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Book Summary and Reviews of Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult

Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult

Handle with Care

by Jodi Picoult

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  • Readers' Rating (10):
  • Published:
  • Mar 2009, 496 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Things break all the time.
Day breaks, waves break, voices break.
Promises break.
Hearts break.

Every expectant parent will tell you that they don't want a perfect baby, just a healthy one. Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe would have asked for a healthy baby, too, if they'd been given the choice. Instead, their lives are made up of sleepless nights, mounting bills, the pitying stares of "luckier" parents, and maybe worst of all, the what-ifs. What if their child had been born healthy? But it's all worth it because Willow is, well, funny as it seems, perfect. She's smart as a whip, on her way to being as pretty as her mother, kind, brave, and for a five-year-old an unexpectedly deep source of wisdom. Willow is Willow, in sickness and in health.

Everything changes, though, after a series of events forces Charlotte and her husband to confront the most serious what-ifs of all. What if Charlotte should have known earlier of Willow's illness? What if things could have been different? What if their beloved Willow had never been born? To do Willow justice, Charlotte must ask herself these questions and one more. What constitutes a valuable life?

Emotionally riveting and profoundly moving, Handle with Care brings us into the heart of a family bound by an incredible burden, a desperate will to keep their ties from breaking, and, ultimately, a powerful capacity for love. Written with the grace and wisdom she's become famous for, beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult offers us an unforgettable novel about the fragility of life and the lengths we will go to protect it.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Picoult individualizes the alternating voices of the narrators more believably than she has previously, and weaves in subplots to underscore the themes of hope, regret, identity and family, leading up to her signature closing twists." - Publishers Weekly.

"Picoult's novels are like Russian nesting dolls, with each plot unveiling a subplot, leading to an ending that readers never see coming. Highly recommended for all public libraries." - Library Journal.

This information about Handle with Care was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Tiffany Jamie

Handle With Care
This is an enjoyable yet heartbreaking story about a girl who suffers from OI. It questions medical ethics and personal morality. It is definitely a MUST READ. :)

Riley

I loved this book!
I absolutely loooove this book. it was soooo good. I actually listened to it on tape and I couldn't stop listening to it. it was wonderful. It was heartwarming, sad, and disbelieving. Jodi Picoult knows how to write a good book, and entertain all of her audience.

Ellenor Ronelle

Handle with care
An inspiring novel sure to captivate all readers with every page turn.

Tami

Handle With Care
So good I read in a day.

Janette

Mixed bag
Used audio book and did feel compelled to know the ending. I'm too fairy-tale minded so did not like the ending, and was hoping Piper and Charlotte could renew their friendship along with Emma and Amelia. Don't like big "drop offs" in books or movies. Sorry.

Marc

none
I thought Charlotte was a monster.

...4 more reader reviews

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Author Information

Jodi Picoult Author Biography

Photo: Nina Subin

Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-five novels, including Small Great Things, Leaving Time, The Storyteller, Lone Wolf, Sing You Home, House Rules, Handle with Care, Change of Heart, Nineteen Minutes, and My Sister's Keeper. She is also the author, with daughter Samantha van Leer, of two young adult novels, Between the Lines and Off the Page. Picoult lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children.

Author Interview
Link to Jodi Picoult's Website

Name Pronunciation
Jodi Picoult: pee-coh

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