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The Barnes & Noble Review
Loser, by Newbery Medal–winning author Jerry Spinelli, is a powerful tale about a young boy whose contagious joie de vivre outshines his endless stream of gaffes. Simply put, it’s a sure winner. From his first day at school, Donald Zinkoff stands out from the crowd. Not only does he giggle uncontrollably and wear a goofy giraffe hat, he actually loves everything about school -- his teacher, his studies, and even the extracurricular activities. And when he answers every question wrong or serves as the butt of his classmates' jokes, Donald just laughs at himself right along with everyone else. When he arrives in the fourth grade, however, everything changes as “big-kid eyes” evaluate him with a harshness he hasn’t yet experienced. When his clumsiness costs his team the championship on Field Day, he is saddled with a haunting name: Loser.
Though his newfound awareness of himself as a loser is a setback, Donald finds support in the unconditional love of his family. When Donald’s mailman father lets him spend a bunch of Sundays pretending to deliver the mail, the oddball characters Donald meets along the route open his eyes to a bigger universe. And when an unexpected tragedy reveals Donald to be far more courageous and generous of heart than ever expected, it opens the eyes of others to the true magic of this quirky little boy.
In Donald Zinkoff, Spinelli has created an endearing character whose innocent delight, patient tolerance, and courageous self-sacrifice serve as a superb example of why it’s important to see inside a person, no matter how peculiar or inept he or she may seem on the outside. For peer-conscious youngsters on either side of the popularity fence, this is a valuable lesson they can’t afford to miss. (Beth Amos)
Kathleen Odean
By the time Donald Zinkoff has reached fourth grade, the other boys have labeled him a "loser." But Donald doesn't realize it. He plows through life, clumsy, enthusiastic and sometimes courageous, cherished by his parents. Newbery Award winner Spinelli, with his characteristic exaggeration, raises questions about our emphasis on winning as he follows Donald through elementary school and into middle school. This compelling character study may inspire readers to reevaluate how they judge their fellow students and whether winning matters more than caring does.
Publishers Weekly
PW wrote in a starred review of this novel that begins with a boy's early days of invisibility and ignorant bliss, to the turning point when he is dubbed a loser, "The author demonstrates the difference between those who can see with compassionate `little-kid eyes' and those who lose sight of what is truly important." Ages 10-12 (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
School Library Journal
Gr 4-6-Donald Zinkoff is a kid everyone will recognize-the one with the stupid laugh who cracks up over nothing, the klutz who trips over his own feet, the overly exuberant student who always raises his hand but never has the right answers. Following him from first grade to middle school, the story is not so much about how the boy changes, but rather how his classmates' perceptions of him evolve over the years. In first and second grades, his eccentricities and lack of coordination are accepted, but in third grade Zinkoff is "discovered." His classmates turn their critical eyes to him and brand him a loser. From then on, he endures the fate of so many outcasts-the last to be picked for the team, a favorite prey of bullies, and the butt of cruel comments from classmates. Despite his clumsiness and occasionally poor social skills, Zinkoff is a caring, sensitive boy with loving and supportive parents. He is remarkably good-natured about all the ostracizing and taunting, but his response is genuine. It is not na vet or obliviousness that gives Zinkoff his resilient spirit-he's a kid too busy being himself to worry about what other people think of him. Although perhaps not as funny as Jack Gantos's little hellion, Joey Pigza, Zinkoff is a flawed but tough kid with an unshakable optimism that readers will find endearing. "Losers" in schools everywhere will find great comfort in this story, and the kids who would so casually brand their classmates should read it, too.-Edward Sullivan, White Pine School, TN Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Meet Joey Pigza's soulmate. Donald Zinkoff can't sit still, can't stop laughing, falls over his own feet, adores school and silly words and his family, is prone to throwing up due to a defective stomach valve, is impervious to peer pressure, and never frets about being perennially last in any competition just as he's last in the alphabet. Charging joyously into each day, Zinkoff baffles older kids by not responding properly to playground bullying or scorn, baffles teachers by combining eagerness to learn with an inability to produce anything but sloppy, mediocre work, and even throws his canny, loving parents for a loop sometimes. So he's a born loser, right? Not in a Spinelli novel. Readers who pay attention will come to understand after watching Zinkoff face an aggressive fourth grader on his first day of school, give up his first (and probably his last) sports trophy to console a classmate who had been on the losing team, and very nearly freeze to death on a misguided search for a missing child. Following Zinkoff from his very first foray into the front yard to middle-school sixth grade, the author of Crash (1996) and Stargirl (2000) once again provides such a steady look at a marginalized child that readers will see past limiting social categories or awkward outsides to the complex mix of past, present, and promise at the core of every individual. A masterful character portrait; here's one loser who will win plenty of hearts. (Fiction. 9-11)
