The book starts out with a young boy age 12 named Jeremy Fink. He Him and his friend Lizzy return from the comic book store and the paper man is waiting outside his house. He has a package for Jeremy's mother. They convince the paper man to give them the package. Jeremy wants to wait until his mother gets home but Lizzy convinces him to open it. So he does. It turns out to be a box from Jeremy's father who has passed away five years ago in a car crash. The box is engraved, “THE MEANING OF LIFE: FOR JEREMY FINK TO OPEN ON HIS 13TH BIRTHDAY.”. This boxok is a very special box. It only has one set of keys and is reinforced with a metal lining. Jeremy is instructed to open the box on his birthday but the only set of keys and they have been lost. Jeremy and Lizzy spend the next month looking for the keys, as it will be his birthday then. When they are looking all over the city to find the keys they get in trouble for destroying property. The two must do community service for Mr. Oswald who will be moving to Florida. Mr.Oswald owns a pawn shop and has the kids return items to the original owners because he is unable to bring them all with. When they return the items, they ask the owners if they have any spare keys and they collect them all in hopes to unlock the box. …show more content…
In the end they find the keys and Jeremy learns the meaning of life when he opens the box and finds all of the rocks his father had saved from the biggest milestones in his life, many of which Jeremy was a part