My Sisters Keeper

Name: Michelle Sherwin

Grade: 12+
Title: My Sister's Keeper
Author: Jodi Picoult


What would you do if you were born specifically to save someone else? Maybe like Anna it was meant to be a one time save or maybe it would be time after time. Anna who is 13 at the time of this story looks at how she was born and made for a different purpose than any of the other people who are around her. The unfortunate truth that she is in the midst of discovering is that unlike girls her age who are trying to figure themselves out and who they are she is trying to see herself not connected to her sister and her sisters leukemia. What would it be like, she thinks, if her sister were not always sick and in need of another piece of her? Anna sets out to find the answer to this question when she files for medical emancipation. This whole ordeal takes her family and many of the other people around her by surprise. She continues to get help from her lawyer Campbell Alexander. Although he is not thrilled by the case he finds that it challenges him in every way he never would have expected it too. During this Kate begins to get sick and in need of another transplant and their mother Sara seems to be continually living in the past and never wanting to get beyond that. The dividing lines begin to be seen throughout the family, but is this problem bigger than the lawsuit. Everyone must explore some of the simplest concepts of life including how do you define who you are? and don't take things from people without asking. But will it be to late for Kate by the time anyone can ask Anna?

I liked the way the book seemed to always be moving and how each of the characters got to tell parts of the story from their own point of view. It took a little getting use to in order to understand each characters point of view.

I did not like the way that the author did not reveal how some of the characters were affected by the ending from their own point of view. The only character we do hear the ending from is Kate and I was hoping that the rest of the characters would give a little insight on their feelings at the end of the book.

I picked this book up because it looked interesting and it seemed like a book that would bring a bit of a challenge to me. While this book did not present a challenge to me on the level that it was written it did present a challenge to me in thinking about what I would do given the choices Anna was given.

I finished it because even in to the epilogue there were new things to discover about each of the characters and a chance to get to know them better.

I would give this book to anyone who likes to be challenged in the way they think about life.

My rating for this book is a ***