One Night [Hardcover]

Margaret Wild (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 11, 2004

Gabe is the best looking guy in school—that’s why his friends send him to get girls to their party. Helen is not much to look at—that’s why her friends want her to come along. But Helen gets under Gabe’s skin in a way no other girl has.

It was one night. One night with lasting consequences. Now Helen has to decide if she wants to keep the baby—and if she should tell Gabe, who hasn’t spoken to her since their one night together.

Filled with love, fear, and the tough choices born of casual acts, One Night is a passionate and compellingly readable novel about teen life, the hardships of parenthood—and the joy and forgiveness between family and friends.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up-Angry at his mother for deserting him, hunky Gabe treats the many girls he meets with a "love them and leave them" attitude. He and his buddies function as a well-oiled machine when it comes to throwing parties, hiding the dysfunction in their families and their personalities behind a smooth facade. Helen, who was born with a disfigured face, hopes to become a plastic surgeon someday. After a one-night stand with Gabe, her world is shattered when she finds that she is pregnant. Written in verse, the book details each small failure and success along the journey toward Gabe and Helen feeling comfortable in the world again. The book takes a sensitive and thoughtful look at a number of other characters as well, each of whom has been betrayed in some way and is dealing, or refusing to deal, with the grief of the situation. Teen readers will love this story and will appreciate its hopeful ending.
Catherine Ensley, Latah County Free Library District, Moscow, ID
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 9-12. Wild returns to the novel-in-verse form that she used in Jinx (2002) in this story about teen pregnancy. Spare, lyrical poems that shift between first-person and third-person perspectives introduce a group of party-throwing boys--Gabe, Al, and Bram. Helen is the girl who falls for Gabe, and when she discovers her pregnancy after their one-night stand, the story shifts to her crisis. Deciding against abortion, she is rejected by her family, and Gabe, who won't take her calls, isn't even aware of the baby. She finds a job and a rooming house owned by elderly Mrs. Evans, who helps care for the baby when he arrives. As Helen tries to knit together Mrs. Evans' broken relationships, she begins to repair her own. The large cast results in some superficial characters and motives, but Wild's poetry has moments of exceptional beauty, and the best scenes, though briefly glimpsed, shimmer with startling, intense feeling. For another view of teen parenthood suggest Angela Johnson's The First Part Last [BKL S 1 2003]. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (May 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375829202
• ISBN-13: 978-0375829208
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,033,517 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, June 5, 2005

By 

Allyn "pianogirl" (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: One Night (Hardcover)

Gabe is a brash teenage guy who steadfastly ignores the pain of his past and seemingly lives only to toy with girls at parties. Helen is a serious, smart girl who wants to be a plastic surgeon and is uncomfortably aware of her previously deformed face. By chance, the two meet at a party that Helen reluctantly went to with a friend. Somehow, Helen and Gabe connect emotionally in an almost magical way and she is pregnant before the night is over. Helen is forced to deal with a life that changes each day in frightening and awe-inspiring ways.

Yes, this book is written in free verse. But as someone who usually shuns poetry, I can say that this style resulted in some of the most mind-blowingly moving images I have ever encountered in a novel. "One Night" is a quick read, composed of many one-or two paged poems that are each meant to chronicle a particular event or feeling in the lives of Helen, Gabe, and those connected to the two main characters. The poems vary in length, yet Wild writes them in such a way as to make every single word count. With surprisingly few words, she captures Gabe's desolation, Helen's powerful spirit, the upheaval the pregnancy causes, and the pain of labor. Wild is able to write in a way that will keep teens reading, but also to express controversial issues and wrenching emotions in ways that would make great authors proud. This is one of those books that you "travel" through with a racing heart, wanting to absorb every word of each poem, yet rushing ahead to find the next stunning line from this author's pen. With its simplicity yet depth and its hopeful ending, "One Night" is a book that will leave an impression.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One Night, September 27, 2006

By 

Beautiful (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Night (Hardcover)

Gabe is bored with the typical girls he's always with and wants something more. When he meets Helen he finally finds a girl who doesn't just see his pretty looks and wants to know the real him. But after one night together he ignores her and refuses to answer her phone calls.
Helen is pregnant. Her parents kicked her out and Gabe wont answer the phone. She doesn't know what to do, but she will do anything to keep her baby.
One Night is a great story. It's written in poems and it's a pretty quick read. I recommend it to anyone.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Lesson in each character learned, November 4, 2009

By 

A. Jacobs - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: One Night (Hardcover)

This book doesn't follow the normal style of writing. It is written in free verse as they call it in the big book world. I never read a fiction book that was written this way so this was new to me. For this book, the style worked. We got to see the story unfold from different points of views. This was a powerful read for young adult and adults. Everyone knows at school there are different crowds. You have the stoners, the drinkers, the popular kids, the geeks, and so on. In this book you will find different kids from different perspectives, yet they all fit together. We have the teenage pregnancy story that we hear about around town and the struggle for young parents. I was deeply moved by this book and I am already passing it to my teenage daughters to read. The author did a wonderful job with free verse and I hope that teens everywhere will read this and take it to heart. There is a lesson to be learned in each characters story.