the upstairs room, johanna reiss, cycle 26 , pgs. 15-27

annies neibors have gotten on a boat to america. her father wishes that he had sent his family on a boat to america too, but now it is too late. there is a sign posted on the tree in the town square now, announcing everyday more and more things that limit jews. annies father has made it a daily routine to go check that sign. her family is building a house on the outskirts of town to try to get away from the nazis who randomly search jewish houses every night. jews now have to sew yellow stars of david to their clothing everyday to show that they are jews. annie likes the stars, she thinks they are pretty.

the upstairs room, johanna reiss, cycle 25, pgs. 1-15

Annie is a six year old, jewish girl, living in winterswijk, Holland, when rumor reaches her family of a man named Hitler and his hate of Jews. she doesnt really understand what is going on. her father is constantly listening to the radio, her mother always has headaches, her oldest sister is teaching school, and her second oldest sister has a job milking cows. hitler is gathering the nazis and annie doesnt know what to make of it all.
its very interesting to hear a point of view of the holocaust from a six year olds mind. children tend to think of things very diplomatically. in the book, annie is jewish but when she hears that a jewish boy had killed a nazi, she thinks "that wasnt very nice" instead of "he deserved it, hes a nazi". annie doesnt really understand whats happening, she just wants to know why all of a sudden her friend isnt allowed to play with her anymore, then all of a sudden why she isnt allowed to go to normal school and why are the non-jewish kids chasing her and her jewish friends and yelling, "jew jew ugly mole, stick your face in a dirty hole, stick your face in a mustard pot, by tomorow jew will rot."

vanishing acts, jodi picoult, cycle 24, pages 112-130

delia goes to visit her father in jail. she wants to hear the truth from his mouth, she wants to know who she REALLY is, she wants to believe that her father didnt really do it. but when he tells her that it is all true, instead of understanding, she feels angry towards her father. angry for kidnapping her, angry at herself for being angry, and angry that her father didnt tell her after all these years. she didnt tell eric that she went to visit him. fitz has been assigned to write about this case, he is afraid that delia will be angry about that.

Vanishing Acts, Jodi Picoult, cycle 23, pages 34-112

Andrew is sent to jail, and then to Arizona to await trial. The jail is horrible. All he can think about is Delia. Delia goes to visit Andrew in the Arizona jail, but when she actually sees him she feels angry at her father for lying to her. She is staying with Sophie and Eric in a hot, bubble gum trailer next to an eccentric but wise old native American women who sells Barbie dolls that she has remade the clothes for to make them into Barbies such as mid life crisis Barbie and pot head Barbie. Meanwhile Eric doesn't want to be Andrews lawyer because he feels he cannot be indifferent to Delia and Andrew. Andrew wants to plead guilty, but Delia has made Eric promise that he will plead the case innocent.
Jodi Picoults writing seems almost like non fiction. The characters in her books seem like they could be real people. She describes her characters enough so that we get a foundation for who they are, but she leaves out enough, requiring the reader to imagine some of them themselves.

Vanishing Acts, Jodi Picoult, Cycle 22, 32-34

Delia’s daughter doesn't like it when Delia goes on her missions to go look for missing people. She says to her mom “ mommy, do you ever think of me when you go away?”. Delia missed her daughter’s preschool, mother daughter tea because she was off finding a missing four year old. Delia tells her daughter that she is always thinking of her. Meanwhile, Eric is trying to fix his alchohol problem that he’s had since he was a kid because Delia doesn't like it. He is going to Alchoholics anonymous meetings. He is now being Delia’s dad’s attorney. It is hard for him because he want to be a good attorney, but he is also at the same time, Delia’s fiancée.

Vanishing Acts, Jodi Picoult, cycle 21, reading response, 1-32

Delia Hopkins’ job is to find missing people. She works with her dog, Greta. They always find who they are looking for, even if the person is not alive. When Delia is on the job, all she can think about is her job. Whenever she returns the person to their loved ones, she always watches them hold each other in each others arms, and she thanks god that that person is not her daughter.
Ever since she was four, Delia has lived with her dad, who is a magician. She has always been told that her mom died in a car crash when she was four. She has grown up with Eric and Fitz, her two best friends. She is now getting married to Eric, who is the dad of Sophie, her daughter.
One night, when she is at home with her dad and Sophie, the cops pull up to her driveway asking for her father. He has been charged with being a fugitive from justice and kidnapping. The kidnappee just so happens to be Delia.
Jodi Picoult is starting to be known as one of my favorite authors. Her stories all fall into the “Mr. Dyke’s description of a good book”. A book where throughout the entire book, you think you know how it is going to turn out, but it ends up turning out completely differently, but it still makes perfect sense. Jodi’s books are all about things that could really happen in real life, so the reader can relate to them easily.

My sisters keeper, Jodi Picoult, cycle 18 reading response, 350-end of book

In chapel a few weeks ago, Mr. Dyke said that a book is a really good book when throughout the whole story, you know what is going to happen, and then right at the end, the story twists and ends in a completely different way, and although it ends differently then you expected, it completely makes sense. This is the exact description of “my sisters keeper”.
In the end of the book, Anna wins the case, and isn’t forced to donate her kidney to her sister. Mr. Cambell is appointed Anna’s advisor as far as all medical concerns are concerned, and everyone knows that Kate is going to die soon. Brian finds out that Jesse is the arson, and although he is disappointed, he understands where his son is coming from.
Kate is in critical condition in the hospital the day of the trial. After the trial, her father and mother go to the hospital to see her while Mr. Cambell drives Anna home. At the hospital, Brian gets a call from the fire station saying that he needs to come because there has been a crash on the road. Brian goes to the scene and climbs into the car to cut the people inside the car out. This is when he realizes that the girl in the car is Anna.
Mr. Cambell is hurt, but alive. Anna is being kept alive with a machine, but her brain is completely dead. Mr. Cambell tells the doctor to perform the kidney transplant since Anna is already gone.
Kate ends up living, with no more relapses.
Kate explains at the end of the book that, one of the two girls had to die, Anna ended up forfeiting herself for her sister.
This book made me cry very hard.