Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate — a life and a role that she has never challenged…until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister — and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.

My Sister’s Keeper follows the emotional story of a family that has one daughter stricken with a very serious rare form of leukemia and the daughter that they genetically matched to be her donor. They also have the eldest son Jesse who is a rebel without a cause and the heart breaking core issue of, just how much is too much to ask a Sister to do?

In My Sister’s Keeper we are forced to look at some serious and emotional issues is it right to genetically have a child to be another ones spare parts? It truly brings out the old English saying of an Heir and a Spare. Does that mean you love the child who is the donor any less? Does it mean that they should always feel obligated to give, give and give? Who is the selfish one the child who keeps getting or the child who no longer wishes to give? And can you yourself honestly answer any of these questions yourself in Black and white.

The writing in this book is amazing; it pulls you into the story so that you can see the pieces fitting together. I can honestly see why this book was made into a movie, the storytelling is painted so well and so vivid you can’t help but seeing it as a reel of movie film in your head. I went into this book knowing it was going to be emotional and sad, and I came out with tears on my face and not expecting the ending that came. I will recommend this book to anyone I know who reads, and even those who don’t. My Sister’s Keeper is the best book I have read in 2009.

It is a choice which is not easily made. As Commander-in-chief George Washington declares a major victory in New York, the rest of the colonies separate into Patriots and Tories. Kate Darby never expected to be swept up in this political storm. The Darbys are Quakers who have pledged their allegiance to God first–but that soon changes. Kate’s younger brother, Seth, can no longer deny his soul’s cry against tyranny. Fleeing from his Loyalist parents’ house to join General Washington’s ragtag forces, Seth enters a life he never expected.
With the influx of British soldiers, Philadelphia soon becomes a temporary base camp for the English forces. When the Darbys find themselves forced to take in Major Jonathan Andre, Kate falls quickly for his charm.

Despite her warring affections, Kate finds herself drawn deep into the war. As she attempts to follow her brother, she risks her life and her family’s reputation by becoming a spy for the patriot forces, a role which quickly transforms the once-timid Quaker girl. With a world of danger and political upheaval thrown before them, Kate and Seth face incredible danger in the hopes of shaping one of the single most important events in American history: the war for freedom.

The rest of the book seems to drag by at a confusing pace; it jumps from one city to the next without giving any real flow of what we are doing or how we got there. It follows the solider and than the normal people without giving us a good sense of why or how we are switching views. And perhaps the thing that bothersome the most is that it switches from using thee and thy and back to talking with a modern tone. In my opinion if you’re going to talk in one fashion stick with it. Do not jump around; it is too choppy for the reader. As much as I love the era, this book was very difficult to finish I almost didn’t.