My Life as a Cartoonist

April 1, 2013
Cartoonist Derek grapples with a perplexing association between disability and bullying in this stand-alone sequel to My Life as a Book (2010) and My Life as a Stuntboy (2011). Derek has two best friends at school and two beloved critters at home, including Frank, a capuchin monkey who's practicing family life before training as a service animal. Frank's the model for Derek's comic, Super Frank. Drawing's a fun challenge; reading's a difficult chore, though the stick-figure cartoons with which Derek illustrates his vocabulary words enliven the margins. Each playful sketch portrays a word from the adjacent paragraph but in an amusingly different context--"ingenious" shows up as a cupcake machine. Derek's life takes a turn for the worse when transfer-student Umberto targets him. Umberto steals Derek's cartoon ideas and makes him a "verbal punching bag." The bullying arc is fairly standard, but the bully isn't, at least physically: Umberto uses a wheelchair. On one hand, Tashjian creates a real anti-stereotype in this speedy wheeling boy who could (and would) easily crush Derek with a lacrosse stick if teachers weren't around. However, after the boys bond, Derek's funny narrative voice ("Frank's fur is now covered in a helmet of peanut butter") indulges in a few adult-sounding, rose-colored disability cliches, saying that Umberto possesses "honesty and grace" and "inspires me." This entertaining read leaves some provoking questions unanswered--usefully. (Fiction. 9-12)

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June 1, 2013
Grades 5-7 Derek Fallonthe underachiever star of two funny, perceptive booksreturns, and this time he meets his match in Umberto, a new student who is in a wheelchair. At first it seems as if the two could be friends. Derek's family is even training a capuchin monkey to be a service animal, and he can't wait to tell Umberto about it. But after their first conversation, Derek realizes that sarcastic, flip Umberto doesn't like him. In trying to defend himself, Derek is soon perceived as the kid bullying the boy in the wheelchair! Worst of all, Umberto is a cartoonist like Derek, but better. If all the Umberto travails weren't enough, Derek's crush, Carly, has started a relationship with an older boy, Crash. As with the other titles in the My Life As series, Tashjian's son, Jake, provides the stick figures acting out the more difficult words and concepts. Great for reluctant readers (like Derek), this also neatly twists the bullying theme, offering discussion possibilities. Fans of the series (and of the Wimpy Kid and Charlie Joe Jackson) will like this one.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)