0
    • Elementary Secondary Higher Ed Common Reads
    0 0
    Download high-resolution image Look inside
    Listen to a clip from the audiobook
    audio play button
    0:00
    0:00

    Just One Day

    Author Gayle Forman
    Look inside
    Listen to a clip from the audiobook
    audio play button
    0:00
    0:00
    Paperback
    $10.99 US
    Penguin Young Readers | Speak
    On sale Aug 20, 2013 | 416 Pages | 9780142422953
    Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies

    See Additional Formats
    From the New York Times bestselling author of If I Stay comes a book about love, heartbreak, travel, and the “accidents” of fate that often prove the people we are seeking are much closer than we know.

    “Reading like a teen version of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, this tale of romance and mystery engages readers and will cause them to examine their definitions of love and self-identity.”—School Library Journal, starred review

    “Offering mystery, drama, and an evocative portrait of unrequited love, this open-ended novel will leave fans eagerly anticipating the companion story.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

    In order to get found, you first have to get lost . . .

    Allyson Healey’s life is exactly like her suitcase—packed, planned, ordered. Then on the last day of her three-week post-graduation European tour, she meets Willem. A free-spirited, roving actor, Willem is everything she’s not, and when he invites her to abandon her plans and come to Paris with him, Allyson says yes. This uncharacteristic decision leads to a day of risk and romance, liberation and intimacy: twenty-four hours that will transform Allyson’s life.
         He doesn't show up until act two. He's playing Sebastian, Viola's twin brother, thought dead. Which makes a certain sense, because by the time he does arrive, I am beginning to think he never really existed, that I've merely conjured him.
         As he races through the green, chased after by the ever-loyal Antonio, we chase after him. After a while, I work up my nerve. "Let's get closer," I say to Melanie. She grabs my hand, and we get to the front of the crowd right at the part where Olivia's clown comes for Sebastian and they argue before Sebastian sends him away. Right before he does, he seems to catch my eye for half a second.
         As the hot day softens into twilight and I'm sucked deeper into the illusory world of Illyria, I ffeel like I've entered some weird otherworldly space, where anything can happen, where identities can be swapped like shoes.
    Copyright © 2013 by Gayle Forman. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
    © Laina Karavani
    Gayle Forman is an award-winning, internationally bestselling author and journalist. She is the author of Just One Day and Just One Year, and the companion e-novella Just One Night, as well as the New York Times bestsellers If I Stay and Where She Went. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and daughters. View titles by Gayle Forman
    “[Forman’s] very good on travel’s expansive effects, the fluidity of teenage identity and the yearning for reinvention, how fleeting encounters can transform us.”—The New York Times Book Review

    “Readers were enthralled with Forman’s If I Stay books, and now she’s captivated them again. . . . [W]e’re brought into a world of Shakespeare, borrowed identities, and the crushing and exhilarating experience of first love found and lost.”—NPR’s The Roundtable

    “Reading like a teen version of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, this tale of romance and mystery engages readers and will cause them to examine their definitions of love and self-identity.”—School Library Journal, starred review

    “Offering mystery, drama, and an evocative portrait of unrequited love, this open-ended novel will leave fans eagerly anticipating the companion story.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

    “As [Allyson] blossoms a. . . the novel becomes absorbing, and readers will find themselves rooting for Allyson’s more autonomous and interesting self.”—Kirkus Reviews

    “Romantics will get swept up in the story, which has it all: true love, Paris, Shakespeare, and yes, hte notion that 'anything can happen in just one day.'”—Booklist

    About

    From the New York Times bestselling author of If I Stay comes a book about love, heartbreak, travel, and the “accidents” of fate that often prove the people we are seeking are much closer than we know.

    “Reading like a teen version of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, this tale of romance and mystery engages readers and will cause them to examine their definitions of love and self-identity.”—School Library Journal, starred review

    “Offering mystery, drama, and an evocative portrait of unrequited love, this open-ended novel will leave fans eagerly anticipating the companion story.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

    In order to get found, you first have to get lost . . .

    Allyson Healey’s life is exactly like her suitcase—packed, planned, ordered. Then on the last day of her three-week post-graduation European tour, she meets Willem. A free-spirited, roving actor, Willem is everything she’s not, and when he invites her to abandon her plans and come to Paris with him, Allyson says yes. This uncharacteristic decision leads to a day of risk and romance, liberation and intimacy: twenty-four hours that will transform Allyson’s life.

    Excerpt

         He doesn't show up until act two. He's playing Sebastian, Viola's twin brother, thought dead. Which makes a certain sense, because by the time he does arrive, I am beginning to think he never really existed, that I've merely conjured him.
         As he races through the green, chased after by the ever-loyal Antonio, we chase after him. After a while, I work up my nerve. "Let's get closer," I say to Melanie. She grabs my hand, and we get to the front of the crowd right at the part where Olivia's clown comes for Sebastian and they argue before Sebastian sends him away. Right before he does, he seems to catch my eye for half a second.
         As the hot day softens into twilight and I'm sucked deeper into the illusory world of Illyria, I ffeel like I've entered some weird otherworldly space, where anything can happen, where identities can be swapped like shoes.
    Copyright © 2013 by Gayle Forman. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

    Author

    © Laina Karavani
    Gayle Forman is an award-winning, internationally bestselling author and journalist. She is the author of Just One Day and Just One Year, and the companion e-novella Just One Night, as well as the New York Times bestsellers If I Stay and Where She Went. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and daughters. View titles by Gayle Forman

    Praise

    “[Forman’s] very good on travel’s expansive effects, the fluidity of teenage identity and the yearning for reinvention, how fleeting encounters can transform us.”—The New York Times Book Review

    “Readers were enthralled with Forman’s If I Stay books, and now she’s captivated them again. . . . [W]e’re brought into a world of Shakespeare, borrowed identities, and the crushing and exhilarating experience of first love found and lost.”—NPR’s The Roundtable

    “Reading like a teen version of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, this tale of romance and mystery engages readers and will cause them to examine their definitions of love and self-identity.”—School Library Journal, starred review

    “Offering mystery, drama, and an evocative portrait of unrequited love, this open-ended novel will leave fans eagerly anticipating the companion story.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

    “As [Allyson] blossoms a. . . the novel becomes absorbing, and readers will find themselves rooting for Allyson’s more autonomous and interesting self.”—Kirkus Reviews

    “Romantics will get swept up in the story, which has it all: true love, Paris, Shakespeare, and yes, hte notion that 'anything can happen in just one day.'”—Booklist

    Additional formats

    Other Books by this Author

    Related Articles

    Books for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Book Covers: Cowboys and East Indians 9798217006892 Advocate 9781984862495 THE EMPEROR OF GLADNESS 9780593831878 IT RHYMES WITH TAKEI 9781603095747
    General

    Books for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

    Each May, we honor the stories, histories, and cultures of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. Below is a selection of acclaimed fiction and nonfiction books by AANHPI creators to share with your students this month and throughout the year. Find our full collection of titles for Higher Education here.

    Read more

    Books for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

    General
    Subscribe

    Penguin Random House Higher Education

    © 2026 Penguin Random House

    Back to Top
    0
    Wish List (0)