Wise Guys Reading Review and Activity: Loser by Jerry Spinelli

Loser by Jerry Spinelli

Summary

The book Loser details the growth of Donald Zinkoff, an autistic boy. He is branded a 'loser' by his classmates, due to his autism, his laughter going out of control at times, and being awful at sports such as soccer.

Zinkoff graduates elementary school and goes on to middle school. His 'loser' name fades into 'nobody'. He meets Andrew Orwell, a kid who moved away in 3rd grade. Andrew has grown dramatically during the time he was gone, and now goes by the name, 'Drew'.

Zinkoff is horrified to learn that Claudia has gone missing. Zinkoff, desperate to find her, searches for her for seven hours in the snow, eventually passing out from the cold. He wakes up in his parent’s bed. A snow plow had found him at around two in the morning. Claudia was found shortly after she went missing, pretending to drive in someone's car…

Activity Related to the Story

 With each story that we read, we create a word study that includes words that may be difficult for students to understand. We have created a word study of over 50 words and their definitions (with page numbers) from the book. You can find it by clicking here.

Extensive Reading Activity Guide

We also have a 35 page activity guide and answer key that goes along with the story. Our student love to do these guides because it provides them with fun activities related to the book. They are also challenged to search for answers in the book and to use reading strategies such as: summarizing, predicting, connecting, visualizing and so much more. The guide is easy to use and includes an answer key that is a tremendous help for the teacher.

For more great reading comprehension guides on other great books click here.