My Life as a Book

“If my life were a book, I’d have my own cool adventures instead of reading about someone else’s.”

Here, Derek begins to explain the reasoning behind the novel’s title. He’s asked to read over the summer despite disliking the idea of reading novels and proclaims that a book about his own life would be much more interesting and full of adventure. My Life as a Book centers on Derek’s summer experiences. When the summer draws to a close, Derek realizes that he has unintentionally made a book about his life through the drawings he created to learn vocabulary. Thus, the book’s title has a double meaning, and the narrative is multidimensional.

“After all, tomorrow is the start of vacation, the start of sleeping late, the end of being prodded every day by teachers with their mental Tasers to LEARN, LEARN, LEARN. Tomorrow is also the day I start to investigate what my mother is trying to hide.”

Derek’s predictions about his summer turn out to be inaccurate, as he soon learns that he’ll be attending Learning Camp for the summer. The irony of his statement makes it humorous, as Derek seems absolutely delighted that learning is over for the summer. Even though his summer doesn’t turn out as planned, Derek finds that he enjoys Learning Camp and the people there. In addition, he has the privilege of going to Martha’s Vineyard at summer’s end to bring clarity to the mystery of Susan’s death.