My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult | Teen Ink

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

April 19, 2010
By KatieT96 BRONZE, Hinton, West Virginia
KatieT96 BRONZE, Hinton, West Virginia
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Some families are great and stable, but the family in My Sister’s Keeper is far from perfect. In 1990, in a small town, Kate was diagnosed with leukemia. Ever since then, the family has been messed up. Now, at age 15, Kate is spending most of her time in the hospital room, which is her home away from home. Kate’s parents are trying to take good care of their children, but they are sidetracked by a lawsuit.

Sara is the mother of 3 and in a somewhat stable relationship with her husband, Brian. Kate is the oldest daughter, who has had leukemia for the past 10 years. Even though she is always pale and scarred with bruises, her spirit is always good. Jesse, the only son, is sort of the problem child. He is addicted to drugs, an alcoholic, and an arsonist. He burns down abandoned buildings while his father Brian, tries to do his job and extinguish the fire. Brain is a firefighter, who finds a shocking discovery at the end of the book that will leave you reading for hours. The last child is Anna. She was born with one job to do, and that was to save Kate’s life. She was created by doctors to have the same blood type as Kate. She gave her blood from her umbilical cord, blood cells, and painfully gave her bone marrow. Campbell Alexander is a lawyer who has special needs. He has random seizures that his special needs dog, Judge, can sense. Campbell and Judge have been spending hours in the courtroom with a real judge, due to a child suing her parents. I wonder what child that would be.

Jodi Picoult makes the conflict in My Sister’s Keeper very interesting. Anna isn’t sick but she might as well be. She spends endless hours at the hospital making donations that will soon be in Kate’s body. Kate is tired of suffering from pain of her cancer, so she tells Anna to terminate her generous donations. Anna finds no other way to fulfill Kate’s wishes than to take it to court. She hires Campbell Alexander as her lawyer, and she sues her parents for legal medical emancipation.

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult has a very good moral. It is that love is strong, and you should do whatever it takes to help one another. Sometimes, your help could not be wanted, but you should always be willing. The themes are realistic and love between the family. Love is also expressed between Kate and another cancer patient named Taylor. Their love is very strong until he passes away. The reality is that cancer can affect any family, any person.

My Sister’s Keeper is a good, loving, and strong family book. It shows different sides of people and the struggles they face. Jodi Picoult makes this book have a shocking and twisted ending that will leave you speechless. To find out that alternate ending, you will just have to read the book. Recommendations go out to anyone, no matter what genre you like best. This book will surely be on your list of favorites.


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