'My Sister's Keeper' Book Review

The novel I have studied is ‘My Sisters Keeper’ by Jodi Piccoult. This novel is based in the United States and is based around a teenage girl, Kate who has had Leukaemia from a young age.        
   In this novel, we come across many characters, the main ones being Kate and her family. The story is told from the point of view of Anna, Kate’s thirteen year old sister, who was brought into the world to help her sister to survive. Anna is my favourite character in this novel. Throughout the novel we read of the family’s troubles, up’s and down’s, and mostly, how Anna feels about the whole situation.         
         There are many themes in this novel such as love, family, sadness, sickness and hope, but the theme that interested me was the theme of conflict. Conflict develops at the start of the novel and continues throughout. The strongest element of conflict in this novel is when Anna goes to see a lawyer behind her family’s back, and asks for the right to her own body.       
           At this point she is fed up of always being used to help her sister survive. We read of how every time her sister Kate goes into hospital, she somehow always ends up there too. Shortly afterwards, her parents find out about the lawyer she hired and Anna and her parents have a row in the kitchen.   
           I liked this novel as I could relate to the setting, the home life and everyday lives were similar to mine. The family live in a standard house, in a normal house, in a basic neighbourhood. The children went to school and the family did things together at the weekend. They struggled with money sometimes, but managed to keep their heads above water. The culture in this novel is similar to my culture and therefore I could relate to it.      
          I liked the writer’s style in this novel. We see the point of view from a young teenager and we see how life is in her mind. At different stages in the book, we are told the novel from different points of view, for example when Anna goes into the lawyer, we read a chapter from his point of view and we see how he saw Anna and what he thought of her case. In one part of the novel the point of view switches from Anna to her father. We read of how he feels towards Kate’s illness.
            The writer uses a lot of dialogue in this novel, and a lot of conversations take place. She also writes paragraphs to describe how Anna is feeling and what exactly she is thinking. 
           Overall, I think the writer has a mixture of both optimistic and pessimistic outlook on the novel. The main vibe throughout the novel is negative, with Kate’s illness being the main plot to of the novel, but she also writes of the positive elements such as the happy moments the family has together. However, the ending is dramatic, but it also describes to the reader how the family feel and how they move on with their lives.            I really enjoyed the novel and I think it would be a good novel to read with our class and to study

And the Nominees Are...

I would like to nominate Caitriona Eves as best Student Blogger for her amazing TY blog. for those who haven't read it, all I'll say is that every blog is a poem that rhymes. here's the link to check it out for yourself!


http://tienies.blogspot.com/

Almost time !!

Next Monday is the 14th of November which  only means one thing. Work Experience!! its all everyone is talking about lately and everyone is so excited for it!! everyone is going to different places and the excitement and nerves is starting to kick in!! I'm going to the primary school in straffan for mine :) I'm really looking forward to it and cannot wait to hear how everyone else got on too ..