Top 10 list for "Nineteen Minutes" By: Jodi Picoult

1. The plot of this book is about a boy named Peter Houghton who has been bulllied and pushed around his whole life. One decision that Peter makes causes the town of sterling New hampshire to be changed forever more. This story leads through the shooting, the causes and affects of it, the lives effected, everyone around and where the case leads to.
2. Peter Houghton has been best friends with Josie Cormier for most of his yournger years mainly because their mothers. When Josie starts to change in middle school for the "cooler" and more "popular" Peter is left lonesome to fend on his own. Even worse than the fact that Josie has left him, is the new realization that peter is soon treated like scum on the ground that all the in corwd steps on. When Josie, and captain of the football team Matt Royston start to date, Matt takes the bullying to another level leaving peter alone and scared.
3. Josie and Peters parents play a major role in the aftermath of the shooting. Josies mother whom is a judge, has to battle her daughter in her distraughtness of the death of her boyfriend, and when Josie will not speak about what happend when Peter supposidly killed Matt, Alex is left with being the judge of the case and being a mother for her daughter when she needs her the most. The story also goes into the lives of Peter's parents who blame themselves for what happened with Peter. As they try to fit the pieces together in where they went wrong, they start to deal with that it was not what they did and that it may not be their faults.
4. The teenage students of the highschool play role in nineteen minutes. all of the people that were affected by the shooting whether they knew someone that was killed, hurt or there when it all happened. Each student must be questioned on exactly what they saw having to relive the hell that they were put into. The book has a complex way of making the reader root for peter although he is the killer.
5. The setting of nineteen minutes is in Sterling, New hampshire. The book goes into the homes of the students, the people involved in the court case, the school, Josie, Matt and of course Peter. The authour, Jodi Picoult has an interesting way of going into the different perspectives of the lives of everyone involved. The story leads to cry for peter but curse at him all in the same page.
6. The book starts with the shooting, Peter killing the lives of so many innocent people. It then goes back in time and gives in full detail how Peter was bullied for his whole life and the only way of getting out of it is stopping those dead in their tracks. Peter takes this act of violence but it changes some more than others. This is a twisted and surreal book about the aftermath aof a highschool massacre and takes you where no other book or movie has gone before. The book leads you deeply into the lives of all of those affected and throughot the book i found myself full of anger rage and tears. For me i wanted what peter did to be a lifechanging expirece for everyone around, but of course there will always be the ones that will still pick of the less popular and uncool kids.
7. I think that the most significant thing that happens in this book is when Josie admits that she shot her own boyfriend. This leads to her case and her imprisonment when all along the book was leaning towards that she was completely innocent. It is interesting that the two charecters in this book that did not get along, actually were the same person. Peter found himself stuck in t deep hole of sorrow, and josie felt herself in a trapped relationship with no way out.
8. Helplessness in the reoccoring theme of this book. As the charecters try to protect all those around them, they realize that they all need more help than they were giving. It is very interesting to me that the authour would make the turn for the bad guy to seem good, and the good guy to turn out being bad.
9. Peter faces the largest internal conflict throughout the book. I think that Peter grown sufficiently from the beginning to the end of the book. It seems as though peter will live a life in the hell that he created for himself but at the end of the book peter ends up taking his own life. He knows that he cannot take back what he did but he takes his own life to escape from the world that he never wanted to live in in the first place.
10. Although the ending of the book is very sad i think that it was a happy one. The two main charecters found an escape and although what happend was terrible and trechorous, they need all the help that they can get. It was a positive ending because for Peter, his time in jail he became stringer both physiclly and mentally as to where his imprisonment left him. Josie was trapped in a relationship filled with anger and rage. She found her way out and now has to serve her time for what she has done. But in the end i cannot imagine anything that would have made any more sense.

Post B #7

Dear Peter, This is the last you will be hearing from me for a while. I heard about your sentcnce and although was not surpirsed i was content. I have never ever thought that taking ones life is the only way out, but there was something content about you being gone. No matter how long i may live i will remember your story. I think that evenm if it seems like the worst possible thing happened, i think that it was all for the best. I know that you are in heaven smiling down on the life that you made for yourself after the fact. The last times i have written you i have written to you with a sad face of so

Post A #6

"Just our hands clased so tight, waiting for the hint of a spark" P. 300. This quote brings up the topic of a love connection between the two opposites, Josie and Peter in the elevator. It is interesting to me that they would take the two almost nemisis of this book and make them have a love moment.

Post B #6

Dear Jodi, I wanted to write to you to express my gratitude for this book and your other books. Your style of writing is so different than any other and each book keeps me plugging away until i am at the conclusion which is usually a shocking and surprising, yet suttle and myterious. I have read many of your books but 19 minutes has been my favorite by far so far. The charecters are so intertwined and interesting. Many women that are not in their teenage years have a hard time putting into words what highschool is exactly like with all the troubles, but i can tell that you took the time to research what it would be like for a teenager in highschool in this day and age. I wanted to ask you where your inspiration comes from. I have noticed that some charecter names are simular as i continue to read your books and i wonder if these situations are things that you have seen of personally been through. You are my favorite author and you have such an amazing way of connecting with the reader. Please continue to do what you are doing because you do it oh so very well! thanks again!!
Jen Hoch

Post B #5

Dear Jordan, i want to thankyou for being so patient with Peter. I know that he seems like a tortured soul but i hope that you can see the goodness in him. He is filled with more that this one act of violence and i know that now it does not seem like he has much left to offer, I want you to try to find it in him. Everyone deserves a second chance no matter how drastic the disrespect is, they do. And although the odds of Peter winning this trial are slim to none i want you to believe in him. Not that he didn't do it, but that although he was the criminal in this case, he was also a victim and had been for most of his life. It's hard to start a new life when there is nothing left to fight for and i don't know how much if any hope you have for Peter but i want you to believe in yourself that Peter is guilty of two things, being the criminal and being the victim. Peter needs your help right now more that anyone else. He needs you to believe that he has a fighting chance even if the odds are against him. Thankyou for what you are doing i know that it must be hard with the media etc. but you are the one that is the saver and you should be very, very proud of that.

Post A #5

"Growing up involves all sorts of challenges but if you're not willing to deal with them you will fall hard" -Alex Cormier. This quote relates to the book in the sence that anger sometimes overrules the happiness and sometimes although what we want to believe is that we live in a beautiful world, the truth is that we live in a cynical world full of war and hatred. Christians believe that there are demons in this world but in the end, God the father will beat out the devils. I am a christian and as much as i do believe in my faith i think that sometimes the demons in this life can overpower the good. Peters life was not always troubeled but when it did take the turn for the bad it went to the worst. Peter was alone in the cold harsh world of highschool. Love overrules in the end but sometimes in situations like Peters, the good does not come through. I believe that everyone has second chances and maybe through peter serving his time, he will find goodness. Maybe someday Peter will be the person that he wanted to be. Strong and able but until then he will live in his hell.

Post A #4