My Life as a Book

Derek wants to forget about Susan but can’t help but nag his mother with questions about the event. He intuitively realizes that this is emotionally wearing on her but keeps it up nevertheless until she tells him the “subject is now closed” (50). Derek’s mother displays endless patience for him and asks for his help putting up photos (of owners and their pets) at her veterinary clinic. She mentions Derek getting together with Carly this summer, and Derek says he’s too old for playdates. While Derek’s mother reads, and Derek walks around the kennel, looking at all the animals. He reflects on his own reading habits, wondering if he lacks “a reading gene” (54), and his mom beckons him back, encouraging him to start on his summer reading list. She offers chocolate chips and help with the tough words, finally coaxing Derek to sit down by asking to see his vocabulary illustrations. Derek eagerly gets his sketchbook and shows her. When his mom tells him the drawings are like his father’s—and reveals that he used to get disciplined for drawing on his homework as a kid—Derek feels proud. He creates a metaphor in the form of an illustration: his dad “as a kid using a giant pencil as a battering ram, knocking down the school’s exit door” (55). Derek feels a kinship with his father, knowing that he too was rebellious, and can relate to the idea of going against the grain. He’s meticulous with his lines and color choices and realizes that though he may lack skill in other areas, he can be proud of his drawings.

A capuchin monkey named Pedro is at the vet clinic. Pedro is trained to help people in wheelchairs. Derek starts getting ideas, but his mother quickly shuts him down before he even speaks. Instead, Derek helps trim the nails of a cocker spaniel. Derek imagines the monkey doing chores for him and Matt while they watch movies and taking the monkey with them on their skateboard rides. He draws a picture of him and Matt with the word “alternating,” indicating Pedro alternating from board to board. Derek’s mother seems busy, so he takes Pedro out of the cage and back to the house. He dresses Pedro in an old cowboy outfit, complete with holster and toy guns, and Pedro picks up the cowboy hat and begins playing with the guns. Bodi comes in, barking, so Derek puts the monkey on top of Bodi. The dog proceeds to run around the house with the monkey clinging to its collar “for dear life” (62). Bodi is barking, Pedro is shrieking, and Derek joins in, hollering and chasing them. When his mother walks in, she’s horrified and tells Derek that she’s signing him up for Learning Camp. She thinks that he’s too bored and his mind needs stimulation. Derek asks about his summer of freedom and relaxation, and his mother tells him it’s time to get serious because he’s 12. Derek resists growing up unless it’s on his terms, but this time, he has no choice.

Derek overhears his parents talking about “impulse control” (depicted as a stick boy jumping off a cliff) and “discipline” (depicted as a man kicking the air) and knows it can’t be anything good. His parents are firm on sending him to Learning Camp, and in the meantime, Amy is coming over to babysit. Amy has been babysitting Derek for a few years, but as she gets older, she’s less involved with actual babysitting. As Derek makes his own sandwich, Amy comments on the drowning incident. She mentions that she doesn’t know anyone who died, and Derek admits that he doesn’t really feel as if he knew Susan either. He thinks about how, last night, he dreamt of drowning alongside Susan. Bodi’s presence comforted him back to sleep. The mood changes when Matt enters the house, announcing that a big truck is dropping off bricks at his house. He wants to squish his action figures under the tires. Derek joins him but can’t have fun; he’s too worried about Learning Camp and his own potential. Derek wonders why he doesn’t get to spend the summer relaxing when school is already so difficult for him. He spends the “rest of the afternoon lying in [his] backyard staring up at the clouds, Bodi by [his] side” (72).

Derek finds out that his father will drive him to camp early the next morning, and Derek dreads the thought. He notices that Bodi seems unwell and asks his mother to check on him. Derek’s mother explains that Bodi might just be getting old, and she and Derek’s father use the moment as an opportunity to teach him some math. Derek hates how they “use everything that happens as some kind of lesson” (75). All he cares about is his dog, and his mom promises to check Bodi fully tomorrow. The next morning, Bodi seems fine, and Derek reluctantly heads to camp. He tries to put his headphones on in the car, but when his father asks if they can use the time to talk instead, Derek bangs his head against the window repeatedly—and the word “repeatedly” is depicted with a man banging his head against a wall. His father takes the hint and turns on the radio instead.

Derek arrives at camp, registers, and puts his belongings in a locker. Depicting these actions are drawings of a person registering at a table and placing possessions in a locker. Suddenly, Derek runs into Carly; they’re equally rude to one another, both wondering why they’re at the same camp. When Derek realizes that smart kids are attending, it dashes his hopes of not being “the one who needs extra help” (80) for once. Derek always feels like he’s in a losing race and is hoping for a break from that feeling.

Derek is in a camp group called the Mustangs, led by an enthusiastic camp counsellor named Margot. She teaches them geography and at snack time notices Derek drawing words. Margot hates the idea of a summer reading list, which Derek appreciates, but she helps Derek by suggesting that he “visualize the story like a movie” (84). She takes out her thick novel, which Derek professes he could never read, and challenges him. She begins reading a passage about a family on a beach, asking Derek (and Carly) to close their eyes. When Margot finishes reading, Derek realizes that he remembers what she read and is amazed. This is a pivotal moment for Derek in which he realizes that he can not only remember but enjoy reading text without pictures.

On his way to Matt’s house to say farewell before Matt leaves for Martha’s Vineyard, Derek runs into Joe Brennan. Joe is holding a large rock, which Derek knows Joe might throw at him, so Derek stops his bike and obliges Joe. Joe talks about his idea for a story about chimpanzees being allergic to bananas, and Derek thinks it’s a horrible idea but nevertheless gives him some advice. When Joe asks how Derek is so smart, Derek answers, “Just ‘cuz I have a hard time at school doesn’t mean I’m stupid” (89). When Derek arrives at Matt’s, he realizes that he feels like his best friend is deserting him. In addition, Derek dreads spending the summer at Learning Camp. When Matt reveals that he plans to go to the library in Martha’ Vineyard to dig for information about Susan James, Derek realizes that Matt is not only leaving but is “going to be having [Derek’s] adventure” (92). Derek is miserable and feels like he has nothing to look forward to this summer as he rides home.