Handle With Care

The book "Handle with Care" by Jodi Picoult is about the family of a girl with OI. OI is a medical condition called Osteogenesis Imperfecta; it is when someone has really weak brittle bones that break extremely easily. The girl in the book who has OI is named Willow; she lives with her mother, father, and older sister. In the book Willow's parents are planning to sue the hospital for wrongful birth- this is a lawsuit that states if the parents had known about their child's condition in advance they would have terminated the pregnancy, gotten an abortion. The parents are saying that there were signs of Willow's OI long before they were actually warned and the doctors should have noticed it. The obvious issues in the book are Willow's medical condition and having incorrect malpractice lawsuits. But there's also slightly less prominent issues like five year old Willow's fear that her mother doesn't want her anymore and her almost constant worrying that she had done something wrong. There's also the older sister who is ignored because of all the attention Willow gets, her parents pay so little attention to her that she is able to become bulimic and begins cutting herself without them even noticing. There is the issue of divorce splitting up a family when Willow's parents can't agree on the lawsuit. There are a bunch of little issues that really stand out in this book and big ones that sometimes you barely notice.

Willow is five years old and has broken bones 52 times by the time the book starts, she has broken even more by the end. One thing that often goes along with OI is the child being abnormally smart. So Willow is a three foot tall little genius who is just an absolutely lovable character from the start. The only thing wrong with her is this condition which she will never be able to get rid of. When her mother files for wrongful birth Willow is obviously upset, her mother is only doing this because she could get a lot of desperately needed money from the lawsuit that would help pay for all of Willow's medical issues and hospital bills and so on. Her mother is only saying she never would have wanted her because she loves her. But something like that is hard for a five year old to understand, even a super smart five year old. So Willow becomes convinced that she has done something wrong to make her mother not want her anymore. Willow becomes desperate to not be "gotten rid of" which is what she believes her parents want to do. Can you imagine a five year old thinking that their own mother doesn't want them? It's just too sad.

Willow's older sister is a teenager who doesn't view herself in such a high manner to start with. Then on top of that everybody has always loved her little sister more than her, even her parents it seems. When her mother starts a lawsuit suing her best friend’s mother you can imagine that things did not go so well between them. She lost her best friend who was the only person she really had at the time. She saw herself as fat and was guilty about it she didn't feel like she deserved to "be full" when she felt so empty inside. And so she began throwing up, it started as a habit and then became a consistent thing that she did a lot. But she didn't stop eating all together- so she didn't lose a lot of weight and no one really noticed. Her parents didn't even put together what was going on when they had to hire a plumber because some unknown acid (her vomit) was damaging the pipes. Then on top of this she began cutting herself- in her mind it was the one thing that she could control. Her life was so messed up what with parents getting divorced a crippled sister and a mother who was suing a hospital because she apparently didn't want the baby that she had five years ago. And so she began a descent into depression, hatred of herself, and wanting to hurt herself simply to feel power. That’s a pretty serious issue that sadly happens all the time.

Willow's parents weren't on the same side when it came to the lawsuit. The mother saw the opportunity that the reward gave them whereas the father saw how much it would hurt Willow. The truth is that they were both doing what they thought would be best for Willow. When he realized the mother was not going to step down on this, Willow's father decided to be a witness for the opposing side. He stated how much he loved Willow and how he would never have wanted to get rid of her no matter what. Willow's mother wanted this lawsuit simply because the money would make her life so much easier. With this extra money they could get her high quality wheelchairs that actually fit her every time she grew out of one, they could get her the special foam memory mattresses that would help her sleep at night, they could pay for all of her medical bills without having to live in poverty. To do this she was willing to lie in court and say that she never would have had Willow- had she known what her problem would be. She was willing to hurt her daughter because she believed it would help her in the long run. When the father and mother realized that they couldn't live together anymore the father asked for a divorce. What he didn't realize was that this would simply tear the family apart even more.

All in all there are a lot of complex issues in this book some more obvious than others. There's the terrified five year old afraid that her family doesn't want her anymore, afraid that the one thing she can't help is actually something she is to blame for. There is a teenager who is emotionally neglected and is so lost in the world that the only way she thinks she can get by is by hurting herself to gain control and because she believes that she deserves it. There are parents who unintentionally tear an already fragile family to pieces and everything they do is out of good intentions. In books that are this complicated there are a lot of little, each in their own way serious, issues throughout the book. This is a great book I'm sure a lot of you would really love it.