Review: Hank Zipzer, the World's Greatest Underachiever and the Crazy Classroom Cascade by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver

I must admit this is not the sort of book I normally read as it is aimed at a much younger audience than the books I read however I must say I really enjoyed it.

I picked this up recently because I had the opportunity to meet the author at an event with my local book group. For those of you who haven't made the connection this book is written by Henry Winkler who is more better known as the actor who played the Fonz in Happy Days. He is dyslexic and co writes this series to raise awareness of dyslexia and learning difficulties and to encourage youngsters that while they might not be the best at Maths or English there is something inside of them that they are brilliant at and their job is to work out what they gift is. Quite honestly I have never been so inspired at an event like this after listening to Henry's take on the world and the way he has learn to find ways around his difficulties to become to success he is.

Hank Zipzer has a lot of similarities to Henry. He lives in New York. He's clever but not in a traditionally academic way which means he is labeled at school as being lazy and dumb by his teachers when this is far from the case. In this particular instalment Hank decides to work round his learning difficulties and take a more unorthodox approach at completing a homework assignment set by his teacher. I won't tell you too much about the plot but I will say it both made me laugh as I got to meet Hank and his friends and opened my eyes a little wider to the difficulties he faced as a direct result of his dyslexia.

A highly recommended read as it is so insightful but also brilliantly funny and certainly a book which appeal highly to both your stronger and more reluctant readers