BOOK REVIEWS: Perfect

Perfect

by Natasha Friend © 2004, Milkweed Editions, 232 pg., $6.95

I hope everyone remembers reading a story that changed them in some way. Maybe as a child, you read about someone whose parents were getting a divorce, or about cliques and bullies, friendship, moving to a new place, or feeling different. During challenging times, a book can give insight into your world and help you learn about yourself in the process.

The young adult novel Perfect by Natasha Friend is about Isabelle, a 13-year-old girl who is a reluctant member of an "Eating Disorder and Body Image Therapy Group." Reeling from her dad's death and struggling with body image concerns, Isabelle begins binge eating and purging. Imagine her surprise when one of the most popular girls in school, Ashley Barnum, shows up in the group, too. The group leader, Trish, takes the girls through discussions and activities to encourage them to think about eating disorders, self-esteem, and how things going on in life relate to body image.

The girls learn to say positive things about themselves through journal writing and working in partners to talk about the voice of negativity. During one session, they look at magazines and make comments like, "These girls are so perfect." It is Ashley who reveals something important when she suggests that the girls in the magazines might not be what they seem. "Maybe underneath all that…. perfect… it's not so great for them… You can't always tell just from looking."

This book provides many opportunities to talk about what is not so perfect in life. For Isabelle, the death of her father is an important issue, one she has not spoken about to anyone. Ashley has her own secrets (I don't want to tell all here—read the book!) The new girl at school, Paula, longs to be at the popular table, where you can only sit "if you're… on the field hockey team, and you…have long shiny hair and a toothpaste smile, and perfectly broken-in size zero jeans (pg. 33)."

When I read books like this with groups of girls, I ask them to pick a character and see how they are similar to that person. Some girls will connect to Isabelle, while others will see themselves as more like Ashley or the other characters. If you read Perfect, see if you relate to any of the girls in the story. What do you wish you could tell her? How is she like you? Who would you like to include in your circle of friends? This is a great book to read with others. It can be part of group counseling, or read with a friend, mother, or an aunt. I think if you read it, you'll understand more about what is not quite… perfect.

A Therapist's Perspective

Using this book in a therapeutic setting, readers can be encouraged to identify with a character, experience a catharsis (an emotional release), and develop an insight based on the connection. Since this experience may be enhanced when the characters are the same gender and age of the reader, Perfect is… perfect for adolescent girls.

I also like to use a cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) model with this book. Without providing detail on this theory, one aspect of CBT can be explained as the relationship between antecedents, behaviors, and consequences. In Perfect, I work with readers to develop an understanding of the characters' challenges (antecedents and consequences) that are faced in the story. Relationships between the problems may become clear, and discussions can be motivated around what changing the consequences might mean for a character, as well as for the reader who has an eating concern.