loser by jerry spinelli was the absolute worst book EVER. Jerry Spinelli tried way too hard to develop the characters when they never did develop. The crazy ADHD first grader hardly changed when he was in fifth grade at the end of the book. The other kids didn't develop either, and none of the characters were very believable. Some of the chapters and ideas were just plain stupid, like a girl who was on a leash tied to a fence who the main character would visite every now and then. (WTF?) and at the end the girl runs away. Big suprise there, considering the parents treat her like a dog. And the main kid, zinkoff goes lookin for her, and during that part Jerry Spinellli would ramble about stuff that wasn't relevant to what was going on, like about Zinkoff as a little kid and different things like that. At the end, after that it ends with a game of kickball (or baseball, I forgot) and picking teams. Zinkoff never got picked, but since he was a complete idiot and never found the little girl but the kids STILL found that cool, they picked him soley for that reason, not because he was a very good player, so Zinkoff didn't even learn anything. If it was a real life situation, then ZInkoff would have done something stupid AGAIN so he could get attention.
Jerry Spinelli is a good author, but Loser completely sucked.
