My Life as a Book by Janet Tashjian is about Derek, a boy who can’t stand school and lives for the summer. He is really excited for school to be out. Then he finds out his parents are sending him to learning camp. Derek realizes that he is going to have to read real books, not Calvin and Hobbes, and keep doing spelling. But then he uncovers a mystery- someone might have died for him and it would have been his fault! His summer is about to get way more interesting…

I think this book is a whole lot like the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books- which I am pretty much addicted to- because there are little cartoons in it. I like that because it is still a novel, but the cartoons make it funnier. I also liked the plot. The boy in the story reminded me a lot of Hank Zipzer (check out that post here) because he doesn’t like school and has a bit of trouble in it. This book is geared toward boys but girls would like it too. My Life as a Book is on a 5th-6th grade reading level.

Buy this book here.

P.S. There is a sequel called My Life as a Stuntboy, which is pretty good too. You can buy it here.