19+Minutes,+Olivia+G.

Journal #1, pages 1-91, __19 Minutes__ Summarizing the “#1 New York Times Bestseller”, Jodi Picoult composes her story about the disastrous outcome of a small community misfortune. Josie Cormier, whose mother is New Hampshire’s Supreme Court judge, is the perfect daughter on the outside, but she definitely does not feel that way on the inside. Josie’s mom, Alex, cares a lot about her job as a judge, almost too much. Peter Houghton, whose mother is a labor and delivery nurse, receives harsh bullying from first grade until the time he cannot take it anymore. Peter lives a pretty normal life, except for the fact that he is faced with challenges of other kids. Josie and Peter grew up together as good friends due to their mothers being best friends, but since an incident a couple years ago, Josie hangs out with the popular crowd and Peter still gets picked on. As of now, the whole community knows of a disaster happening at the high school. Now peter is the prime suspect in the case of the Sterling High School shooting. He has killed ten kids and injured many others. In his eyes he believes “they started it” (55). Reviewing what I have read, I believe this is a shocking story. I consider that the storyline takes place in such a normal environment and a tragedy like this could take place at schools now. The main suspect, who is the shooter, lives a normal life except for being bullied. Who is to say that this could not happen at one of the schools nowadays? I feel everyone should read this book to inform others about the possibilities that could result from bullying.

· Lives in New Hampshire · Motherhood- Was it difficult for her to raise kids? · What was Picoult like as a teenager? (Bullied?) · Did she have siblings to be jealous of? (like Peter) · Was she a teacher? (understanding students)

Journal #2, pages 91-240, __19 Minutes__

Dealing with the days after Peter Houghton decided to go on his rampage, the whole town of Sterling is a mess. Peter is sitting in jail not feeling guilty at all. His parents find him a lawyer named Jordan McAfee. Jordan is struggling to find a way to win the case. Lacy Houghton, Peter’s mom, is not doing well. She constantly blames herself for her son’s outburst. Peter’s dad works for a company on the equation of happiness. He tries to stay strong, but breaks down several times. Patrick, the detective, finds out Peter had been programming new computer games in which the object is to shoot the “popular” people. After interviewing with Peter, the reader finds out that Peter has a lot of anger built up inside him. Josie Cormier is on the verge of depression with losing her boyfriend, Matt Royston, in the shooting. Matt was such a big part of her life that Josie cannot handle it. Josie suffers greatly with her relationship with her mom, Alex. Alex, who is the Supreme Court judge, focuses too much on her job and not her personal life with Josie. A year before the accident, Josie and Peter had worked together in a printing store. Peter had started a fire which Josie told on him. They were no longer on speaking terms, but soon after they became closer. Josie would put up a front to everyone to pretend to not like Peter. Matt Royston and his friends were Peter’s main bullies throughout all his school years. Peter soon finds out that his older brother, Joey, died in a car accident (one year before Peter’s rampage). Peter also struggles with his sexuality. Now ten days after the shooting, the parents of the victims are infuriated. One mother whose daughter was killed ends up committing suicide. Josie also finds out that one of her best friends was killed in the shooting too. The kids of Sterling High attend school at an abandoned middle school. The small city is now just trying to cope with the new situation. Peter will have a trial in a couple months. After reading, I cannot believe what happened in this small town. I found out the reason behind why Peter might have done what he did. Peter had to always live up to his older brother, which was hard for Peter. After Joey died, Peter had to cope with his family, but ended up spending a lot of time locked up in his room. Peter had been teased from kindergarten up till his time in jail. He simply could not take it anymore. Peter needed help form adults which he believed no adults did anything to stop the bullying. So Peter decided to take matters into his own hands. I believe Peter was a child who just needed help which he could not get from anybody. I think Peter’s life is very sad especially because he did not have any friends. I could not imagine a life without anyone to trust. Peter’s life could have been changed in his first years if only he had help.

· Have siblings that she was jealous of? (like Peter) · Parents divorced? · [|Bullied as a child?] · Did her mom treat her like Alex Cormier treated Josie? · Rocori shootings in MN

Journal #3, pages 240-330, __19 Minutes__

 The month after the act of violence in New Hampshire is extremely rough for the people. Everyone is trying to cope with their unexpected losses. Many townspeople have a lot of anger towards Peter, the main character, and his family. Peter is still in jail waiting for his many court cases to take place. He truly starts to believe that nobody cares about him while he is in jail because he never receives any visitors. His mother, Lacy, receives many verbal attacks from other people when all she is trying to do is her job. Lewis, Peter’s dad, cannot even stand to look at Peter, therefore he never goes to visit Peter in jail. Lewis secretly visits the graves of the victims instead of going to see Peter. Furthermore, Alex Cormier, the Supreme Court judge, is the judge in Peter’s case. She eventually leaves the case because Josie is going to be a witness. This case is going to be rough for her due to her daughter, Josie, being at the crime scene. Alex begins to develop feelings for the detective in the case. The detective, Patrick Ducharme, saved Josie when Peter attacked the school. Josie is trying to get through the days, but is still depressed. She misses her boyfriend, Matt, more than ever. Josie and her mother still have a wall up between them, but her mother is trying to break it down. In addition, Jordan, Peter’s lawyer, finally finds a reason in which Peter can plead not guilty. Jordan and his wife Selena work extremely hard for the sake of Peter. Jordan decides to put Josie on as a witness to get Judge Cormier off the case. Likewise, a month before the shooting Peter stole two guns from his neighbor’s house. Peter announces his feelings for Josie and received harassment from his peers publicly in the school cafeteria. Josie is dealing with the stress of being pregnant or not, but in the end Josie is happy with the outcome. I think this story is really sad! I believe Peter went on his rampage because he was treated so unfairly his whole life. From the day Peter could talk he was always being compared to his brother and getting bullied uncontrollably. I believe that Peter knew that nobody was doing anything about his situation so he took his problems about in negative way. Peter truly had a horrible life. I hope kids are not being treated this way nowadays. If kids are being bullied at all, they should talk about their situation to others to take action. In Josie’s case, I am sympathetic for her for losing a loved one. It is very difficult to lose someone, but she is doing okay. Hopefully everything will get better for Josie and her mother too.


 * How/when did she meet her husband?
 * Gaming and computer programming
 * [|Red Lake shooting]
 * Did Picoult lose a loved one at an early age?
 * Pipe bombs

Journal #4, pages 330-455, __19 Minutes__ It has been five months since the shooting at Sterling High School. Peter has been sitting in jail counting down the days, which start the beginning of his trial. The process before his trial required time and skill to choose the appropriate jurors. Jordan McAfee, the defense, and Diana Leven are obliged to pick the twelve jurors for Peter’s case. Furthermore, Lacy Houghton has been thinking a lot about the reasons in which Peter grew up the way he did and why he committed an act of violence. She blames herself for his wrong actions. Lewis Houghton finally goes to visit his son, Peter, in jail, but the two have a rough conversation. While the Houghton family is struggling with their situation, Alex Cormier starts a relationship with the detective on Peter’s case, Patrick Ducharme. Alex’s daughter, Josie, cannot move on with her life and always feels depressed thinking about past memories. It is the day of Peter’s murder trial and the whole town is shook up by the big event. The prosecutors tell what happened the day of March 6, 2007 and question many other witnesses. The main idea of the trial had stated that Peter was bullied uncontrollably and that was why Peter did what he did. Moreover, the day of the shooting Peter woke up like any other day and went to the computer; however, his computer had frozen on an email he had been harassed about before. He dumped out his backpack, but grabbed his hidden weapons. Reliving the day five months earlier, the trial is still going on. Patrick Ducharme is questioned along with many others including doctors and a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist that is interrogated diagnoses Peter with [|Post Traumatic Stress Disorder]which he believes is why Peter randomly committed his crime. Peter decided that he also wanted to speak in his trial telling his side of the story. He does not end on a good note though. Jordan McAfee needs help to win the case for Peter, but is losing at brisk rate. He pulls Josie Cormier from the witness list to testify on Peter’s behalf. Josie Cormier started to remember information about the shooting in which she never told anyone. The detective obtains more evidence a second time after he looks at the school. Josie is not telling the truth; she was the one to shoot her boyfriend, Matt Royston, not Peter. Josie is put in jail for five years along with Peter, but Peter is in jail for life. Lewis Houghton began teaching again and Lacy tries to start living her life again. On a good note, Alex Cormier is pregnant with another little baby. I cannot believe how twisted __19 Minutes__ turned out to be! Jodi Picoult did a wonderful job writing this book. Just like //People// shared, “it was a brilliantly told tale, one that dares to remind us that someone loved the killer too.” Even though nobody is really happy in the end, this novel shows real life scenarios that occur every day. I feel bad for Josie who loved her boyfriend, but still decided to shoot him. Throughout this novel, Josie is somewhat abused by her boyfriend, Matt Royston. This kind of situation is happening right now to other people and must be handled correctly. Additionally, bullying is also a wide subject of interest which led the main character to eventually kill himself! __19 Minutes__ demonstrates how matters can be dealt with in such a negative way that can result in death. I think many other students should read this book because of the messages being implied. I hope I will be able to read other books of Picoult’s!

· 9/11   · [|School cliques] · [|Columbine Shooting] · Were any of her kids bullied? · Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

media type="youtube" key="36vhlJnRFJo?version=3" height="390" width="640" align="center"