Loser List

Author: H.N. Kowitt http://kowittbooks.com/
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Date of Publication: 2011
Illustrator: H.N. Kowitt http://kowittbooks.com/
Genre Designation: Fiction
Lexile: 480L

Loser List

Summary:

This book is about a boy named Danny Shine. Danny one day crosses path with a popular girl in school named Chantal. She asks him for a pen and tells him if he does not give it to her she will write him name on the "loser list". Danny is bullied without reprieve. He believes if he can get his name off the "loser list" this will stop. He hatches a plan to sneak into the girls bathroom and remove his name. He sneaks in and gets caught and ends up in detention. While in detention he meets the "bad boys" in the school. He needs a plan quick or he will get eaten alive. The boys see that he can draw and he become the  residential tattoo artists. While he is focused on fitting in and enjoying not being bullied he loses the friends that have been with him when he was not accepted. He finds himself in a sticky situation when his new friends steal from the comic book store he frequents. The book ends with him remembering his life prior to being removed from the loser list. He actually misses it and his old friends.

Target Audience:

This book would be good for ages 9-13.

Evaluation:

The book is meant to entertain. It is a series so you can follow him all the way through Middle School. It is considered a graphic novel but not in the sense you are used to. It has graphics and illustrations which are funny and add to the story. It is written similar in style to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. This would be a great book for a child that wants to break into longer books. 

Reader Response Activity:

The things that saves Danny from being bullied is his ability to draw. The thing draws for the "cool" kids are tattoos. I would have the students draw a tattoo that best describe Danny Shines character. Not the cool kid he pretends to be but who he really is.