Handle With Care

Jodi Picoult is a prolific American novelist best known for her 2004 novel My Sister’s Keeper, which was adapted into a movie. Her novels focus primarily on family, relationships, and women’s issues and rights. She does not shy away from controversial or difficult topics; her novels have explored suicide, school shootings, and medical ethical dilemmas. Many of her novels, like Handle with Care, also have a courtroom drama element. Additionally, Picoult is an avid baker and often includes baking in her novels, which is reflected in Handle with Care.

Because Picoult often chooses controversial topics, she prepares to write her novels by conducting extensive research. For Handle with Care, she spoke with Kara Sheridan, “a scholar studying body image and self-esteem for disabled teens” (x), who also has Type III OI. Despite her research, Picoult has received some criticism for her depictions of disabilities. She typically focuses on how a child’s disability affects their mother, which means that “the predominant perspectives of illness or disability—whether sociocultural, transgressive, or tragic—are tied to the respective mothers” (Jarman, Michelle. “Disability on Trial: Complex Realities Staged for Courtroom Drama—the Case of Jodi Picoult.” Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, 2012). As a result of this focus, characters with disabilities become tools or narrative tropes to further examine and develop maternal characters, stripping those characters with disabilities of agency and individuality.Jodi Picoult is a prolific American novelist best known for her 2004 novel My Sister’s Keeper, which was adapted into a movie. Her novels focus primarily on family, relationships, and women’s issues and rights. She does not shy away from controversial or difficult topics; her novels have explored suicide, school shootings, and medical ethical dilemmas. Many of her novels, like Handle with Care, also have a courtroom drama element. Additionally, Picoult is an avid baker and often includes baking in her novels, which is reflected in Handle with Care.

Because Picoult often chooses controversial topics, she prepares to write her novels by conducting extensive research. For Handle with Care, she spoke with Kara Sheridan, “a scholar studying body image and self-esteem for disabled teens” (x), who also has Type III OI. Despite her research, Picoult has received some criticism for her depictions of disabilities. She typically focuses on how a child’s disability affects their mother, which means that “the predominant perspectives of illness or disability—whether sociocultural, transgressive, or tragic—are tied to the respective mothers” (Jarman, Michelle. “Disability on Trial: Complex Realities Staged for Courtroom Drama—the Case of Jodi Picoult.” Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, 2012). As a result of this focus, characters with disabilities become tools or narrative tropes to further examine and develop maternal characters, stripping those characters with disabilities of agency and individuality.