Book Review- My Sisters Keeper, by Jodi Picoult

My sister’s keeper is a story of a child that sues her parents for the right to her own body. Anna was conceived to be a donor to her sister Kate after she was diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia. It is set over a time of one and a half weeks and documents the journey of the Fitzgerald family as Anna decides she’s had enough and refuses to donate her kidney to her sister.

The narrative of the story alternates each chapter between different characters, this was a very interesting and captivating technique used by the author and made the novel unique. I liked the way we got to see the story from the point of view of many different people and seeing how they were affected by the events that unfolded

There were many different characters in the novel, however I felt the one that I connected with the most was Anna Fitzgerald. She stands out as the most conflicted character of the novel, and the plotline surrounds her struggle as she refuses to undergo any more medical procedures for the benefit of her sister. She wants to be the best sister she can to Kate, however she is tired of hiding behind her sister and wants to be independent, and although she feels awful about the decision she thinks it is the right thing to do.

The character of Sara Fitzgerald was also very interesting; throughout the novel she is motivated by her duty as a mother to keep Kate alive. This however hinders her relationship with her other two children, Jesse acts out by starting fires and Anna rebels by sueing her parents. Sara’s whole world revolves around Kate’s recovery and she becomes stressed and frustrated due to this.

The novel also had many interesting themes; one of the strongest of these is Love. Love between siblings, parents and children, spouses, boyfriend and girlfriend and even extended family members. The love that stands out the most however is the love between mother and daughter, Sara loves her daughter dearly and could not cope with the thought of her dying, she does everything she can for Kate. We also see love between Anna and Kate, Anna has undergone many operations and medical procedures to try to save her sisters life, and when a dramatic twist occurs in the novel we see that even though what Anna is doing to her sister may kill her, she is keeping her sisters best interests at heart.

The ending of the book was very shocking and effective, I felt that it was a huge climax in the novel and that it left us on edge until the very end.

My sister’s keeper is a very well written book about a very striking issue. Jodi Picoult envisaged the emotions of the characters very well and made the story flow very well. I really enjoyed reading it and would highly recommend it. It is now one of my favourite books and it much much better and more poignant than the film

Scene 1 everybody get in your positions, pay attention and listen

Today, we went to mullingar for the briery gap TY drama competition.
The class split in two and we each wrote a script, and assigned actresses. My groups drama was based on the song concrete angel by martina mcbride, it's a really sad song about child abuse.
The main character in the play was Holly, a seven year old girl who was being abused by her mother. She has a close relationship with her father, but he didn't suspect anything and by the time he realised it was too late!
We based the drama on the lyrics of the song, with some of the most poignant lyrics a main focus
Like "the teacher wonders but she doesn't ask" and "she hides the bruises with the linen and lace". The play was seen through the meighbours eyes, as they read an article about hollys death in the paper, wechose to end the play on the lyric "The neighbours hear but they turn out the lights".
My role in our drama was the director, and even though it was tough and there was a lot of work involved, I really enjoyed it, and have all my fingers an toes crossed that weber through to the next round!

Creative writing

On Monday we had a creative writing workshop in town, it was really good and interesting. When we arrived the girl running the workshop asked for two volunteers, she told them to pretend one of them had a crush on the other ones brother... Then after that we developed an introduction to a story based on what they acted and then we had to finish it off ourselves. I really enjoyed the workshop.

English Review, Brooklyn by Colm Toibín

            Brooklyn is begins in 1950's Wexford, it is  about a young girl named Eilis Lacey. Due to difficulty finding a job, Eilis' sister Rose has arranged for her to emmigrate to Brooklyn, New York. Eilis knows this is the only option for her so she leaves all she knows and loves in Ireland and sets off to start her new life in America. This book describes her journey to Brooklyn and the many trials and tribulations she faces when she arrives.
           There are many aspects of this novel that stood out to me, these include : the characters, themes, style of writing, cultural context and the author's vision.
            I really enjoyed watching the character of Eilis develop through the novel as she adapted to her new life. She started off as a shy timid girl, who depended largely on her family, and grew into an independant capable woman who could fend for herself. She showed great bravery throughout the novel especially when she left Ireland, I found this a very admirable quality in the character of Eilis. I found the charactee easy to connect with and very well portrayed. There were also many other characters that impressed me for example Ms. Kelly, who in my opinion was described impecably, Rose, and Ms.  Kehoe.
            There was also  many interesting themes running through the novel, the one that stood out the most to me is the theme of love. The theme of love mainly featured after Eilis moved to Brooklyn, when she meets Tony, an Italian-American who she meets at a local dance. She almost instantly falls in love with him and his kind gentlemanly manner. She begins her relationship with Tony with a few date, but as the story progresses they begin to see each other more and more until it becomes a daily occurence. They soon marry and make plans for the future, but then a major twist in the plot puts their relationship in jeopardy.
           The style of writing used by the author was in some respects good, such as his narrative which was in the third person, which meant we knew everything that was going on and we were not biased towards the views of one particular character and also the authors use of strong poignant imagery. However there was some parts of the style of writing used in this novel that didn't appeal to me, for example the layout of the novel, it was set into four long sections. I felt that this made the novel much too cramped together and in my opinion the use of chapters of about 10-15 pages would have been much better.
            The cultural context of the novel was quite interesting. It was set in the 1950's where social classes were very predominant and values were very different to today. There was also quite a huge contrast between the way of life as Eilis moves from Enniscorthy to Brooklyn, This showed me how much more advanced in society Americans were to Irish. I believe the cultural context in this novel gave us a great insight into life back in the 50's and educated us about the time.
            The vision of the novel was both optimistic and pessemistic, the optimism was seen in our hope for Eilis, her overcoming of her homesickness, and the prospect of new love. However there was some pessimism in the theme of death and homesickness.
            Personally I really enjoyed the novel and I would definately recommend it to people because of the excellent way in which it was written, I believe Colm Toibin is a fantastic author and would definately read another of his books.

'tis a darlin blog post..... a daaaarlin blog post

Yesterday we took a trip into town to see juno and the paycock. We also visited three different museumas, the w.b.yeats exhibition, the national library and the national museum. Everybody had a great time looking at the exhibitions and the play. Thanks to all of the english teachers for their help !!!!!! :)