Book excerpt: Loser is the story about the childhood of a young boy who never wins at games, trips on his own feet, raises his hand without ever knowing the correct answer, and falls down laughing at any unusual word. The novel traces Donald Zinkoff's journey from first to sixth grade. It details his important friendships, marks his relationships with different teachers, and describes how he copes with various shortcomings that everyone but himself and his parents deem terribly important. “Loser” is an excellent novel, which sensitively deals with the human spirit and the importance of failure. This Novel Study provides a teacher and student section with a variety of activities, discussion questions, crossword, word search and answer key to create a well-rounded lesson plan.