My Life as a Book

Fans of the Wimpy Kid series will like this quick read with a 12-year-old boy as its main character.  Derek hates reading and his summer reading assignments are ruining his whole vacation.  However, a mystery that he is intent on solving spices his summer up, even though his parents make him go to Learning Camp.  I found the kid somewhat of a brat and quite unlikable at the beginning.  I also found many elements of the story quite random and not developed well at all.  This is the first in the series.  I hope my students like it more than I did.  I did like the illustrations which described vocabulary words in the book, though.  (FIC TAS)