Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult was born May 19th, 1966 on Long Island. She was awarded the New England Bookseller Award for fiction in 2003. She wrote her first story at age 5 tiltiled, "The Lobster Which Understood." After earning a masters degree in education from Harvard University, she became the writer of DC Comics' Wonder Woman. She got married to a man named, Tim Van Leer, whom she met in college. Soon after they got married, they had 3 kids named Sammy, Kyle, and Jake. Her first book at #1on the New York Times Best Seller List debut was "Ninetten Minutes.

Wkikpedia. File: JodiPicoult.jpg. March 7th, 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jodipicoult.jpg.

Wikipedia. Jodi Picoult. March 7th, 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodi_Picoult.

Are you someone's Keeper?

I think that I am my friends "keeper" because we all look out for eachother. If one of my friends needs someone to talk to they know they can always come to me to get advice or if they need help with something. Me and my friends always look out for eachother and listen to one another when something or somebody important comes intoo one of our lives. If someone gets hurt we always look out for eachother by buying them a gift or making them feel better. This year we decided to all buy gifts for eachother on Valentine's Day to let eachother know that we are always here whenever we need eachother. We also saw the movie "Valentines Day" on Valentines Day. We pretty much hang out either every weekend or every other weekend. We can talk on the phone with eachother for hours and we all get along perfectly.

Character profile

Kate

• Closest to her mom and her siblings
• Older sister of Anna and Jesse
• About 16 years old
• Does not like getting shots
• Has APL
• Lost all of her hair because of her Leukemia

Discussion Questions 1 and 2

1. Publisher’s Weekly call My Sister’s Keeper a “a spellbinding suspense novel.” Give your input on why this magazine might call this story suspenseful. Think about the way the book is written from different perspectives and how sections end. Do you want to read more? Are there things that are a mystery in the story? How does Jodi Picoult reveal these secrets as the story moves along? Are there any questions that you want to know at this point in the story?


I think that it is called a suspense novel because once you read some of the book you want to keep reading more and more. It also makes it better because the story is told in different perspectives of each character and how they feel about each other. You always want to know what is going to happen in the end with Kate and all of the characters in the story. One question that I have is, “What is going to happen to Kate?”



#2. What is your opinion of Sara? With her life focused on saving Kate, she sometimes neglects her other children. Jesse is rapidly becoming a juvenile delinquent, and Anna is invisible -- a fact that the little girl knows only too well. What does this say about Sara's role as a mother? What would you have done in her shoes? Has she unwittingly forgotten Jesse and Anna, or do you think she has consciously chosen to neglect them -- either as an attempt to save a little energy for herself, or as some kind of punishment? Does Sara resent her other children for being healthy? Did you find yourself criticizing Sara, empathizing with her, or both?

My opinion of Sara is that she is trying to rush Anna and do anything to make Kate survive. Sometimes she spends so much time with Kate having to always look after her is some emergency comes up and neglects her other children. Sara seems like she isn’t worried to much about her other children because Jesse is doing drugs and running away and Anna is trying to sew her. I think that she should spend more time with her other children and not neglect them and let them do their own stuff that will hurt them in the long run.

News Feed

Anna


• 13 years old – Anna Fitzgerald

• Scientists used her mother’s egg and her father’s sperm to create her. She was made to save her sisters life

• Anna wants to hire a lawyer named Campbell

• Campbell tries to send Anna away, and she explains that she wants Campbell to help her sue her parents for the right to her own body

Campbell

• Lawyer

• He agrees to represent her because he thinks the case will be easy to win and have great publicity

• Anna leaves after Campbell tells her he will file a petition in family court for her medical emancipation

• Campbell’s dog, Judge, pushes against him, apparently alerting Campbell to something

Sara

• Told from a 1990 perspective

• Her husband is a firefighter and she regrets giving up her career as stay at home mother

• Sara notices a bruise on Kate’s shoulder and by the next couple days its spread to go down her whole spine area

• Kate goes to the hospital and they find out that Kate has (APL)

• She has a 20-30% survival rate

• Sara does not want Kate to die

Brian

• The fire started because a body got stuck in the cremation incinerator

• Kate upsets Sara because she is wearing a shirt with the word “cancer” on it

• Anna seems upset and does not have her locket on

• Brian goes to the fire station and Anna goes there to visit him and they watch the stars from the roof of the station

Anna

• Anna and Sara talk about kidney donation at the hospital

• An officer comes in and gives Sara the papers from Anna’s medical emancipation

• Jesse picks up Anna from the hospital because Sara is really had at her

• Anna refuses to drop the lawsuit, and despite Brian’s protests, Sara grows even angrier until she slaps Anna

• Kate says to Anna that she is her only friend and she can’t stand to lose her

• Sara and Anna are going to fix everything

Sara

• Sara and Brian see an oncologist who will be in charge of Kate’s treatments

• They start getting overwhelmed with all the stuff they need for Kate

• Kate starts chemotherapy and gets very sick and might need bone marrow

• Dr. Chance tells Sara that if she and Brian have more children, one sibling could be a match

• After chemo, Kate develops a infection and goes to the hospital

• Sara is thinking of having another kid

Campbell

• Campbell stops for coffee and gives his waiter a new sarcastic explanation of his service dog, Judge and when he comes back to his office Anna is there

• Sara tells Campbell that Anna has changed her mind, but Anna tells Campbell she has not

• Campbell goes to the courthouse and Sara is there and she decides to act as counsel for her and Brian

• They decide they need to speak with Anna

Anna

• Anna thinks about what her funeral would be like

• At the courthouse they discuss the situation and Anna says that she can’t give Kate the kidney

• She said she never wanted to stop the lawsuit because she loves her mother

• Anna comes home and Sara then says that she practically signed Kate’s death sentence

• She goes to the Laundromat and thinks about life without Kate and cant

Jesse

• Jesse thinks about life when he used to light bath soap on fire to show Anna

• When he’s driving down the highway he thinks about crashing his car because he would be worth more being dead

• Jesse then meets a homeless man named Dan and Jesse gives him food if Dan will watch his things (stolen acid and sawdust)

• He goes to an abandoned warehouse and starts a fire

• When he returns home Kate is vomiting blood

• The doctor tells Sara and Jesse that Kate is in the end stages of kidney failure

• All they need is Anna’s kidney to save Anna but Jesse offers him his kidney but it must be an exact match

25 facts about me

1. I go to church every Sunday.
2. I am really close to all of my family.
3. I have 1 sister
4. I have 1 dog and 2 fish
5. I play JV field hockey
6. I was the manager of the John Carroll swimming team this year.
7. I do JV badmitton
8. I HATE scary movies
9. I am scared of all flying objects.
10. I do not like crabs or any seafood.
11. I am a very light sleeper
12. My favorite food is italian food.
13. I love all kinds of music.
14. I love to hang out with my friends and have sleepovers
15. The best vacation i ever went on was to Hawaii
16. I have traveled to many states on vacations... About 15
17. Every Easter either my cousins come to my house or i go to theirs
18. I love helping out with special olympians
19. I have to take a shower every single day
20. My room is a mess. I throw everything on my floor when done and i do not pick up anything
21. Math is my worst subject.
22. I want to be a radiologist when i grow up.
23. I want to have a huge house and 2 kids when i grow up
24. I hate reading.
25. I am a very atheletic girl and love to play outside.

What's in a name

My parents chose my first name Stephanie because Stephen was my dad's dad and Anna was my mom's grandmothers middle name. For my middle name, they picked Rose because it was my dad's mothers middle name. If I were to be a boy they said they would have named me Craig or Steven. My name means "crowned" or "victorious". I like my name because not many other people have the name, Stephanie, and it is long so people can call me "Steph" or whatever nicknames they have for me.