Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    My Life as a Cartoonist
    My Life as a Cartoonist
    My Life as a Cartoonist
    Ebook269 pages13 hours

    My Life as a Cartoonist

    By Janet Tashjian and Jake Tashjian

    4.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In Book Three of the popular "My Life . . ." series by Janet Tashjian, Derek Fallon's plan to help out a new classmate backfires miserably

    There's a new kid in Derek Fallon's class. His name is Umberto and he uses a wheelchair. Derek's family is still fostering Frank the monkey, and Derek thinks it would be great to train Frank to assist Umberto. But Derek quickly realizes that Umberto is definitely not looking for any help. Derek soon becomes the butt of Umberto's jokes. On top of that, Umberto starts stealing Derek's cartoon ideas and claiming them as his own. How did Derek get himself into this mess, and how can he find a way out before he is the laughingstock of school? The answer may very well be his cartoon strip—SUPER FRANK!

    My Life as a Cartoonist features illustrations by Janet Tashjian's son, Jake Tashjian.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateApr 30, 2013
    ISBN9781466843134
    My Life as a Cartoonist
    Author

    Janet Tashjian

    Janet Tashjian is a middle-grade and young adult novelist who’s been writing books for children for over two decades. Her first novel Tru Confessions was made into a critically acclaimed Disney TV movie starring Clara Bryant and Shia LaBeouf. The Gospel According to Larry series is a cult favorite and Fault Line is taught in many middle and high schools. Her bestselling My Life As a Book series is illustrated by her son, Jake. They also collaborated on the Einstein the Class Hamster series. Janet collaborated with fellow Macmillan author Laurie Keller on the chapter book series Marty Frye, Private Eye. Janet currently lives in Los Angeles and made her new home city the setting of the Sticker Girl series, which details the adventures of Martina who overcomes being shy with the help of her magical stickers that come to life.

    Related authors

    Related to My Life as a Cartoonist

    Titles in the series (11)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Children's School & Education For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Worst Road Trip Ever

      May 9, 2021

      Worst Road Trip Ever
      1 min read

    • Article

      My Cartoon Friend

      Jul 1, 2021

      Cartoons are cool, and friends are essential, so having a cartoon character as a friend should be super-cool, right? Errr … not always! After experimenting with some new and unknown animation software, a young African animator, Lwazi, mistakenly expo

      3 min read

    • Article

      Big Nate Stars

      Mar 13, 2022

      Big Nate Stars
      3 min read

    • Article

      Sonic Talks!

      Feb 9, 2020

      Sonic Talks!
      1 min read

    • Article

      Heroes

      Apr 11, 2021

      Name: Pulasi Heroic feat: Winning one of the largest national school art competitions in Australia, The BIG Art & Expression Competition! K-Z: Hi Pulasi! How did you find out about the BIG Art and Expression competition? P: A staff member at my aft

      1 min read

    • Article

      Then Again, Maybe I Will: The Reads I Kept Hidden in My Youth

      Sep 25, 2018

      1. I found the paperback on a metal card table at my neighbor’s garage sale: Judy Blume’s Then Again, Maybe I Won’t. I was 8 years old and already loved the author for books like Blubber, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, and Superfudge. The well-worn

      4 min read

    • Article

      We ♥ Sabrina

      Apr 8, 2021

      Two of Sabrina’s many talents are singing and songwriting, and she knew from a young age that she wanted to sing. “We have a video of me in the kitchen. I was so young and was singing ‘God Bless America,’” Sabrina recalls. The 21-year-old star rememb

      2 min read

    • Article

      Taking centre STAGE

      Apr 11, 2021

      Taking centre STAGE
      1 min read

    • Article

      Sonic Domination

      Sep 12, 2021

      Sonic Colours: Ultimate is an out of this world amusement park, that has been deliberately built to slow down Sonic’s speedy ways. However, do you really think there’s any chance of that actually happening? Naaah! Whisk around rescuing Wisps in Sonic

      2 min read

    • Article

      Eoin Colfer

      Dec 4, 2019

      Eoin Colfer
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Problem with My Dachshund

      Dec 11, 2019

      The Problem with My Dachshund
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Letterbox

      Nov 1, 2020

      Dear Cricket and Everybuggy, Hi! I’m a female boy scout and I love dancing, music, and animals. I also love this magazine. I have been getting it since I was eight! I’m the oldest of three and I have a dog named Copper, a leopard gecko named Leppy, a

      7 min read

    • Article

      Anxiety City

      Jan 18, 2020

      Anxiety City
      5 min read

    • Article

      Why We Love Our Teachers

      May 2, 2023

      Why We Love Our Teachers
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Letter Box

      Sep 1, 2022

      Hi, Everyone, I really love this magazine! I got my first issue when I think I was around nine and I loved it! I really love fish and I breed guppies. We have so many fish (mostly guppies) that we have four fish tanks! I also enjoy reading. My favori

      7 min read

    • Article

      Winners Take All!

      Mar 7, 2024

      Congratulations to everyone who entered the Writing Magazine Children’s Book Prize 2023! There were 61 entries in the chapter book prize category and it was very tricky whittling them down. However, we are delighted to share our top three winning ent

      7 min read

    • Article

      Book Extract

      Jan 20, 2020

      My year off was also interesting, in that I didn’t feel any less loved, or cherished, or wanted. Why? Because my life is already rich with soulmates, and I got the chance to behold that. You don’t have to shag someone for them to be a soulmate. We do

      7 min read

    • Article

      Quarantine Album

      Sep 8, 2020

      It all started with a very simple request: I asked my mom, when she had time, could she look through old photos to see if there were any of pint-size me decked out for Halloween—primo Instagram content for my show Scream, Queen! (a podcast about scar

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for My Life as a Cartoonist

    4.5/5

    10 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      I enjoy this series as it follows Derek on his junior high adventures. This time Derek is leading a cartoon club at school. A new kid transfers into his school and makes Derek's life miserable. If Derek retaliates he looks like the bad guy. Derek and Umberto have to come to a compromise over their problem.I like Derek. The drawings are still in the margins for words he does not understand. Sometimes their definitions are broad but make the point. I enjoy learning more about capuchin monkeys and how they are used as animal assistants for people with disabilities. Bullying is the topic but it is not preachy about it. It does show how bullies come in all shapes and sizes and how perceptions come into play. I was on Derek's side the whole way but since he was always caught retaliating or getting mad I could see where the other people were coming from. I hope there will be more books in this series because it is one of my favorite youth series.
    • 3/5
      "My Life as a Cartoonist" is one of the books in a series by Janet Tashjian. The main character in this story is Derek Fallon, who is in middle school. At the beginning of the book, a new student arrives at school, and his name is Umberto. Umberto has a spinal defect and must use a wheelchair, and Derek wants to do something to help him. Derek has been training his pet money, Frank, to help handicapped people with their everyday lives, so he wants Frank to help Umberto. Unfortunately, Umberto doesn’t want any help from Derek or Frank, and he’s really mean about it. Umberto resents the fact that Derek is trying to help him, so he starts making jokes about Derek. Umberto also starts stealing Derek’s cartoon ideas about “Super Frank,” the super hero monkey, and Umberto pretends that they are his ideas. Umberto also picks a fight with Derek on the playground makes it look like Derek started it, so he will get in trouble. To try to make the boys get along, their teacher, Ms McCoddle, makes them do a school project together. They have to create a cartoon as a team. While doing the project, Derek and Umberto figure out that they have a lot in common like drawing, cartoons, and love for surfing. Umberto can’t really surf because of his wheelchair, but Derek finds someone who can help kids with disabilities go surfing. Derek and Umberto have the best day and become great friends."My Life as a Cartoonist" was a pretty good book. It wasn’t as interesting as many of the books I’ve read, so would only rate it with 3 out 5 stars. I don’t think I would choose to read the other books in this series because I thought the plot of this one was a little boring. I also thought the cartoons in the book were not that great or funny. The book did have a good morale about how bullying is wrong and can hurt people. It also showed that bullies aren’t always the people you would expect. In this book, Umberto, who is in a wheelchair, is the bully. That is not the image that most people have when they think of bullies. I’m glad I finished this book, but I wouldn’t recommend it to my friends.
    • 4/5
      The third book in the series is as fresh and delightful as My Life as a Book. If your Wimpy Kid readers haven’t discovered Derek they should. He gives them much more to think about than Wimpy Kid. Derek, known for his cartoon drawing, meets his match in Umberto, a wheelchair-bound new kid in class. In fact, Umberto seems to have it out for Derek—to the point of bullying. But how can you get teachers and kids to understand a handicapped kid is the bully. When they are finally forced into detention together with the requirement that they collaborate on a cartoon, it looks like they are doomed to stay in detention forever. But when Derek’s dog had a seizure in the dog park, it’s Umberto who helps Derek get the dog home, and as they talk, Umberto starts to open up as to why he was a bully. And as all bullies, he used it to cover up his own insecurities. This is an excellent basis for discussions about bullies.

    Book preview

    My Life as a Cartoonist - Janet Tashjian

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1