My Life as a Stuntboy

My Life #2

by Janet Tashjian, Jake Tashjian (Illustrator)

Derek Fallon gets the opportunity of a lifetime―to be a stunt boy in a major movie featuring a pretty teen starlet. After accepting the job he learns that he is the star's stunt double and must wear a wig! His friends are never going to let him live this down. If that weren't his only problem, his parents are threatening to give away his pet monkey, and his best friend just posted an embarrassing video of him on Youtube. Can life get any worse? Still the irrepressible Derek takes it all in stride and even manages to save the day.

Genres: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Fiction, Humor, Friendship, Chapter Books, Juvenile

272 pages, Hardcover

First published October 11, 2011

About the author

Janet Tashjian is a middle-grade and young adult novelist who’s been writing books for children for fifteen years. 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 is a cult favorite and Fault Line is taught in many middle and high schools. Her novels My Life As a Book, My Life As a Stuntboy, and My Life As a Cartoonist are all illustrated by her teenage son, Jake. Their collaboration continues with Einstein the Class Hamster coming in August.

Janet lives with her family in Los Angeles, enjoying her respite from the long Boston winters. When she isn’t writing, she’s rewriting.

Janet has been doing school visits for fifteen years; you can email her at spatulaproductions@mac.com for details.

We invite you to follow her on Twitter @JanetTashjian and like her books on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Lif...
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Plus, check out her YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/janettash...

Reviews

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book out loud to my kids and it was a really great read. Tashjian focuses on the importance of friendship, fixing mistakes and the consequence of your actions; which she accomplishes in a fun and entertaining way.

[Austin K · Rating 5 out of 5]

My cook is My Life As A Stunt Boy. I would rate this book a 5 star because. This book is about a kid who gets a key stunt part in a major movie wan has to do a bunch of crazy stunts and his friends wont let him live this down his parents don't have that much money to live and they are trying to sell his monkey, and its keeps getting worse because every time he messes up on video all his friends will post in on the web and so everyone can see his failure. When he goes to school everyone laughs and points and he Has a rough time getting through it and i think you should help him do it!!!

[Nicky H · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book. It is about a boy named Derek Fallon and he has trouble reading so his mom hires a tutor to help Derek. Later on in the book he was skateboarding with his friend, and while he was skateboarding he got asked to do a movie about skateboarding. When he was dressing up for a scene, he had to wear pajamas with a wig, so thats when he relized he was doing a movie for a girl so people made fun of him. This was a great book and I recommend this book to people that like action and graphic novels.

[Tracy Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series. Vocabulary words are illustrated in the margin of every page. Great for reluctant readers.
The main character, Derek, is a 12 year old boy who struggles with reading. To help with reading comprehension, he illustrates tough words (these are the vocabulary words in the margin of every page). In this book Derek deals with best friend problems, cyber-bullying, and some family drama. No spoiler here - you'll have to read it.

[Книжни Криле · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Историите на Дерек - книга 2: Животът ми като екшън герой” (изд."СофтПрес") обещава нова доза училищни приключения, разказани в първо лице от едноименния протагонист по неволя. Началото на книгата съвпада и с началото на учебната година и това прави нещата направо брутални. Ампутация още на първата страница! „Сякаш луд хирург те хвърля на операционната маса и изрязва от гърдите ти жизненоважен орган, наречен лято”. Съчувствам ти, Дерек, съчувствам ти. Краят на ваканцията е не по-малко ужасяващ и за самите учители. Но хей, нова година... нов късмет, нали така? Да проверим какъв ще е твоят! Прочетете ревюто на "Книжни Криле":

https://knijnikrile.wordpress.com/201...

[Chase · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a beast, I enjoyed it. I think if you haven’t read this book you should.

[Lucas Major · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why does he have a monkey

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary: Twelve-year-old Derek Fallon has the opportunity of a lifetime--to perform stunts in a movie featuring a popular twelve-year-old star--but complications arise involving his best friend, a capuchin monkey, and Derek's chronic inability to concentrate on schoolwork.

More plot details: Derek and his friend Matt like to do parkour - getting around an obstacle as efficiently as possible. (doing jumps and movement stunts on stairs, walls, etc). A real stuntman named Tony sees them in action and asks Derek to be a stuntboy in a new movie. The work is only for a couple of days and he does it. Matt is jealous and mad that he wasn't picked. It turns out, Derek is a stuntgirl for Tanya Billings, a famous tween actress. Derek gets made fun of for that. Matt does a couple more cruel things to Derek. Swifty, a kid Matt has been hanging out with, ends up kidnapping Derek's pet capuchin monkey, and all the kids go try to get him back. It involves parkour and Tanya to get the monkey back from a warehouse where it is running loose. In the end, all is well. Derek gets to keep his foster monkey who almost gets taken away from him. Matt and Derek are friends. But he never gets to see Tanya again.

1st book with same character is My Life as a Book. This is not a series and you do not need to have read the first book to understand this book. Very different plots.

Read-a-likes: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Big Nate

There are sketches throughout the book. On the side, Derek has little stick figure drawings that define words in the book. Derek is known for illustrating his vocabulary words, something he enjoys, his teachers praise him on, and helps him learn better.

Derek does have some issues with his reading and that comes up in this book. He gets a tutor to help him with reading. At one point they practice reading aloud, Matt (his best friend who is mad at him) video takes him reading aloud and posts it to YouTube under the title "Idiot Reader".

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed her first book, My Life as a Book, so no surprise that I enjoyed this one just as much. After sitting by her during a recent MacMillan dinner at NCTE, I loved getting the inside story about why her son is the illustrator of these books. Great stick figures that help with the understanding of vocabulary - a technique he used many times himself.

[Jack .V · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was just as great as the first one! I really like the characters emotions and how it is presented. I loved the part where Derek climes all the crates and saves Frank (he is a monkey). If you like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, you WILL love this book.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story slides in lessons on personal responsibility and friendship without being preachy.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a fun series! Definitely hard to put down!

[Cairo Duran]

I think it is a good book for you to check out because I think the author is trying to teach you that if you work hard you can achieve any dream.

[Shloak Menon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing If you want the Craft Services Candy, Like this

[daylan(its ya boy dayz in the hood)]

it was good

[Shailesh Newaskar · Rating 5 out of 5]

SAGA

S for super
A for amazing
G for great
A awesome


Five out of five
Like dairy of a wimpy kid

[Matthew Piotrowicz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Twelve-year-old Derek trying to do anything other than his reading list for over the summer. He thinks that summer is a 2-3 month period of relaxing and having fun. Derek is very much a visual learner than anything else as to be seen in the novel. This book is not for a high reading level, as seen by pictures on the side to resemble what more challenging words mean, but it is a good book. Although it is a sequel to best-selling "My Life as a Book".

Derek with his friends and family are very close and seem to never turn their backs on each other. Just as it seems that way his friend and fellow skateboarder Matt joins another boy to go against Derek. He gets a once in a lifetime opportunity to be a stunt boy for a major movie. After accepting the part he finds out that he will be Scarlet, a pretty girl around Derek's age stunt double. Things seem to take a turn for the worst and his friends post an embarrassing video of him on YouTube wearing the wig.

[Wendy Kuzma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great transitional book for kids who enjoy, but are reluctant to move beyond, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The story moves along at a nice pace and I really cared about the characters. The main character, who is a struggling reader in school, has an opportunity to be a stunt double in a movie. His family also fosters a capuchin monkey, Frank, that will eventually be trained as a companion for a disabled person. ( I didn't even know this was a thing! ;) )I really enjoyed this book and read it in a day. I am looking forward to reading more books in this series.

[Nimisha Subramanian]

A very humorous book with a lot of emotion
It talks about a young boy and his struggles with reading,his school problems,best friends problems and a lot more .
When derek gets a opportunity to act as a stuntboy for a famous actor,everything starts rolling out too quickly for him to comprehend and suddenly he's wearing pyjamas in a random warehouse in the middle of his shoot day and he' s climbing up crates to save his monkey!
WAtch as this book unfolds to show how everything is not as scary as it looks!

[Yeimi Alvarez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its a new day of the new school year and deker is nervous for this new school year. Derek gets a opportunity as a stunt double of a movie. BUt has to wear a wig he doesnt feel to comfortable with this especialñy with his friends. Derek is also being embarrased by a video that his friends have of him. I like this book because its a fun expierence to read about a stunt boy that is in a movie as a stunt boy and at the same time having friend problems.

[LS Schulz · Rating 3 out of 5]

We enjoyed reading this one, although both of my boys made comments about the bullying and how one of the characters could have/should have been reported for posting a mocking video of another on YouTube without their permission. It does show the main character learning to work through the problems with his best friend, as well as with his own learning of various things, in a realistic, encouraging way.

[Laila · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm so glad my son has found another series he likes, after devouring all the Wimpy Kid/Big Nate/Dog Man/Bad Kitty books. If your kiddo likes those, check these out - they're a little bit more substantial. We're reading them together and I like that they talk about navigating tricky emotions in a realistic way.

[Cris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Derek stumbles on a lifetime opportunity to do stunts for a movie. Derek just had a small problem of never doing anything 100%. Like reading the script, so he is surprised …well I don’t want to give it away. His best friend is jealous and over reacts by hanging with some not cool kids. What they do, well once again, they make Derek’s life rough too.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Derek is picked to act as stuntman (stuntboy?,stuntgirl?) for an upcoming movie. His family is also training a capuchin monkey. Both of these jobs are teaching him some valuable lessons about life, friendship, planning, preparing, and responsibility.

A quick and easy read kids will love (but this series is nowhere near as clever and appealing as Wimpy Kid.

[Garrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that this book deserves 5 stars because the storyline in this book is one of my favorites. I loved how the main character reminded me of myself during school, which I like a lot. So I would highly recommend this book for anyone!

[Shawna,first of her name,mother of kitties · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m reading this series with my son and it’s so cute! It has relatable characters for children to connect with. These characters are real with actual issues in their day to day lives. This series has got my son into drawing his spelling words each week which has helped him quite a bit.

[David Erkale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Derek gets into a movie as a stuntperson for a popular female star. This and his foster monkey, troubles with Matt, meeting said star, and other info makes this story what it is. He seems to have a much more exciting life than me, though.

[Caleb · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow his book was really good way better than the first book.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I continue to really enjoy this series. This kid is not perfect, but he doesn't have a totally bummer life.

[Anna Chang 8E · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a extremely wonderful book and super funny book!! I would recommend it to others :P