I Got a D in Salami

October 1, 2003
Gr 3-5-Hank Zipzer, a learning-challenged fourth grader, gets himself into lots of trouble when he tries to hide the fact that he received a number of "D's" on his report card. The fantastical, suspend-your-disbelief, rollicking and very funny solution that he and his friends invent, not to mention the desire to decipher the meaning of this book's title, will keep young readers turning the pages. Hank's relationship with his grandfather, his two best friends, his little sister, his parents, and, last but not least, his dog show that despite his problems at school, he has a big, loving heart and a way with people. Readers will smile in recognition of the character's dilemmas and laugh out loud at the slapstick, slippery slope of Hank's predicament.-Elizabeth Fernandez, Brunswick Middle School, Greenwich, CT

Copyright 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2004
As the series continues, fourth grader Hank discovers that his difficulties in reading, writing, and math are caused by a learning disability. However, the plot lines mainly deal with comic mishaps such as a pet iguana nesting inside Hank's science project and a bad report card going through a meat grinder and ending up in a batch of salami. These thin, sitcomlike episodes play for cheap laughs. [Review covers these Hank Zipzer titles: "Day of the Iguana" and "I Got a "D" in Salami". ]

(Copyright 2004 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)