When a new kid comes rolling into Derek Fallon's classroom in a wheelchair, a brilliant idea lights up Derek's brain.  The Fallons have been fostering a capuchin monkey who will eventually be trained to help assist disabled people with daily tasks (a real thing, by the way—check out Helping Hands Monkey Helpers).  Umberto is disabled; maybe Frank the monkey could be his companion!  It really is a perfect plan.

So, why isn't Umberto into the idea?  And why is the new kid picking on Derek?  It makes no sense.  Things go from bad to worse when Umberto starts stealing Derek's cartoon ideas.  Even more annoying is that Umberto draws Super Frank better than Derek, the comic strip's creator.  Derek is at the end of his rope.  What should he do?  He's being bullied by a boy in a wheelchair—he can't fight back against a disabled kid.  Or can he?

I haven't read the first two books in Janet Tashjian's My Life As ... series, but I can tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed the third installment, My Life as a Cartoonist.  I love that the author features a disabled character who feels real.  Umberto isn't a tragic figure or a saint or anything but a normal kid with personality traits that are both charming and annoying.  Derek is likewise flawed.  As the two of them learn to appreciate each other, they teach the reader some valuable lessons about kindness, acceptance, and putting someone else's needs before your own.  The story doesn't feel preachy, though.  In fact, it's fast, it's funny, and it's full of heart.  Simple cartoons drawn by Tashjian's son, Jake, enhance the tale.  Jeff Kinney fans will find much to love about My Life as a Cartoonist and its fellows.  One reviewer described the series as "a kinder, gentler Wimpy Kid with all the fun and more plot."  I couldn't agree more.

(Readalikes:  Other books in the My Life As ... series by Janet Tashjian and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney)

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“Are you happy with your life?”                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human—a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we’ll go to claim the lives we dream of.

Maybe I can't tell you exactly what Dark Matter is about, but I can tell you that I loved it.  Why?  It's unique, it's surprising, it's intriguing, it's engrossing, it's impossible to put down.  In a word: stunning.  I devoured the book, reading well into the night to see what would happen to Jason Dossen.  If you like mind-bending sci fi adventure stories, this one's for you.

(Readalikes:  Honestly, nothing I've ever read comes to mind!)

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