Hank Zipzer Book 9 and 10

Hank Zipzer Book 9 and 10

Hank Zipzer, Book 9: My Secret Life as a Ping-Pong Wizard
Having made it through summer school, Hank thought his problems were over. Little does he know, they are only just beginning? In fifth grade everyone has to pick a favourite sport and specialise in it. Hank is worried: he can't run, he can't catch, and he can't throw. He needs a plan - and fast!

ISBN: 9781406321739

Hank Zipzer, Book 10: My Dog's a Scaredy-Cat
It's Halloween and Hank Zipzer is determined to get his own back on school bully Nick McKelty for laughing at his fancy-dress costume. Hank is going to turn his living room into the scariest haunted house ever! But Hank's dog, Cheerio, is more scared than anyone. So scared, in fact, he runs away. Have Hank's Halloween high jinks gone too far this time?

ISBN: 9781406321746

Lin Oliveris a writer and producer of movies, books, and television series for children and families. She has created over one hundred episodes of television, four movies, and seven books. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Alan. They have three sons named Theo, Ollie, and Cole, one fluffy dog named Annie, and no iguanas.

Henry Winkler is an actor, producer and director. He is probably most famous for his role asthe Fonz in the 1970s US television sitcom "Happy Days." But if you ask him what he is mostproud of, he would say, "Writing the Hank Zipzer books with my partner, Lin Oliver. " He livesin Los Angeles with his wife, Stacey, their three children and two dogs.

Hank Zipzer Book 10: My Dog's a Scaredy-Cat
Hank Zipzer, Book 9: My Secret Life as a Ping-Pong Wizard
Walker Books
Authors: Lin Oliver and Henry Winkler
Price: $9.95

Interview with Lin Oliver

Can you tell us about Hank Zipzer: The World's Greatest Underachiever?

Lin Oliver: There are 17 books in the series and in the first book we meet Hank Zipzer who is a ten year old boy with undiagnosed dyslexia. Hank is a boy who thinks he is stupid and an underachiever and throughout the series of the books he learns that he has a learning difference and then he starts to feel a little bit better about himself and try other ways to compensate for not doing well in school.

Is Hank Zipzer based on someone you or Henry Winkler knows?

Lin Oliver: Yes! Hank Zipzer is based on Henry Winkler who is my writing partner who is a very well known television actor; he played the Fonz in Happy Days and was on Arrested Development, he is also a film actor. Henry Winkler actually had the exact same situation where he was a very poor student, in school and nobody understood that he had a learning difference. Henry was almost 40 by the time it was diagnosed and he just had developed other was of compensating to overcome not doing well in school, with his grades.


How is it working with Henry Winkler on this book series?

Lin Oliver: Well we are very, very good friends now! It has been great. We write together, in a room. Henry Winkler is dyslexic, so he doesn't actually write in terms of sitting at a computer so we collaborate in the way that people do when they create television shows. Together we talk through the scenes and we act them out and then we record them and go back to edit them. It is a really wonderful collaboration. I have worked in film and television a lot, in my career and he has too so we have used the same techniques that you would use to create a television show, only the result is a novel.


Where did the inspiration for the Hank Zipzer storylines, come from?

Lin Oliver: The inspiration comes from the fact that we wanted to create a character that is a really smart, resourceful, likable and interesting boy who just doesn't happen to do well in school. Henry Winkler was that boy when he was growing up and I am the mother, of one such boy. In fact, in American 1 in 5 kids have some kind of learning challenge or learning difference so we knew that if you didn't have a child like that, then your neighbour, or the person next door to them did; it is a very common occurrence. Everyone grows up with kids who are so smart but they just didn't shine in school. We wanted to write a story about a boy who was really funny, charming, likeable, had a lot of friends and a lot of intelligence, but it was just that they weren't appreciated by teachers.


How many more books will we see in the series?

Lin Oliver: In America the seventeenth has just been published. In Australia you have another seven to come out. We are currently working on the next one, number eighteen, which will probably be the last one.

The books have done really well, they have sold over three million copies and so it has really struck a nerve with teachers, parents and kids because essentially they're funny and entertaining books and underneath the entertainment value is the story of many children who struggle in school. What we are trying to say underneath all the pranks and fun is that everybody has something to contribute and you have to find the right way to do it; if writing an essay or taking a test isn't the right way then there is another way you can contribute using your own personality.

Parent enjoy the books as kids that are like that, often struggle with their parents. Henry Winker is fond of saying "that he was grounded so often, that he didn't see the moon, until he was an adult". Your first reaction as a parent, if you see a bad grade on a report card, is to say "well you're grounded, you need to stay in and work harder, with no television" but, in actual fact a lot of those kids are trying their best, it's not that they are lazy, they are just not getting the information in the way it is presented.

The books have really struck a cord, with people and kids. The books are not just read by kids who have learning issues; it seems to be that all the kids love them because they identify with the fact that everyone is an underachiever in some way. The fact that we glorify Hank Zipzer as an underachiever and we are not criticising him, but recognising what is great about him is something that kids respond too.

When you have a learning difference, you tend to lie a lot, because you are covering up for not feeling like you are doing your best, which is why the plot often revolves around an innocent lie that Hank Zipzer has told. Kids love seeing Hank Zipzer get into deeper and deeper trouble with his lie and then trying to find an honourable way to pull himself out.