89 pages 2 hours read

Janet Tashjian

My Life as a Book

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2010

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Activities

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

Your “Life as a Book”

In this activity, students will brainstorm and create their own ideas about how they’d structure their own “Life as a Book.”

For this assignment, your creativity and imagination will come into play as you reflect on what type of book your life would make. Derek realizes the truth of Human Lives as Stories, and he feels that if his life were made into a book, he would want it to be full of adventure. You will not write a book (unless you later decide to do so); instead, you will plan it out in detail.

  • As you plan your life book, consider genre, plot, characters, setting, and symbols.
  • Create a diagram or chart that indicates each of the above.
  • In creating your diagram or chart, include a section that relates back to the novel’s theme Human Lives as Stories. You should also include your own themes here.
  • You will present your planned life book to the class.
  • You can choose to include a sample of what your book would be like visually instead of in writing, but this is not required.