First Quarter Outside Reading Book Review

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. Washington Square Press, 2004.
Genre : Fiction

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, it one of her well known books, and by far my favorite. The story is based on a typical family. It took place in there town. At their house, the hospital, courtroom, or the firestation where her father worked. There's a mother Sara, father Brian, son Jesse, and two daughters Anna and Kate. There mother used to be a lawyer untill there daughter got dianosed with leukemia. Kate was diagnosed with leukemia when she was little, she had to undergo countless surgeries, and transfusions. Before Kate was born, nobody had the right stem cells to be a donor for her, so they had Anna, who matched the blood cells perfectly. Ever sence Anna was two months old, she had been donating countless things to Kate to make her servive. Whenever Kate ended up in the hospital so was Anna. Anna never got to live the life that any other child had. She couldn't go away to hockey camps (which was her favorite sport) she had to be there at any time incase Kate did go into the hospital. When she finally reached the age of 13,she decided to get a lawyer, and file a lawsuit against her parents, so that she would no longer have to donate organs, or blood to Kate. There were many complications during the file, that led to her moving out with her father for a little while, and staying at the fire station where he worked. Then ended up working out the case by letting Anna decided wheather on not she wanted to donate whatever was needed for Kate. They thought there life was going to be fine after that but one day Anna was in a serious car accident, after going to the court to sign papers on the case with her lawyer. They got hit by a truck and had to use the jaws of life, when Anna's father arived at the scene, due to being a EMT and firefighter, he noticed Anna in the backseat and her lawyer in the front semi breathing. Then got Anna out and rushed her to the hopital, they told the family that she suffered serious brain damage and wasnt going to live. Everyone was devistated, while Kate was worse. She took all the blame out on her, if it wasnt for her having to have Anna donate all the things to her, if she didnt have Leukimia Anna would never filed that lawsuit and have been killed. The book ended with them showing how they dealt with Anna's lose, and all the ways they remembered her.
" Picoult writes with a fine touch, a sharp eye for detail, and a firm grasp of the deicacy and complexity of human relationships " said The Boston Globe.
In My Sister's Keeper she writes with a lot of description. Its like your almost there with them when there at the hospital. You know everything there doing, whoose there, what Kate is doing, how she is feeling, and what she is hooked up to. Her writing is very vivid and in depth.
This reminds me of the book i read called The Perfect Storm. That same writer wrote as if you were there with them at sea, when the storm was at its roughest, and people where getting serverally injured.
"No matter how many times you drive to the emergency room, it never becomes a routine. Brian carries our daughter in his arms, blood running down her face. The triage nurse waves us inside, shepherds the other kids to the bank of plastic chairs where they can wait. A resident comes into the cubicle, all business. "What happened?" - Sara, page 223.
Reading the book made me think of all the stress that family goes through. I feel how there parents do, probally not able to go to sleep at night without knowing if there daughter will be with them the next day. How Anna feels every time she if forced into giving something to Kate, always having to stick around for her. How Kate must feel going into all those surgieries hopeing she makes it out okay, and lastly for Jesse. The one thats left out, who doesnt get a lot of attention. I can picture and almost sence how all of them must feel.

ringing of the beach

What is value? What is valuable to you? Many people have different assumptions to what value is. Some people value those moments when you’re a baby and say your first word, or loose your first tooth, your first day of kindergarten, or high school. There are many valuable things in the world. For me, the two things I value most are my cell phone and the beach.

On weekends it’s my life, while on week days it’s just a way of contacting someone. As I finish getting ready I hear the loud vibration that my cell phone is giving. Rihanna’s new single of “live your life” is going off. I quickly run over, see who it is that’s calling me, then flip it open and say “hello.” Wherever I go my cell phone is always at my side. Whether its to the mall, friends, or on long vacations…I always will have it.
My cell phone is decked out. Its nice than many others, equipped with a touch screen, full keypad to open up to, mobile television and web, navigator and blue tooth. It’s a slick black with silver edges: it’s the voyager. Due to not having my cell phone for more than three months I already love it. Compared to others that don’t have half the stuff mine offers it’s pretty good. I don’t know what I would without my cell phone. It allows me to contact people when I am in a rush, or just plain texting people when I am bored.


The car ride is very long and dreadful. Sitting there crammed in a car that’s way over the capacity limit. I am stuck in the way back against the window. It’s not even comfortable to recline seeing there no room as for the beach chairs blankets and boogie boards take up half the car and the roof. One of my families favorite beach is Good Harbor Beach located in Gloucester Ma. My family has been going there ever since I was little, and we enjoy it so much. When we finally arrive there we all grab something to bring and go pick a spot on the beach. We unpack everything then everyone goes off on there own to enjoy the sun and waves.

I open my eyes to the bright sun shinning, and sand between my toes. I slowly get up to see all the kids making sand castles and enjoying the warm water. Seagulls snatching and cawing for food, sea weed and sea shells awaiting you when you enter the water, oh and don’t forget those sharks!

The beach is very valuable to me. I love everything about it. Being able to lie out and soak up the sun, enjoy the refreshing water when it gets too hot, and make works of art in the sand. I love the ice cold Italian ice you can purchase at the concession stand, or all the other scrumptious foods.


With that said, there are many ways to value things. It could be something you value a lot, or something that you value least but is still worth something to you. Also, there are many things to value in the world and many people have different things. As for me it’s my cell phone and the beach. Although the beach and cell phone are completely different things and there’s not really a good way to compare them both, I would have to say they both let me explore. The beach lets me by seeing all the new things in the ocean or in the sand, and my cell phone by searching the web or finding new interesting things it has. These are two things that I value and mean a lot in my life. Those are my cell phone and the beach!