The Fitzgerald family is always in a crisis - their daughter, Kate, was diagnosed with a deadly form of leukemia at the age of 2 and has been battling it for the last 13 or so years. At the time of the diagnosis, no one in their family (mom, dad, slightly older brother) is a match for any type of donations. The parents then decide to create a family member that is a match for Kate - which is where Anna (short for Andromeda) comes in. Geneticists design Anna to be a perfect match to her sister and from the moment she is born, as soon as the doctors sever the umbilical cord, she begins saving her sister.returnreturnFast forward to Anna as a 13 year old. Kate is in the final throes of renal failure, which means that she needs a kidney transplant and the family assumes that Anna will be the donor. But the decision isn't so easy for Anna. She decides to approach a lawyer to help her gain medical emancipation to give her an opportunity to make her own choices about her own body.returnreturnThis is where Picoult is at her best - we see every side of the story, we learn about how people came to their heart wrenching decisions. It's a wonderful novel about the love of the family and what people are willing to do (and not do) to save their loved ones.

This was our read aloud last week and is the 8th book in The Last Firehawk series. Skyla and Tag continue looking for Blaze and find her hidden in a giant bird’s nest. Skyla falls victim to a poisonous glitter and they have to rely on an untrusted new character that appears. Claw introduces himself as the innocent twin of Thorn — but who is he really?

This was another fun installment to this series. Deciding whether to trust Claw created a great discussion about his true identity (is he really Thorn’s twin or could it be Thorn pretending?) and about how people gain our trust. I’m excited to read the next book and see how our predictions play out.

Last week’s readaloud was the 9th book in The Last Firehawk series. Blaze was finally reunited with her family and learned that her mother is the queen of the firehawks and that she is next in line for the throne. Everyone is thrilled to learn about Blaze’s future but our friends quickly realize that Blaze won’t be able to return to Perodia with them. Soon Skyla and Tag realize they lost the magical objects they needed to get back to Perodia, Blaze and the firehawks vow to help them return home.

(Funny thing about the image associated with this book on Goodreads: the artwork is accurate but the title of the book says “Silver Swamp,” which was the last book in the series! I think they just forgot to change the text before this image was uploaded.)