Sweetwine bible

The Sweetwine bible is a leather-bound handwritten volume of a collection of advice, wisdom, warnings, encouragements, and other similar writings meant to guide the reader through life, originally compiled and composed by Grandma Sweetwine. The bible explains things like gifts of oranges from boys means girls will grow to love them, and keeping an onion in a pocket will ward off illness. Jude is given the bible, and lives her life by its writings, consulting it frequently throughout the novel, and adding her own thoughts down as well.

Broken sculptures

Each sculpture created from clay by Jude while at CSA ends up broken in some way, shape, or form. She believes this is because her mother is angry at her for having never mailed Noah’s CSA application. Symbolically, the broken sculptures are a physical manifestation of how Jude feels inside – broken and in turmoil...