Novel

This novel is about a kid named Donald Zinkoff who is one of the greatest kids you could ever hope to meet. He laughs easily, he likes people, he loves school, he tries to rescue lost girls in blizzards, he talks to old ladies. The only problem is, he's a "Loser." Until fourth grade, Zinkoff's uncontrollable giggling in class, sloppy handwriting, horrible flute playing, bad grades, clumsiness, and ineptitude at sports go largely unnoticed. When he blows a race for his team, however, his transition to loserdom is complete: "[Loser] is the word. It is Zinkoff's new name. It is not in the roll book." Fortunately, he doesn't really notice. Jerry Spinelli (the author of this book) explores the cruelty of a student body and how it does and doesn't affect one student, pure of spirit. Presumably if Loser makes one child view a "different kid" as a three-dimensional character, Spinelli will consider his book successful.

The novel expresses people to be the way they are and to not listen to what other people say about them. It also expresses people to be the way they are. In the story there was a boy named Donald Zinkoff. People had called him "Loser." Also being a loser isn't anything different than someone else. The novel also tells a lesson that being different or a loser doesn't change change anything about you. The novel expresses a lot of things such as being a loser doesn't change who you are.