50 Fun Facts About My Sister's Keeper

Conceived through IVF as a tissue match for her sister Kate, Anna Fitzgerald is what kind of child?

A savior sibling is conceived to provide stem cells or marrow for a sick brother or sister; the first real case, Adam Nash, was born in 2000. Anna gives blood, marrow and more as Kate relapses.

In Picoult's novel, what kills Anna Fitzgerald on the drive back from court after winning her case?

A truck hitting the car leaves Anna brain-dead, and lawyer Campbell Alexander approves the organ donation that saves Kate. The epilogue follows the family eight years on.

How does the 2009 film of My Sister's Keeper end for the two sisters, compared with Picoult's novel?

Kate dies and Anna lives in the film, the reverse of the novel; Kate slips away in her sleep with Sara beside her once the family accepts she is ready. Anna's voice-over says she was born because she had a sister.

Which director of The Notebook and John Q. made the 2009 film My Sister's Keeper?

Nick Cassavetes is the son of director John Cassavetes and actress Gena Rowlands, and he appeared uncredited in his father's 1970 film Husbands.

Jodi Picoult has said she regretted letting the director of My Sister's Keeper do what?

To change the ending was the one alteration Picoult publicly regretted; the film also expanded some subplots and eliminated others entirely, against her wishes.

Which There's Something About Mary star plays the mother, Sara Fitzgerald, in the 2009 adaptation?

Cameron Diaz won the ALMA for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture for the role, in which Sara has given up practising law to care for Kate.

Which Little Miss Sunshine Oscar nominee plays Anna Fitzgerald in the 2009 adaptation?

Abigail Breslin was ten when her Olive Hoover earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress; critic James Berardinelli praised the natural bond she and her screen sister showed.

Which sister act was cast as Kate and Anna Fitzgerald before the elder balked at shaving her head?

Dakota and Elle Fanning both left the project in February 2008, and Variety announced their replacements that same month.

Anna Fitzgerald hires lawyer Campbell Alexander to sue her parents for what legal status?

Medical emancipation would let Anna make her own treatment decisions, including whether to give Kate a kidney; when she wins, the judge hands Campbell medical power of attorney.

Cross-examined by Sara in the 2009 adaptation, what does Anna Fitzgerald admit about her lawsuit?

Kate asked her to refuse the kidney, knowing she would not survive another operation and having had enough of the family's suffering; Jesse's intervention at the hearing forces the admission.

Jodi Picoult set the Fitzgeralds' story in the fictional town of Upper Darby, in which US state?

Rhode Island is where Picoult, who is based in Hanover, New Hampshire, placed the invented town; the story unfolds there in 2004.

What is the full first name of Anna Fitzgerald, the youngest Fitzgerald child in Picoult's novel?

Andromeda suits a family whose father Brian is fond of astronomy; Anna was meant to make a single donation at birth before Kate's relapses changed that.

Why does lawyer Campbell Alexander secretly need his service dog in Picoult's novel?

He has epilepsy, developed after a concussion, and it is why he left Julia Romano years earlier, believing she deserved better; a seizure during the trial exposes the secret.

Julia Romano, Campbell Alexander's high-school girlfriend, is appointed to Anna's case in what role?

A guardian ad litem is appointed to represent a child's best interests in court; Judge DeSalvo chooses Julia because Anna and Sara cannot be in the same room during the trial.

What loss, suffered the year before Anna's case, shapes Judge DeSalvo in Picoult's novel?

His daughter, to a drunk driver, when she was 12, so he too is a parent who has buried a child by the time Anna's petition reaches his court.

Sara Fitzgerald, once a civil attorney, responds to Anna's lawsuit in Picoult's novel by doing what?

Representing herself, Sara at first assumes Anna merely wants attention and expects the complaint to be withdrawn; Anna will not back down.

Jesse Fitzgerald, the overlooked eldest child, spends his time in Picoult's novel doing what?

Setting fires in empty buildings with homemade explosives, and using drugs, is how Jesse acts out after years of being ignored in favour of Kate and Anna; the epilogue makes him a police officer.

In the epilogue of Picoult's novel, eight years after the trial, what has Kate Fitzgerald become?

A ballet teacher, Kate also narrates the final pages, speaking of deep guilt and of a bond with the part of Anna she carries inside her.

What does Sara hide from Kate about Taylor Ambrose, the boyfriend Kate met during chemotherapy?

That he has died is hidden by Sara, who fears the grief would rob Kate of her will to live; Kate assumes Taylor simply stopped calling, and the rift with her mother deepens when she learns the truth.

How is wealthy aunt Suzanne, who openly criticises Sara's treatment of both girls, related to Sara?

Her older sister by ten years, Suzanne shows Anna more support than Brian does, and the 2009 film renames the aunt Kelly.

Which actress, Ariel DuBois on the TV series Medium, plays Kate Fitzgerald in the 2009 adaptation?

Sofia Vassilieva, the only child of Russian immigrants, had already played Eloise in two TV movies opposite Julie Andrews before Medium.

Which 30 Rock star plays Anna's lawyer, Campbell Alexander, in the 2009 film My Sister's Keeper?

Alec Baldwin won two Emmys as Jack Donaghy, and his Campbell files a suit for partial termination of the Fitzgeralds' parental rights on Anna's behalf.

Which twice Oscar-nominated actress, for Working Girl and In & Out, plays Judge De Salvo on screen?

Joan Cusack later won a Primetime Emmy for playing Sheila Jackson on Shameless; the novel's Judge De Salvo is a man, while the film's is Judge Joan De Salvo.

Which star of The Lost Boys and Speed 2 plays the father, Brian Fitzgerald, in the 2009 adaptation?

Jason Patric is the grandson of Jackie Gleason and the son of Jason Miller, whose play That Championship Season won a Pulitzer Prize.

Which Sarah Connor Chronicles star plays Kate Fitzgerald's boyfriend, Taylor Ambrose, on screen?

Thomas Dekker played John Connor on that series and Zach on Heroes; in the film, Taylor and Kate attend a hospital prom for teen patients shortly before his death.

Which Bones star plays Dr. Farquad, one of Kate Fitzgerald's doctors, in the 2009 adaptation?

Emily Deschanel's father, Caleb Deschanel, shot the film as its cinematographer; her younger sister is the actress and singer Zooey Deschanel.

Which film topped the US box office the weekend My Sister's Keeper opened fifth, in June 2009?

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen led, and The Proposal, The Hangover and Up were also ahead of Keeper's $12,442,212 opening weekend.

Which Randy Newman song, sung by Edwina Hayes, opens the My Sister's Keeper soundtrack album?

Feels Like Home leads a soundtrack that also carries Regina Spektor's Better and Pete Yorn's Don't Wanna Cry.

Which Bridge to Terabithia and The Proposal composer also scored the 2009 film My Sister's Keeper?

Aaron Zigman, born in San Diego, wrote his first film score for John Q. in 2002 and has co-written songs with Quincy Jones and John Legend.

My Sister's Keeper's director drew on his child Sasha's health history; she was born with what?

A heart defect that required substantial surgery; he had already dedicated his 2002 film John Q. to Sasha.

Picoult says the idea came 'through the back door' of researching eugenics for which earlier novel?

Second Glance led her to the American Eugenics Society's former base at Cold Spring Harbor, now occupied by the Human Genome Project, a coincidence she found too striking to ignore.

Picoult traced Sara's desperation to her own son Jake's childhood illness: a benign tumour where?

In his ear, a cholesteatoma, treated with an experimental approach that needed repeated surgeries; the standard route, she said, would have left him profoundly deaf.

Jodi Picoult studied creative writing under Mary Morris at which university, graduating in 1987?

Princeton later made her its 2016 Class Day speaker; she went on to a master's in education at Harvard, and Dartmouth gave her an honorary doctorate in 2010.

Beyond novels, Jodi Picoult wrote several 2007 issues of which DC Comics series?

Wonder Woman issues 6 to 10 were hers, taking over after Allan Heinberg's departure; her first issue appeared in March 2007.

Which Picoult novel about a school shooting first put her at number one on the New York Times list?

Nineteen Minutes, published in March 2007, was later among the most banned books of the 2023–24 school year according to PEN America.

Where did My Sister's Keeper rank on the American Library Association's 2009 most-challenged list?

Seventh place reflected years of challenges in schools and public libraries; Picoult has since become a vocal opponent of book bans.

Which ALA prize for adult books with special teen appeal did Picoult's novel receive in 2005?

The Alex Award is named for Baltimore librarian Margaret Alexander Edwards, known as Alex, and honours ten books a year.

Which publisher issued the 432-page hardcover first edition of Picoult's My Sister's Keeper?

Atria published the hardcover; the paperback followed from Washington Square Press in 2005.

Which leukemia, a blood and bone marrow cancer, does Kate Fitzgerald have in Picoult's novel?

Acute promyelocytic leukemia is the illness named in both the novel and the film, where Kate is diagnosed as a young child and neither her parents nor her brother are matches.

Brian Fitzgerald moves Anna into his workplace in the 2009 adaptation; what is his job?

Firefighter Brian moves Anna into his fire station to separate her from Sara during the lawsuit; in the novel he is also fond of astronomy.

Where, Kate's 'most favorite place in the world', do the Fitzgeralds go each year on screen?

Montana is where the family goes each year on Kate's birthday in the film's closing scenes, by which time Sara has returned to work and Jesse has started college.

Which condition of Jesse's went unnoticed for years on screen, a source of guilt for Kate Fitzgerald?

Dyslexia went unnoticed while Kate absorbed their parents' attention, and Jesse's grades suffered; the novel's Jesse acts out far more destructively.

In the 2009 adaptation, on what terms does Campbell Alexander take Anna Fitzgerald's case?

Pro bono means without charge; Campbell, who has a hidden illness of his own, sympathises with Anna's feeling of having no control over her own body.

Before the hearing in the 2009 adaptation, what one last outing does Kate Fitzgerald request?

A trip to the beach is granted when Brian discharges her from the hospital for the day and threatens to divorce Sara unless she joins them.

In the 2009 adaptation, how old is Anna Fitzgerald when she is told she must give Kate a kidney?

Eleven in the film, Anna is 13 in the novel, and Kate is 15 when her kidneys fail on screen.

What was Anna Fitzgerald's very first donation to Kate, in Picoult's novel?

Umbilical cord blood worked at first, but the cancer kept returning, so Anna went on to give blood, marrow and more as she grew.

Which network made TV movies of Picoult's The Pact and Plain Truth, while Keeper went to theatres?

Lifetime made The Pact, Plain Truth, The Tenth Circle and Salem Falls as original movies, which makes the 2009 feature the one Picoult adaptation on that list to reach theatres.

Which production company, credited beside Curmudgeon Films, made the 2009 film My Sister's Keeper?

New Line Cinema produced it with Curmudgeon Films, and Warner Bros. Pictures released it in US theatres on June 26, 2009.

Budgeted at roughly $30M, how much did the 2009 film My Sister's Keeper take at the worldwide box office?

$95.7 million worldwide, $49.2 million of it domestic, against a $30 million budget made it a financial success despite mixed reviews; Rotten Tomatoes logged 47% positive notices.

Keeper co-writer Jeremy Leven also wrote and directed which 1994 Johnny Depp romance?

Don Juan DeMarco came from Leven, who also wrote The Legend of Bagger Vance and The Notebook and did uncredited work on The Time Traveler's Wife.