Book Review: Handle with Care

Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult was not an easy book for me to read.  I guess the difficulty lies in the subject matter.  I used to never cry, but ever since I became a mother, tears flow at the drop of a hat. 

This is a touching story of a young girl named Willow, only 5 years old, who was born with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI).  It's a bone disease, a collagen defect, that makes her bones incredibly easy to break.  She's suffered from dozens of fractures in her short life, the first several ones actually occurred in utero.  The poor girl is incredibly bright, and longs to go skating and to do other normal things that all of the other kids get to do. 

Willow's disease affects her entire family.  Her mom had to give up her career as a pastry chef in order to attend to her.  Her dad has to work overtime shifts on the police force to cover her medical expenses and equipment.  Her sister, Amelia, becomes somewhat of an afterthought in the family, since her needs are not so dramatic and apparent as a femur breaking through the skin.

Willow's mother adds to the turmoil in the family by initiating a lawsuit against her OB (and former best friend) for wrongful birth, stating that had she been told of her daughter's illness at her 18-week ultrasound, she would have terminated her pregnancy.  She is now suing for damages.  Her actions negatively impact her relationship with her husband, her daughters, her best friend, and the entire OI community, but she feels that she's doing the right thing for Willow by getting her the money for all of the medicine, therapy, treatments, hospitalizations, medical devices, equipment, and special needs camps that Willow might need to live her life to the fullest.  It's what any loving mother would do for her child...or is it?

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