Nineteen+Minutes+by+Leslie+D.


 * Leslie D****uffy**
 * 19 Minutes by Jodi Picoult**
 * Pages 1-114**
 * March 16th, 2011**

The book starts off by introducing Alex Cormier and her daughter Josie Cormier. Josie is a junior at Sterling High and her mother is a judge. Josie is part of the “in” crowd at her school and has a good relationship with her boyfriend, Matt. The relationship isn’t that strong between the two because of media type="youtube" key="YMiqEUBux3o" height="273" width="336" align="right" Alex’s job. The book then goes on to introduce Patrick Ducharme, the sole detective on the Sterling police force. He is shown as a softer guy because the other cops make fun of him for his toenails being painted- something his goddaughter had done. You meet the next family after- a junior named Peter Houghton and his mother, Lacy. Lacy is a midwife at a hospital and Peter attended the same school as Josie. The story dramatically changes when they cut to another student daydreaming in the middle of her math class when she hears something explode. Patrick is driving around in his car and gets a call that there are shots being fired at Sterling High. He rushes to the school and finally finds the killer sitting in a corner of a locker room but not before he finds Josie next to her dead boyfriend, Matt. The story then goes back seventeen years to a prenatal class that Lacy was teaching. Alex was one of the attendees and ever since they had met then, they had become best friends and Lacy delivered Alex’s baby, Josie. Once the flashback is done, you return to Patrick in jail for murder of ten people and Josie and many others in the hospital. When Josie wakes up from the sedatives given to her by the doctors she did not remember anything that had happened or what happened to Matt. Since Alex did not want to tell her daughter, Patrick offered to. After she is told, the story goes into another flashback, when the kids are five years old. Josie and Peter had grown up to be best friends and Josie would stick up for Peter because he was made fun of a lot. One day, when Josie was over at Peter’s, Peter had unlocked his dad’s safe where he keeps his guns to show Josie. Right when he hands it to her, Alex and Lacy walk down and blame each other’s child for it and ended their and their children’s relationship. DurWhen you are returned to present time, the cops have searched all through Peter’s house and taken many items and you are informed that Alex is the judge for Peter’s trial.

When I first heard about the book, I wasn’t expecting it to be this good. Turns out, it is incredible. Jodi has a really unique writing style and is very relatable to because of the high school environment like where they shop, the different groups, and more. She addresses real-life situations and kids that are our age. The story always takes a different twist by linking all the people together in a way you wouldn’t imagine like that Josie and Peter used to be best friends and their moms’ used to be, too. It makes you think about what other say to people and if it could have an impact like it did on Peter.

Ø Columbine Ø [|High school group culture] Ø Court culture Ø Teacher Culture Ø ﻿ 9/11


 * Leslie Duffy**
 * March 24th, 2011**
 * In the Moment Journal #2**

This section stars off by Josie attending Matt’s, her boyfriend, funeral and service. Peter still hasn’t confessed why he killed everyone but the detective is starting to realize that a lot of the people who were killed had either bullied him or were gay. This is most likely because when he was teased, people called him gay. Peter also made a computer game where you go through their school and kill certain people- the people he ends up killing eventually. The book flashes back to when Josie and Peter were in sixth grade and they are still friends up to that point. She is still sticking up for him like always. When they return to present time, Peter’s lawyer decides that they’re going to waive the case, meaning they are going to skip this step in the court process. The next trial they will go to, Alex will be the judge. You also learn that a year before the shooting was when Peter and Josie starting not talking to each other. This was because Josie was considered popular and she did not want to associate herself with him. If she talked to him, they considered her "uncool" and since she worked so hard to be a part of their group, she would do anything to stay with them. Josie also goes to meet her real dad and he does not want to have anything to do with her. media type="youtube" key="n0Swt7KENgs" width="361" height="305" align="right"media type="youtube" key="xhTezbHvFFs" height="289" width="345" align="left"

The book so far is incredible. She brings in so many real situations, like when the terrorist attacks on 9/11 occurred, and how people dealt with it. Josie's whole school got gathered in the library and mourned together. You really feel how sad everyone was and how it affected them. A few situations among the many would be fitting in at school, and finding your real parent or parents. Learning about the different characters' lives and how they all relate is really interesting. As much as it interesting, it is informing: you learn about the courtroom and a judge’s role, you see behind a policeman’s job, and you learn what a defendant does

ó Popularity culture (How it affects the people in and out of the group.) ó New Hampshire (& Jodie growing up there) ó Harvard University ó Grief counseling ó [|Bullied as a kid]


 * Leslie Duffy**
 * Journal #3 (Pages 228-342)**
 * April 3rd, 2011**

In the beginning of this third you learn Josie and Peter got stuck in an elevator together and kissed. This makes is even more suspicious as to why Josie claims she was never friends with Peter when she’s interviewed. You also find out that Pmedia type="youtube" key="0BHqG3hC9Ew" height="287" width="351" align="left"eter’s father has not been going to the jail to visit him for the past six months- he’s been visiting the cemetery. Josie is added to the witnesses’ list to speak in court even though it means her mom will not be able to be the judge for the case. Alex starts seeing Detective Ducharme and the month before the shooting Matt got Josie pregnant. During that same month, Peter went over to his neighbor’s house to ask for gas for their snow blower and he realized he had a gun lying around. He came back a few days later and took the gun from his house. The section ends with Josie waking up to having a miscarriage. Also in the section, Peter deals with the thought that he might possibly be gay. All throughout his life people have teased him and called him gay so he thought they might be right. The plot is getting really intense since Matt’s physical abuse towards Josie is being shown more and you wonder why she keeps putting up with it. Alex’s whole live is revolved around being a judge and it’s a shock when you learn she’s not taking this case since her feelings never get in the way. The plot is also all coming together because you learn where Peter gets the extra two guns from, which was a huge part of missing evidence in the investigation.

Ø Paducah Ø Native American& government breaking treaties& taking away land Ø Kent State Ø Watergate Ø Abu Ghraib


 * Leslie Duffy**
 * Journal #4 (Pages 342-455)**
 * April 10th, 2011**

In this section, Peter has his final trail. Everything goes as planned; evidence shown by both sides to either prove him guilty or not guilty. Jordan diagnoses Peter with media type="youtube" key="LM_nw5N3n-I" height="259" width="318" align="left"post traumatic stress disorder because he lost his brother. This made it so it hard for him to live up to what his parents expected him to because his brother had good grades and was on sports. The moment Josie chooses to talk on the witness stand, the whole book changes. Before this, Patrick Ducharme does more research in the school, and makes an interesting discovery- at the angle one of the guns was shot, it is impossible for Matt to be the one that shot the gun. This makes sense when Josie confesses to killing her boyfriend, Matt. A month after the trail, Peter stuffs a sock down his throat and kills himself.

I was really shocked by the ending. In the book, Josie is portrayed as so innocent and harmless. But thinking about everything Matt did to Josie (physical abuse, getting her pregnant, etc.), it would make sense why Josie would do this. Throughout the book, they don’t know who held one of the guns since the fingerprint was smeared and looking back, the small clues like this come together. This was a really great book and I would recommend it to everyone since it is so realistic and relateable to.

Ø Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Ø Battered Women Syndrome Ø Who has the right to judge someone else? Ø Shock Ø Forgetting scary experiences/amnesia