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Perfect:A Novel
Perfect written by Natasha Friend was published in 2004 by Milkweed Editions. Perfect won Milkweed Prize for Children’s Literature award in 2004. This book is about a young girl’s struggle with the disease bulimia nervosa.

Summary
Isabelle Lee is a 13 year old girl whose world got turned upside down after the death of her father. Isabelle’s life seemed somewhat perfect before her father’s death. That soon changed along with her mother’s behavior, her developing a new habit of binge eating, and her relationship with little sister April. Her mother went from being a full time English professor to a part time English professor, who spent the rest of that time in bed complaining of being tired. Her mom was suffering with depression due to her husband’s death. Not only did Isabelle’s mom have trouble coping with the death; Isabelle was also having trouble dealing with the death of her father. She dealt with the death by eating away her emotions and then throwing them up, better known as binge eating. This new habit was discovered by her little sister April, referred to as Ape Face, and then she reported this finding to her mother. This is the part of the book where Isabelle is forced to go to group pyscotherapy because her mother is making her in hopes that she will stop this horrible habit. At first Isabelle is completely against talking to strangers about her problems coping with her father’s death; but soon realizes that group has helped her not only cope with her father’s death but make friends with one of the most popular girls at school. Isabelle realizes towards the end that the once strangers in group are just people like her, who are suffering with an eating disorder because they simply cannot cope. By the end of the book, Isabelle has gone 35 hours and counting without throwing up, has become friends with Ashley Barnum (aka the popular girl), and has gotten her mother back in her life.

Coping
Isabelle had developed an eating disorder of bulimia nervosa due to her problems with coping. Her father had died 2 years prior to her eating disorder. Isabelle felt as if she could not deal or cope with her father’s death. This was due to the fact that she felt as if she did not have the full support of her mother because her mom stayed in her bed depressed. Problems coping with death or things that are stressful are linked as onsets to eating disorders such as bulimia nervosa in Isabelle’s case. Her eating disorder was the only way she felt as if she could control what was taking place in her life, since she could not control the death of her father.

Loneliness
Isabelle experienced the feeling of loneliness especially after her father’s death. She did not necessarily feel accepted by others at her school especially by the popular girls and the guys in her classes. This made her experience loneliness in a social aspect of her life not including the loneliness she felt within her own home. Isabelle felt as if she was by herself when it came to dealing with her father’s death because her mother never wanted to talk about the death. This lack of communication within Isabelle’s family had a lot to do with the fact that she reached out to binge eating as a source of comfort during her times of struggle. Many people who experience eating disorders whether it be anorexia or bulimia nervosa have dealt with feeling lonely with in social situations.

Early Trauma
Isabelle was trying to cope with her father’s death in the wrong way by binge eating. Her father’s death was a very traumatic thing that happened in her life. Therefore, she was not prepared to deal with this traumatic experience so she turned to the comfort of binging and purging. Early trauma experiences such as death, illnesses, and rape have all been linked to the formation of eating disorders in teens and young adults. Not only can these traumatic events cause eating disorders in the immediate future but they can wait and show up in an individual’s middle/late adulthood.

Awards/Achievements of Perfect

 * Isinglass Teen Book Award, 2008
 * Golden Sower Award, 2007
 * Black-Eyed Susan Award nominee, 2007-2008
 * Book Sense Pick, 2005
 * Milkweed Prize for Children's Literature, 2004