mother she is. Nora's unwilling to talk about Charlie's death because she doesn't know how to move on. As a mother, the last eighteen years of Nora's life have been focused on Charlie and Christi. Now that she only has Christi, who hardly talks to her anyway, Nora's unsure of what she's supposed to do. Nora questions if she's moving on to quickly and even feels guilty about how quickly the funeral took place.

In comparison, while we don't know Christi's thoughts, Christi tries to continue her life as normal. Christi and Nora begin fighting after a few days, when Nora tries to take down the Christmas tree. Nora believes that taking down the Christmas tree will make it easier for everyone to move on because they won't have to open presents and remember Christmas with Charlie. This clearly upsets Christi, she makes a point to tell Nora that "we haven't even opened our presents. I was hoping we could do that tonight." Yes, Christi is upset by Charlie's death and cries multiple times but she wants to be able to move on. This shows how strong Christi is, to be able to act normal when she's dealing with such a terrible loss takes strength. While Nora is sitting at home avoiding the thought of Charlie, Christi has to return to school.

I am looking forward to finishing this book, and can't wait to see if the two families ever meet each other. I would recommend this book to someone wanting a very emotional story that allows them to connect to the characters.