My Life as a Gamer

I guess it’s back to Derek Fallon again. Oh well.

Where should I start? Oh, yeah. Like My Life as a Joke (see the review!) My Life as a Gamer has these cute little cartoons illustrating vocab words in the margins.

NO! I just got pen on my leg! And my wrist. Don’t ask how, okay? I don’t know how! These things just happen to me!

Yeah, so in My Life as a Gamer, Derek gets an offer from Global Games to test video games! Obviously, he says yes. Who WOULDN’T say yes?! Well, I guess I would, but the MAJORITY of kids would say yes.

The bad news is that:

a) State testing is coming up. (I feel Derek’s pain.)

b) Derek is getting a new reading tutor named Hannah. She’s practically a DRILL SERGEANT!!!

c) Derek’s father is out of a job and going absolutely NUTS. He even put seahorse bathroom wallpaper in the kitchen.

When Derek and his friends enter the world of Arctic Ninja, things aren’t as fun as they seem First of all, there is READING involved. (Carly, Derek’s friend and potential girlfriend, is a genius, so she doesn’t mind, but Derek does! After, all, he has as reading disability, so I don’t blame him!) Second of all, Derek is being left in the dust by his other friends and Carly as they beat him in Arctic Ninja. Ouch.

But there IS a plus side. El Cid, number one play station player in the ENTIRE WORLD is testing games with Derek. No one knows his identity, which is hidden behind a bulky gold space helmet.

Everyone thinks El Cid is unbeatable – until Carly and Derek beat him! Hannah challenges this, and Derek ends up spilling all the PRIVATE and TOP SECRET details about Arctic Ninja, which hasn’t come out yet.

Derek doesn’t think twice about blabbing. But when he finds out someone posted all the details of Arctic Ninja, he starts to wonder if Hannah told.

Tashjian executed this story well with some humor and a touch of awkward romance. Overall, My Life as a Gamer was pretty good but somewhat too slow-paced for me.

4 stars, grades 3 to 6.