Note: Sandi Doughton, along with an expert panel, will be appearing at Powell's City of Books on Friday, June 21, at 7:30 p.m. When my editor at...
Continue »
steponabook, April 22, 2007 (view all comments by steponabook)
your book is so cool n intersting you are such a great author you have great tanent this book is intersting and it make it feel so rilistic thats why i rate u a 5
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No (3 of 7 readers found this comment helpful)
crowyhead, December 23, 2006 (view all comments by crowyhead)
This is just totally excellent and beautiful. Donald Zinkoff is a really special kid. He doesn't "get" other kids, really, but most of the time he has so much fun with his life that it doesn't really matter. He laughs so hard at words that he thinks are funny that he falls out of his chair and can't breathe. On the first day of every school year, he wants to know how many days of school are left until he graduates from highschool -- not because he can't wait to get out, but because he luxuriates in the notion of all that time. Spinelli introduces us to Zinkoff in such a way that the reader is completely won over, and then he gradually allows real life to intrude: Zinkoff is awesome, but to his classmates, he's a Loser.
What's amazing about this book is that Spinelli allows Zinkoff to hang onto his individuality and the things that make him both awesome and a loser, but the book remains realistic. In the end, Zinkoff is a hero of a sort, but there's no scene where his classmates realize that they were wrong all along, or anything like that. No, he's still picked on. It's just that he's found a way to be ok with himself, and there's a glimmer of hope that not all the kids will always think of him as just Loser.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No (6 of 11 readers found this comment helpful)
The uproarius companion to "The Schwa was Here" and "Antsy Does Time"
In honor of Old Man Crawleys eightieth birthday, the Bonano family has been invited to celebrate with a weeklong cruise to the Caribbean aboard the worlds largest, grandest ship. But whether on land or at sea, Antsy cant manage to stay out of trouble: He quickly finds himself the accomplice of stowaway and thief Tilde, whose self-made mission it is to smuggle onto the ship and across the U.S. border illegal immigrants from her native Mexico. When Antsy steps in to take the fall for Tilde, he becomes the focus of a major international incident and the poster child for questionable decisions.
Equal parts clever and riotous, Ship Out of Luck brings back the beloved cast of characters from Neal Shustermans acclaimed The Schwa Was Here and Antsy Does Time.
"Synopsis"
by Harper Collins,
Just like other kids, Zinkoff rides his bike, hopes for snow days, and wants to be like his dad when he grows up. But Zinkoff also raises his hand with all the wrong answers, trips over his own feet, and falls down with laughter over a word like "Jabip."
Other kids have their own word to describe him, but Zinkoff is too busy to hear it. He doesn't know he's not like everyone else. And one winter night, Zinkoff's differences show that any name can someday become "hero."
Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.
