‘Hank Zipzer’ moves on to fifth-grade adventures

The Hank Zipzer series — written by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver and illustrated by Jesse Joshua Watson — continues with the latest adventures of the elementary-school hero. An excerpt.

Chapter 8
“Welcome, everyone, to the first meeting of the Reading Gym,” Mr. Rock said as I settled into my chair and tried to concentrate on what he was saying.

By the way, concentration is never easy for me, but it was especially hard with Zoe the Wonderful sitting next to me. All my brain kept thinking about was how someone so cool could be in Reading Gym. I mean, let’s face it. As much as they tried to make this sound like a fun after-school athletic club, it was still a class for those of us who aren’t exactly swift learners.

I wondered if she was wondering about me. Like, what’s this guy doing in here? What’s his problem? Is he flunking out of fifth grade?

“First, I want to congratulate each of you on making the decision to attend the Reading Gym,” Mr. Rock went on. “Each and every one of you is an individual. You are all so different in your own way, and at the same time, you all share one thing in common.”

“Yeah, we’re stupid,” Luke Whitman said, taking his finger out of his nostril just long enough to shout out this insulting remark.

I hadn’t even noticed that Luke Whitman was there and was picking his nose as always. This should tell you how much I was focused on Zoe. I mean, it’s almost impossible not to notice Luke Whitman picking his nose. It’s so gross you just have to stare at him, like the way when you skin your knee really bad, you just have to keep staring at the scab.

“No one in here is stupid in any sense of the word,” Mr. Rock said, handing Luke a Kleenex from the pop-up box he kept on a side table.

“I don’t need those,” Luke said.

“Trust me, you do,” Mr. Rock said. “And next time, I suggest you bring your own.”

“That boy is so gross,” Zoe whispered to me.

“You think that’s gross,” I whispered back. “Every day he uses a different finger to go digging. And the amazing thing is, he always finds something.”

Zoe cracked up and that made me feel pretty good. Maybe I had learning challenges, but the Zipzer attitude was in fine form.

“What you guys share,” Mr. Rock went on, “is that you all learn differently. And no matter how you learn, it has nothing to do with your intelligence. What we’re going to be doing in here is working on giving you techniques that will help you learn in a style that’s best for you.”

“I like him,” Zoe whispered to me.

“Mr. Rock is the best,” I whispered back.

Look at this. We’re having a real conversation, Zoe and me. Just like that. No sweat. Just talking. Wow, this was really something.

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