My Brother’s Keeper

Most of the people avoid truth or problems; they try not to deal with it by doing something else, like watching television, or going out. The good example of this is My Brother’s Keeper. Toby Malone has two brothers, one is older, Jake, and one is younger, Eli. His father left for California, his mother works in the hair salon and tries to make ends meet. She goes out with one of her clients and it seems like she is never home, which upsets Toby, but makes Jake happy because he can go out with out her asking where he is going. Toby is really proud of Jake for being the softball star, and helping their team win the championship.

Jake on the other hand is not interested in the things he did last year, and does drugs. Toby tries to cover for him all the time. He sprays ‘Citrus Magic’ whenever Jake smokes weed, he cleans up after Jake and his friend, and even lies to their mother. Here is an example of Toby covering: ‘Jake opened the front door, but it was raining outside, he closed it and went into the downstairs bathroom. Jake opened the window and started smoking weed. When Toby saw it, he got a Citrus Magic and started spraying it around once Jake was done.’

Toby is really tired of covering for his brother, and his brother doing drugs, but he doesn’t want their mom the get hurt. What will he do? Will he keep their mom from hurting, and Jake from drugs, or not?

This book is very well written. It shows how people want to get away from the problems by not solving them, but avoiding them. I think this book is really good, and interesting. You should read it because it gives a good example of how you shouldn’t avoid your problems. For example, Toby’s mom went out with her client every night and pretended not to notice what was going on with Jake, instead of just dealing with him.