Perfect Family

In the beginning, the reason I got this book was actually so that I could do an English project. But soon after I had started reading the book, I found out that I too couldn't put the book down! I had no idea how much I would actually end up reading this book, AND enjoy it. While I was reading the book, I could only image how hard it must of been for Welcome to go through all of these tragedies. Not only does she have an unexpected pregnancy in her early teen years, but she also had to over come family problems at the same time. This book is definately not one of your tipical Young Adult books, were everything is like a story from a fairy tale. I fully agree with the other reviews, were it has been said that it is so realistic, and coinsides to our society today. But I think that's the reason why this book is so good, because it seems you can relate to it more. I definately recommend this book to anyone!

I happened across this book while at "story time" at our local library with my four year old. I read the inside flaps, and said 'what the heck'? Who was going to know I checked out a book form the kids' section? Perfect Family by Jerrie Oughton was one of the best books I've ever read. I highly recommend it to women of any age. Welcome O'Neal lives in Lily, North Carolina. It's 1955, and any unwed mother gets shipped off to have their babies. Welcome falls in love with a handsome, and older, Nicholas Canton, but her parents are not too fond of the idea. After a drunken Nicholas lets her down at a dance, Welcome, at the young age of 15, becomes pregnant by close friend who will go off to attend NC State University. I won't tell you anymore... I'll just say this is a wonderful book - even to a 27 year old Mom!

Perfect Family is an ideal portrait of the life of a girl in the mid 50's. When a girl in that era had a problem she is told to keep it to herself so as not to embarrass the family. But what is a girl to do when the problem is to big for her to handle. This is exactly what happens to Welcome O'Neal, the protagonist in the story. Welcome is a typical 15 year old girl who enjoys time with her family and attending church every Sunday. When she meets Nicholas Canton, an older and wilder boy, she immediately falls into puppy love. Their relationship ends suddenly and Welcome feels a sense of abandonment and loneliness. She needs to fill this void, and on a date with an old friend she unexpectedly makes the decision to lose her virginity to him. This is the beginning of a new life for Welcome. One that she never wanted to enter, but now has to deal with. When she finally did find out that she was pregnant she had no one to turn to. She knew her parents would be disgusted by her. They had always thought of their family as being taintless, nothing could stop them because they were untouchable. But the families flawless reputation was soon to change. Welcome did not want to let her family down with her horrible behaviors and their results. So the only person she now had to turn is her older sister. Evelyn Sue, like Welcome, is very immature. She does not know how to handle the situation and does not offer any thoughtful advice. The only suggestion she gives her (besides standing upside down hoping for a miscarriage) is an abortion. This was a time when there were no legalized abortions. Even though Welcome thought of aborting her pregnancy she knew in her heart that she could not. The primary reason that Welcome could not go through with the abortion was because she has always had the idea of having the perfect family. After her sister ran away to California in search of James Dean and now Welcome becoming pregnant they were about as far off from being the perfect family as you could be. So once again Welcome has to deal with her consequences alone. Because of her parents influence, Welcome begins to have a complex in her head as to she needs to have a perfect family. She feels the need to be able to provide her child with everything, including a father. When Welcome realizes that this is not possible, she decides to tell her parents. Like everyone else around Welcome they do not know how to handle the news. They treat her like a disease and decide that she needs to move away to her relatives house in Virginia Beach. Surprisingly this works out better than expected because in her travels she meets a wonderfully inspiring black woman named Hattie, who would travel with Welcome in her heart throughout the rest of her life. Welcome's determination throughout the novel is what carried this story through what many would say to be an emotional roller coaster. The author, Jerrie Oughton, captures your interest within the first few

The Perfect Family, Oughton's third young adult novel, is as piercingly realistic as award-winning "Music from a Place Called Half Moon" and "The War in Georgia." Families are not perfect, and Oughton understands that all too well. In this 1950's family, fifteen-year-old Welcome Marie O'Neal becomes pregnant, and her sister runs off to California in search of James Dean. Living with her supportive aunt and uncle, Welcome must choose what to do with her baby, and with her own life. Oughton's writing is gentle and perceptive; her voice is strong; her characters are real. I highly recommend this and her other YA novels.

Sentence by sentence, the writing in PERFECT FAMILY is a pleasure. Chapter to chapter, the story of this book's spunky imperfect heroine is a page turner. PERFECT FAMILY is a kind, sensible, supremely thoughtful treatment of a problem faced by young people ever since Genesis: unplanned pregnancy. Jerrie Oughton tells it straight, and then helps. PERFECT FAMILY shows how trouble can come, shows how serious consequences can be, and shows concrete, realistic ways to deal with these consequences. Along the way, it answers a lot of questions a pregnant girl wants to ask. PERFECT FAMILY does for pre-marital sex what ARE YOU THERE, GOD did for menstruation. I recommend it to every female teenager, and it wouldn't hurt boys to take a look too!