42

The answer to life, the universe, and everything.  I didn't know about this until I entered college and was assigned to peer group 42.  One of my groupmates quickly said, "awesome we're in the group that's the answer to life, the universe, and everything."  "Huh?" I said.  And thus revealed to everyone that I had never read A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.  

But more than that I had never really thought about the meaning of life.  Jeremy Fink and I had that in common.  In Wendy Mass Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, Jeremy is about to turn 13 and so far his biggest life struggle has been grieving the loss of his father.  But when he gets a package in the mail-a box his father had prepared before his death-his now has a bigger problem. 

You see the box says, "the Meaning of Life: For Jeremy Fink to open on his 13th Birthday."  The problem is that the box has 4 different locks which means Jeremy needs to find 4 unique keys in order to open the box.   

While searching for the keys Jeremy starts to wonder if he'll ever find them.  Which leads him to try to figure out the meaning of life on his own. Well, not quite on his own, his best friend Lizzy is there to help him.  Their quest takes them on quite a ride from flea markets, to antique dealers to the police station.  

Does Jeremy ever find the meaning of life?  Will he ever be able to open the box?   Guess you'll just have to read it. 

Finding the key...that's kids stuff.