My Life as a Meme

Janet Tashjian's My Life as a Meme is a funny, very online story for 9 year olds about a boy who lives for the jokes on his phone.

What happens

Derek Fallon has just cracked his phone screen. Again. He's still working out how to tell his mum when she shares some news. One of her patients at the vet's has a glass mansion in Malibu, and the family can stay there for the long weekend. The catch is a Pomeranian called Poufy.

Poufy isn't like other dogs. She has massages, a canopy bed, a nanny, a binder of instructions and her very own Instagram account. Guess who ends up posting for her? (Not Carly, even though she's the one who thinks Poufy is adorable.)

Derek brings his friends Matt, Carly and Umberto along. Umberto uses a wheelchair, and the book handles that simply and warmly. The mansion has a lift, and Umberto rappels down the climbing wall faster than Derek does.

Then a wildfire starts in the next canyon. It spreads, the roads close, and everyone ends up in an evacuation centre at a high school with no phone signal. For Derek that's almost the worst part!

The meme of the title arrives too. Derek, who shares a joke with anyone in reach, ends up being the joke himself, and it makes him think about how a funny post feels to the person in it. It's a good, gentle way into talking about what we share online.

Derek tells the whole thing himself, in the present tense, with LOTS of capitals. He admits reading is hard for him and school isn't really his thing, but he's great at drawing and figuring out how stuff works. If your reader loves gaming, GIFs and YouTube, they'll feel right at home in his head.

The fire scenes feel real enough to be a bit frightening, with ash drifting down like snow and a hillside in flames. If your reader has lived through a wildfire or had to leave home in a hurry, it might hit close to home. Mostly, though, it's jokes, friends and a very spoilt dog.

What to read next

For another story about a pet with an internet following, try When Kittens Go Viral. Angel is a newborn Persian kitten whose parents are stars of KittyTube, a video channel run by the cats themselves. Her mum was badly hurt in an accident before the story begins, and that comes up early.