Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days!

The award-winning 1982 novel Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days! is by Stephen Manes, an American author, journalist, columnist, and screenwriter. It was adapted to film in 1984 as part of a series called WonderWorks on PBS. Manes has published more than 30 children and young adult books, including this novel’s bestselling sequel, Make Four Million Dollars by Next Thursday!” (1996). One of his more recent books is a nonfiction exploration into the workings of a ballet company titled Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet (2011), which garnered positive critical attention. Together with his portfolio of children’s books and technology journalism, highlights Manes’s diverse literary talent. A native of Pittsburgh, Manes moved to Seattle later in life.

The paperback novel used for this study guide was published in 2018 by Cadwallader & Stern.

Plot Summary

Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days! tells the story of Milo Crinkley, a young boy who accidentally comes across a book written by Dr. K. Pinkerton Silverfish. A scruffy, strange looking man, Silverfish promises to make Milo perfect in just three days. The book falls on Milo’s head while he is in the library looking for monster stories, painfully getting his attention.