The Day of the Iguana

September 15, 2003
Favorite series continue with new episodes. Henry Winkler's engaging hero is back in Hank Zipzer: The Mostly True Confessions of the World's Best Underachiever: Day of the Iguana by Winkler and Lin Oliver, illus. by Carol Heyer. In this third book in the series, Hank takes apart the cable box for his science project. Now all he has to do is figure out how to put it back together-and it doesn't help when his sister's iguana makes a nest in the cable box.

February 15, 2004
Gr 3-5-The third entry in the series explores friendship, forgiveness, understanding, and honesty. Hank promises to videotape an obscure science fiction movie for Frankie if the other boy will perform in his magic show. Unfortunately, the program guide on the television moves too quickly for Hank, and he accidentally tapes the wrong show, leaving his friend angry and disappointed. Hank must come up with a science experiment topic, and his mistake prompts him to try and invent a slow-scrolling TV channel guide for less-skilled readers. He dismantles his family's cable box and finds it difficult to reassemble. When he isn't paying attention, his sister's iguana moves into it and refuses to leave. In the end, Hank's increasingly elaborate schemes, his implied learning disability, and the iguana's eggs are all exposed. The wordy, first-person narration sometimes gets in the way of an already meandering story. Everything that happens is plausible enough, and Hank is a likable protagonist with good intentions. However, the authors frequently rely on his narrative role to take facile storytelling shortcuts and convey heavy-handed messages. "That's what you call true friendship," he unnecessarily explains after a simple gesture of kindness. Still, this child-friendly title is by no means the worst recent contribution to the celebrity children's book canon.-Catherine Threadgill, Charleston County Public Library, SC

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2004
Gr 3-5-The third entry in the series explores friendship, forgiveness, understanding, and honesty. Hank promises to videotape an obscure science fiction movie for Frankie if the other boy will perform in his magic show. Unfortunately, the program guide on the television moves too quickly for Hank, and he accidentally tapes the wrong show, leaving his friend angry and disappointed. Hank must come up with a science experiment topic, and his mistake prompts him to try and invent a slow-scrolling TV channel guide for less-skilled readers. He dismantles his family's cable box and finds it difficult to reassemble. When he isn't paying attention, his sister's iguana moves into it and refuses to leave. In the end, Hank's increasingly elaborate schemes, his implied learning disability, and the iguana's eggs are all exposed. The wordy, first-person narration sometimes gets in the way of an already meandering story. Everything that happens is plausible enough, and Hank is a likable protagonist with good intentions. However, the authors frequently rely on his narrative role to take facile storytelling shortcuts and convey heavy-handed messages. "That's what you call true friendship," he unnecessarily explains after a simple gesture of kindness. Still, this child-friendly title is by no means the worst recent contribution to the celebrity children's book canon.-Catherine Threadgill, Charleston County Public Library, SC

Copyright 2004 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.)