Outside Reading #2

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult is beginning to unfold. The novel is told in the perspective of Anna Fitzgerald who describes herself as a "freak" and "refugee-skinny with absolutely no chest to speak of, hair the color of dirt, connect-the-dot freckles on my cheeks that , let me tell you, do not fade with lemon juice or sunscreen or even, sadly, sandpaper."(Picoult 9) Anna's older sister, Kate, was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia when she was two, and Anna acts as her allogeneic donor. Whenever Kate needs a replacement or transplant, Anna is the person who is turned to for these parts, whether it is a bone marrow or stem cells. I can sense the constant fear of the family that Kate will have another relapse where the cancer that is "hibernating" takes over her body again. This emotion is experienced when Anna was upstairs talking with her mom, and downstairs Kate suddenly began to sob. Overtaken by fear, Anna and her mother sprint down the steps to find Kate crying about an event on a soap. Situations like these occur many times, but after this certain event took place, Kate rubbed her lower back, the place of her kidneys, and Anna knew that trouble was arising. It will be interesting to follow Anna and her family throughout this engaging story.