Day of the Iguana

Hank Zipzer #3

by Henry Winkler, Lin Oliver

Inspired by the true life experiences of Henry Winkler, whose undiagnosed dyslexia made him a classic childhood underachiever, the Hank Zipzer series is about the high-spirited and funny adventures of a boy with learning differences.

It's science project time in Ms. Adolf's class. This is good news and bad news for Hank-he loves science, but he hates the report part. So Hank turns to TV to take his mind off things. But when the program directory scrolls by too quickly for Hank to know what's on, he decides to take apart the cable box to try to slow down the crawl. Great! Now Hank has found the perfect science project! But what he wasn't counting on was his sister's pet iguana laying eighteen eggs in the disassembled cable box. How is Hank going to get out of this one?

Illustrated by Carol Heyer.

Genres: Fiction, Childrens, Humor, Middle Grade, Chapter Books, Realistic Fiction, Contemporary

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Henry Winkler is instantly recognizable and admired by audiences of all ages for his role as the Fonz on the long-running series, Happy Days. In addition, he is an award-winning producer and director of family and children's programming. He is also the author of the critically-acclaimed Hank Zipzer series, which follows the everyday adventures of a bright boy with learning challenges.

Mr. Winkler has also continued his acting career on the big screen, including a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in Nightshift, a starring role in the box-office hit Scream, and co-starring roles in The Water Boy, and Holes. On television, he has guest-starred on ABC's The Practice and NBC's Law & Order: SVU. He recently starred on Broadway for nine months in Neil Simon's play The Dinner Party.

Mr. Winkler is deeply committed to children's welfare and works with numerous children's groups. He is involved with The MacLaren Children's Center (a facility for abused children), The National Committee for Arts for the Handicapped, The Special Olympics, and The Los Angeles Music Center's Very Special Arts Festival, as well as numerous teenage alcohol and drug abuse programs. He is a founding member of the Children's Action Network, a non-profit organization that sponsors informational briefings for writers, producers and directors on children's issues and serves as a clearing-house for the entertainment industry on children's issues.

Reviews

[Jeff Grosser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hank Zipzer gets into the craziest situations. Lucky for him, he has great friends to help him out.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun story in this series. Its amazing, how Hank gets into the messes he runs into. In this one, the mess that Hank gets into, leads to a fight between him and his best friend, Frankie which leads to them not getting along for most of the book. I was amazed, what the story lead up to and how, Hank and his friends got out of it. Not a lot of school time in this story, so not a lot of Ms. Adolf in this one, a real plus. But we do get to meet Hank's aunt and uncle and 3 year old twin cousins.

Looking forward, to reading the next story in the series.

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I know, I know: I gave the first two books great reviews.

So, what was the problem with this one?

Simple: My copy—which I purchased recently from a garage sale—was misprinted; after the fifteenth chapter, it reprinted chapters ten through fifteen again, and then jumped to the twenty-first chapter.

I was going to trade my copy in when I was done with it, but, since it’s defective, I just put it in the recycle bin. I hate to do that with a book, but, I don’t want anyone else getting their hopes up while reading it only to be disappointed.

[trina · Rating 3 out of 5]

one of my favorite students, shane, picked this out for me to read the last time we went to the library, and i'm glad he did. despite america's obsession with those ridiculous 'wimpy kid' books, this is what writing for children should look like. it had a good story, well-written characters, and has humor and mystery all wrapped up in one. i wish i could take those kids to the library every week, bc not only do i love being able to recommend them books (especially when they end up loving them!), but i dig being able to get recommendations from them back.

[Dianna Caley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really fun read. I'm teaching it next week and I think the boys in my group will love it. It's humorous and fun in the style of Judy blumes "fudge" books. What makes it stand out is the main character who is dyslexic with learning disabilities. He is portrayed as a really intelligent boy struggling not only with other peoples poor opinion of him but also his own doubts about himself. Very impressive mr. Winkler.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love taking some time to read elementary-middle school fiction. What an encouraging story for children who have learning disabilities...such as dyslexia. It also wakes up adults to feel what a child feels when trying to understand why words just do not look like words. Recommended for adults and children.

[Alma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Winkler, Henry. Hank Zipzer, Day of the Iguana. Grosset & Dunlap. 2003. 160 pp. ISBN: 0448432889. Genre: Humor, realistic fiction
Rating: 4.02 Stars. Hank Zipzer, who has learning disabilities, has some pretty funny adventures as he tries to come up with his topic for his science project.

Summary: Hank has to come up with a topic for a science project and try to get his best friend to not be mad at him anymore all at the same time, so he comes up with this brilliant plan, so he thinks…

Main Characters: Hank Zipzer, has learning disabilities, great sense of humor, 4th grader.
Hank’s mom – Own’s the Crusty Pickle (Health food deli)
Hank’s dad – Cross word puzzle ‘nut’
Emily –Hank’s little sister, Owner of Katherine
Katherine – Emily’s Iguana
Papa Pete – Hank’s grandpa, he used to own the Crusty Pickle
Ashley – One of Hank’s best friends
Frankie – Hank’s best friend
Robert – the ‘tag along’ friend
Mrs. Adolf – Hank’s teacher
Mr. Love – principal
Nick McKelty – Another classmate, Hank doesn’t really care for, kind of the bully

Key Issues: Learning disabilities, friendships, school work, family, iguanas

Other interesting information: This book is #3 in a series. The author, Henry Winkler, uses his real life experiences of being an undiagnosed youth with dyslexia which he feels made him a classic underachiever. “The Hank Zipzer series is about the high-spirited and funny adventures of a boy with learning differences.”

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another roll on the floor laughing read aloud with my kids. I love introducing especially the littlest to how books can make you laugh and seeing his mind set up and predict the humorous disaster to follow and him saying, giggling, "I don't have a good feeling about this... "This was a good one if for nothing else than the pregnant iguana.

[Danna Dowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book with several students and we all loved it! Hank, his family and friends were very relatable, sparking great classroom conversations. LOTS of connections were made.

[Brooke Mullins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Day of the Iguana is about a boy name Hank Zipzer, who got in a fight with his best friend because he promised to record a very special movie and accidently recorded the wrong channel. In order to fix his friendship and help others who have trouble reading the Channel Guide, he decides to do his Science Project on how to slow down the Channel Guide. The hard part will be hidding his project from his dad, who watches television every night at six. To make everything even harder, his sisters iguana has nested in the cable box and snaps at anyone who comes near her nest. How will Hank Zipzer finish his project and get the cable box back together and working before his father sits down to watch the nightly news.

The main thing I liked about this book is that the main character is male. This will attract boys to read this book and prove that reading is not only a girls recreation. Overall I found the book to be very entertaining and a very short read. This book is only one book of a set by the same author. I equivilate this book as a boy's version of Junie B. Jones.

Because this is a book involved in a set, I would either introduce it by reading one and making the others availble to students who want to further read this story set. OR I would suggest them during silent reading and leave them in the bookshelf to see if students are attracted to them.

[Courtenay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series. So creative and fun.

MY ONLY QUIBBLE with this particular story (shame on the editors for missing these three mistakes):

in the Scrabble series in chapter 20 (sorry, I'm an avid fan of the game) - Hank plays "no" and his father, on play 2, plays "ervation" on the "n". If you're playing regulation Scrabble, you wouldn't play 8 tiles, you'd only have 7.

Furthermore, on Hank's second play he has "ence" for his wrongly spelled "tence" for "tense" and then plays "anmal" with the "I". Sorry, again, if playing 7 tile regulation there's no way he would have those letters, he'd need 8 (E N C E A M A L).

And "I tot I saw a Puddy cat" I'm pretty sure in Sylvester comics was "puddy tat." Had to correct the editors, and since the book is already out there this is the only way I know. :) Love Henry Winkler's stories and the fact that they're based on his own troubled childhood is just awesome. "We shall overcome" certainly applies.

Otherwise, this is a fun-paced, great book about Hank's forays into Iguana babies, fixing a friendship with Frankie when he screws up taping a once-a-year showing of "MUTANT MOTH THAT ATE TOLEDO," and solving his problem about the taken-apart cable box. I enjoyed it.

[Zach Naegele · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book Hank Zipzer is a child with learning disabilities. He and his best friends take an overnight trip to do a magic show for his cousins. Hank’s best friend is set on watching a monster movie that airs that day, so Hank promises to record it. While Hank is watching the T.V. guide to find the right channel, he can hardly keep up with the speed of the words. He finally sees the movie title, switches to the channel, and hits record. Later Hank and his friends discover that he has recorded the wrong event because he was on the wrong channel. Hanks best friend becomes very disappointed and angry at him. When Hank returns home he must work on his science project, and decides he wants to create a device that will slow the speed of the T.V. guide for people who have difficulty reading. In the process he destroys his cable box and must fix it before his dad finds out. When it is almost repaired, he cannot get to the box cover because his sister’s iguana has nested inside. Hank must find a way to make up his mistake that disappointed his best friend, and he must also find a way to repair the cable before his dad finds out.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an audio book we listened to a few weeks ago. When I borrowed it from the library I had no idea that it was part of a series that had so many books, it just looked like something my children would enjoy. There are 17 books in the series and they all look like they would be fun to read.

In this one Hank is trying to do an experiment with the family cable box, but his sister's iguana has other plans. Hank just can't seem to get anything right and has a falling out with his best friend for failing to tape the right channel for a program he promised they could watch. I think so many times in children's books if the characters work hard enough it works out, but this was more realistic, because even though he was working hard things still weren't working out. Eventually of course they do, but it was nice to see a struggle to put things right and needed to come up with a new idea and a new plan when the first one or two or three didn't work.

There was enough humor in this book to have my children laugh out loud and it was nice that Henry Winkler is the one reading the audio version.

[Malik Chase · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book because Hank tried to open his father cable box to see how the inside of it looks. Then his father told him to go to sleep. So hank couldn’t put the cable box back to together (page 78). The other reason why I like this book is because when Hank’s friend Frankie was going to fix Mr. Zipzer’s cable box. They saw Hank’s sister Emily iguana in the cable box laying eggs and then the iguana started to hiss (page 106). A person would like this book if they like opening a cable box because that means the person is curious about the inside of electronics. The challenging part is that there are too many characters because it is confusing to remember who the characters are. A character named Hank always gets his self in trouble. Hank was suppose to record a movie for his friend Frankie. Hank recorded a different movie and he felt like a terrible friend (page 56).

[Shelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started reading this book this morning with my daughter. The first sentence made us have to take pause and laugh for awhile:

I have great news, I said. Charlie the Clown has diarrhea."

Talk about an attention grabbing first sentence. ;)

Finished the book and enjoyed it as much as I have the first 2 Hank Zipzer Books. In this adventure Hank has to: record a movie, mend a damaged friendship, do a science project, wrestle down and iguana wearing boxer shorts, replace the damaged cable box, and attempt a game of scrabble with his father. Will his learning disabilities make it impossible to accomplish so many challenges. You will have to read to see for yourself.

[Susan Menk]

Tags:, Hank Zipzer, series, Henry Winkler, dyslexia, school, friendship, apartment buildings, magic shows

Hank and his friends need to do a science project for school, but when Hank takes apart his parent's VCR and can't put it back together because his sister's iguana has laid eggs inside it, he is in big trouble. His friends come to the rescue. Not only does he get a new VCR for his family, but he makes a new friend who takes one of the baby iguanas in exchange for a copy of the movie that Hank's friend Frankie always wanted to see.

Hank Zipzer 3

"Day of the Iguana" by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver, Grosset & Dunlap: New York, 2003.

[Evy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Day of the Iguana by Henry Winkler was the first book that I have ever read of the Hank Zipzer series, even though it is really book 3. I found it quite intriguing and was hooked on it for a few days. It was very humorous and just reading one book encouraged me to read the entire rest of the series. The reason I left out two stars was because it WAS a tad bit hard to follow, and I just wouldn't give the detail and properties five stars. There's really nothing more to say about The Day of the Iguana except....look out for Katherine.

[Courtney Umlauf · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's plenty to recommend this series: humor, positive (but still realistic) friendships and family relationships, and a main character with learning differences who isn't defined by them.

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[Sima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book! I recommended to some of the kids and they loved it. The book is appropriate for upper elementary. There is a similiar series, Roscoe Riley by Katherine Applegate, that younger students would enjoy.

[David]

I have already read this book, but it has been so long since. About two months later after I read the book once I finally noticed that there are about twenty-three books, and I read the third one. Now I really dont care because I don't read them that much.

[Mrs.]

Another great story of a boy with ADHA and yet he is a cool kid excepted by his friends and family. They still have to work through issues but they all do it with a class act and not degrading to the main character Hank Zipzer.

[AnnieM · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these books. They are read by the author and he does a great job. I like to put a fun quick book in between heavier titles I seem to be required to read for work. If you are looking for a book for a reluctant reader, you can't go wrong with this series.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy this series and the humor incorporated by Henry Winkler (the Fonze!). This one was about Hank and his learning problems and his friendships with the kids at school. I'm going to advertise this series at school and wanted to have one of the books fresh in my mind.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as cute as the other ones. I loved how he described the fight he had with Frankie. Makes you remember your first fights with friends and how you felt like the world was going to end because of it.

[2prazak_ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be a book you would read if you were into the other Hank Zipzer books. This is the third in the series, but this is a series where you don't need to read them in order. Hope you decide to read this book, and maybe the entire series.

[Weisser · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was pretty good but I was interested enough in the series to continue reading. I think some of my boys would really like the books but they are put off by reading chapter books. I may have to read it to them to get them hooked.

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great short book. We listened to it on CD while on a road trip. So fun. A bit on the gross little kid humor side, but still very clever. I could recommend this to anyone to read to their kids or listen to with their children.

[Taija]

children's/young adults

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

CD

[Erin Walling · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like hank Zipzer you will love this one it is extremly funny . I loved it.