What IS the Meaning of Life?

Do you ever wonder why you are here on earth? What your purpose is? What kind of mark will you make on others?  Is your purpose right now to simply annoy your little brother or sister?  To be a star soccer or baseball player?  To be another Bill Gates?  To be the pride and joy of your family? 
This is an age old question that Jeremy and his friend (not girlfriend), Lizzy, set out to find out in Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life. I know several people have already written about the story events and adventures that Lizzy and Jeremy go on to find the "keys" to unlock what life is all about, so I will not repeat any of that.  However, there are a few things, I must comment on about the novel. 

First, Wendy Mass does a wonderful job of pulling the reader in, creating interesting characters and showing how both main characters change from the beginning to the end.  There is adventure, humor, and lots of connections to be made throughout the story.  The ending is fabulous, and I agree with Mrs. Smith, you might want to get a tissue handy once you get to page 269.

One of the most profound things in the book (and there were a couple of them) that hit me was the folktale about the wolf on page 271. That is something that both kids AND adults should read.  We all have wolves fighting in our heads. It's kind of like the angel and devil on your shoulder concept.  But the overall point is that we DO have power over our actions.  It's the qualities we feed that set our path for life.  It reminds me of a line from "A Muppet Movie" when that famous green frog, Kermit, sang, "Life's like a movie, write your own ending; keep believing, keep pretending."  We can all write our own endings and hopefully along the way, we will be wise enough to realize what really matters in life.  The key or the "rocks,:  as Jeremy finds out, are what really matters. The sooner people realize that, the more they will enjoy life and its truly important moments.  Have you started your rock collection?

Among the Hidden

Among the Hidden...when I first saw this title, several questions came to mind. Who is being hidden and why? Are they voluntarily hiding or were they forced into it?  Why would people be hiding?  I thought of many possible reasons why people hide and I kept coming back to one thing - FEAR.  Sure enough, Luke is being hidden by his family due to fear that the government will find out that he exists and take him away or worse...get rid of him and punish his whole family.  To me, this is a futuristic society where the population needs to be controlled.  Families cannot have more than two children or they are jeopardizing the entire society.  Sound crazy? It's not. There are many governments across the globe who exercise their own forms of population control. Do a little research and find out more...

Anyway, throughout the story, many questions kept arising while I was reading. What was it like for Luke to not be able to go outside?  (I thought this as I was sitting on my patio enjoying a beautiful summer day.)  What was it like to not have a friend to play with? to talk with?  to confide in? to goof around with?  All of these things set the stage for me, and it was easy to sympathize with him.  I also wondered something that is from my history background.  How much of what a government tells us is really true?  In this story, Luke's parents believe everything that the government says.  However, Jen's family is way more lenient.  Can the government really track them?  Does our own government track us?  There are a lot of parallels with this story and our society today.

This was a great novel and I think most of you will really enjoy it. It is suspenseful and has several twists and turns. I like books that are not predictable.  The great thing is, if you really enjoy this, there are several more, as it is the first of many in a series.

I hope this was helpful and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did!!
Happy Reading!! 
Mrs. Fusaro :)