''My Life as a Book'' is a

children's novel Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

written by

Janet Tashjian Janet Tashjian is an American writer living in Los Angeles. Her children's and young adult fiction is published by Henry Holt and Company. Her books often incorporate different formats and play with the line between fiction and non-fiction. She ...

and illustrated by her teenage son, Jake Tashjian. It is the first book in the ''My Life'' series. It has been translated into ten languages including Spanish, Catalan, Hebrew, Turkish, Czech, and German. Its sequels-''My Life as a Stuntboy'' and ''My Life as a Cartoonist'' - have also been translated into several languages. The novel tells the story of Derek Fallon, a mischievous twelve-year-old boy who finds reading difficult because of his reading disability. As a way to learn his vocabulary words, he illustrates them in the margins of a book his mom got him. When he discovers a newspaper in the attic with the story of a girl who drowned on

Martha's Vineyard Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the Northeastern United States, located south of Cape Cod in Dukes County, Massachusetts, known for being a popular, affluent summer colony. Martha's Vineyard includes the s ...

, he spends his summer trying to uncover the mystery of what happened instead of completing his summer reading list.

Background

Tashjian wanted to write a book for reluctant readers with the humor and visual support of a ''

Calvin and Hobbes ''Calvin and Hobbes'' is a daily American comic strip created by cartoonist Bill Watterson that was syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. Commonly cited as "the last great newspaper comic", ''Calvin and Hobbes'' has enjoyed ...

'' book, even dedicating the novel to its creator

Bill Watterson William Boyd Watterson II (born July 5, 1958) is a retired American cartoonist and the author of the comic strip ''Calvin and Hobbes'', which was syndicated from 1985 to 1995. Watterson stopped drawing ''Calvin and Hobbes'' at the end of 1995, ...

. She incorporated the methods of several reading programs into the novels such as Lindamood Bell's ‘Visualizing and Verbalizing’ and

Maryanne Wolf Maryanne Wolf is a scholar, teacher, and advocate for children and literacy around the world. She is the UCLA Professor-in-Residence of Education, Director of the UCLA Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice, and the Chapman Univ ...

’s ‘Rave-O.’

Books in the Series

The series has a total of 10 books. The sequel to the 10th book of the series, ''My Life as a TikTok Star released on January 1, 2022. # ''My Life as a Book'' (2010) # ''My Life as a Stuntboy'' (2011) # ''My Life as a Cartoonist'' (2013) # ''My Life as a Joke'' (2014) # ''My Life as a Gamer'' (2015) # ''My Life as a Ninja'' (2017) # ''My Life as a Youtuber'' (2018) # ''My Life as a Meme'' (2019) # ''My Life as a Coder'' (2020) # ''My Life as a Billionaire'' (2021) # ''My Life as a Tik Tok Star'' (2022)

References

{{Reflist *http://www.booklistonline.com/ProductInfo.aspx?pid=3999399&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 *http://us.macmillan.com/mylifeasabook/JanetTashjian *http://www.kidsreads.com/reviews/my-life-as-a-book Novels by Janet Tashjian 2010 American novels American children's novels 2010 children's books Henry Holt and Company books