Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult

Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult
Fiction/Literature

The O'Keefe's try to be a normal family with their children Amelia and Willow. Amelia is the older of the children and when her mom Charolette met her step-dad Sean, the two got married and eventually had Willow. Willow is an incredibly smart and whity five year old who has OI, a disease that causes her bones to break with as little as a sneeze. Everyone has to be very careful around her to make sure that she doesn't break another bone.

The family decides to take a carefully-planned trip to Disneyworld since they don't manage to go on vacation much. Willow ends up in the hospital with a break, Amelia in a foster home because they suspect abuse, and the O'Keefe adults in jail. When everything is finally sorted out, Sean wants to sue everyone possible for the embarrassment and inconvenience. His lawyer doesn't think much will come of that, but when he learns that Willow wasn't diagnosed in womb until past the 18th week, he thinks there might be a case there. Unfortunately this means that they will be suing Charlotte's best friend, who was also her ob-gyn.

The family is put under a lot of strain during the lawsuit. Sean doesn't know if he agrees with the lawsuit, Amelia feels invisible, and Willow thinks that her parents wished she wasn't born.

The similarities between this book and My Sister's Keeper are striking. A family with 2 children, one very sick. A lawsuit is involved and there's a similar twist at the end. Despite the fact that I felt like I had read this book before, I still couldn't put it down. If you were not a big fan of My Sister's Keeper, you probably won't enjoy this one either.

First Line: "Things break all the time."

Rating:
(4/5)