My Life as a Book

Derek Fallon, the story’s protagonist, narrates his summer experiences as he reluctantly practices active reading and learns new vocabulary. He develops a unique system for this in which he draws the definitions of words rather than writing them. These illustrations, drawn by the author’s son, Jake Tashjian (and in the story, by Derek), appear in the margins of the book. For instance, an illustration of a ship with a stick figure wearing a pirate hat defines the word “adventure.” Derek insists he likes to read—but not what others want him to; he prefers comics like Calvin & Hobbes or Garfield, and he sees reading as a highly personal thing. When Derek’s mother asks him to read, he humorously bolts out his window onto the garage roof and up into the attic, as his mother tries to bribe him with chocolate chips. Derek hints at having a reading tutor whom he dislikes and refers to as “Satan.” In the attic, Derek finds a newspaper from Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, 2000, with a headline reading, “LOCAL GIRL FOUND DEAD ON BEACH” (3). When he asks his mother about it, she tells him, “This has nothing to do with you” (3) and takes the newspaper away.