A Great Mystery!!!

What a great mystery book we just finished reading! My Life as a Book by Janet Tashjian and illustrated by her 14 year old son. It was a humorous, thoughtful coming of age book that led to a number of great discussions during our reading groups. We talked about being a "struggling learner", cause and effect (as it relates to behavior), elements of a mystery, and writing in the first person. The story has a great twist at the end that surprised the kids!

Derek Fallon is the kid that would read those other books, if he read books at all. He really, really, really doesn't like books. Well, not entirely true. He loves cartoons, especially Calvin and Hobbes. He doesn't like "real" books. He loves to draw, including illustrating his vocabulary words in his ever present journal. He thinks he's escaped school for the summer, but suddenly finds out that his parents have signed him up for learning camp.  He views it as boot camp for his brain, forced learning and lack of fun. At the beginning on the summer he finds a mystery about a girl who drowned off Martha's Vinyard. Derek lives on the West Coast. Why do his parents have an article about a girl who died on the East Coast? Through the book Derek looks to fill in the missing pieces, finds that Learning Camp isn't so horrible and grows up a little.  (Written by the group)


The kids decided to do storyboards to show their comprehension. We talked about pulling out the key details and main ideas. 

I found the sequel to the book if any of the kids are interested!