What do you think?
Rate this book
Calvin Coconut #2
Calvin Coconut: The Zippy Fix
Calvin Coconut needs to fix things with Stella—and fast!
Stella from Texas is now officially a member of the Coconut household. As if getting a bossy babysitter isn’t bad enough for Calvin, Stella teases him mercilessly. What’s a nine-year-old boy to do? Calvin decides to “fix” her, and he dumps his neighbor’s cat Zippy on Stella’s bed, knowing she’s allergic. But when Stella breaks out in hives and misses her first big date, Calvin realizes his “zippy fix” went too far. He’s got to make it up to her, and decides to give her a birthday present. But he has no money. Along with the help of his loyal friends and little sister, Darci, Calvin works hard, and comes up with enough cash to give Stella the best birthday gift ever.
Graham Salisbury’s voice perfectly captures the inner workings of Calvin’s mind, and Jacqueline Rogers’ delightful pictures add zest and humor to The Zippy Fix.
Stella from Texas is now officially a member of the Coconut household. As if getting a bossy babysitter isn’t bad enough for Calvin, Stella teases him mercilessly. What’s a nine-year-old boy to do? Calvin decides to “fix” her, and he dumps his neighbor’s cat Zippy on Stella’s bed, knowing she’s allergic. But when Stella breaks out in hives and misses her first big date, Calvin realizes his “zippy fix” went too far. He’s got to make it up to her, and decides to give her a birthday present. But he has no money. Along with the help of his loyal friends and little sister, Darci, Calvin works hard, and comes up with enough cash to give Stella the best birthday gift ever.
Graham Salisbury’s voice perfectly captures the inner workings of Calvin’s mind, and Jacqueline Rogers’ delightful pictures add zest and humor to The Zippy Fix.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
10 people are currently reading
58 people want to read
About the author
Graham Salisbury
32 books100 followersGraham Salisbury comes from a 100-year line of newspapermen, all associated with Hawaii's morning paper, the Honolulu Advertiser. Although a career as a newsman could have been possible, Salisbury chose to imagine rather than report. "I enjoy writing about characters who might have been. To me, exploring fictional themes, situations, and lives is a quietly exhilarating experience. There are times when completely unexpected happenings take place as my fingertips walk the keyboard, things that make me laugh or get all choked up or even amaze me."
Salisbury's drive to write about the emotional journey that kids must take to become adults in a challenging and complicated world is evident throughout his work. Says the author: "I've thought a lot about what my job is, or should be as an author of books for young readers. I don't write to teach, preach, lecture, or criticize, but to explore. And if my stories show characters choosing certain life options, and the possible consequences of having chosen those options, then I will have done something worthwhile."
His books -- Eyes of the Emperor, Blue Skin of the Sea, Under the Blood-Red Sun, Shark Bait, Jungle Dogs, Lord of the Deep, Island Boyz and his short stories, too -- have been celebrated widely with praise and distinguished awards. Graham Salisbury, winner of the PEN/Norma Klein Award, grew up on the islands of Oahu and Hawaii. Later, he graduated from California State University, Northridge, and received an MFA degree from Vermont College of Norwich University. In fact, he was a member of the founding faculty of Vermont College's highly successful MFA program in Writing for Children, now the Union Institute & University.
Other important things to know about this author: He worked as the skipper of a glass-bottom boat, as a deckhand on a deep-sea charter fishing boat, and as an Montessori elementary school teacher. His
rock-and-roll band, The Millennium, had a number one hit in the Philippines, which he composed. He once surfed with a shark, got stung by a Portuguese man-of-war (several times!), and swam for his life from a moray eel. Believe it or not, he didn't wear shoes until the sixth grade and never saw snow until he was nineteen. Graham Salisbury now lives with his family in Portland, Oregon.
Salisbury's drive to write about the emotional journey that kids must take to become adults in a challenging and complicated world is evident throughout his work. Says the author: "I've thought a lot about what my job is, or should be as an author of books for young readers. I don't write to teach, preach, lecture, or criticize, but to explore. And if my stories show characters choosing certain life options, and the possible consequences of having chosen those options, then I will have done something worthwhile."
His books -- Eyes of the Emperor, Blue Skin of the Sea, Under the Blood-Red Sun, Shark Bait, Jungle Dogs, Lord of the Deep, Island Boyz and his short stories, too -- have been celebrated widely with praise and distinguished awards. Graham Salisbury, winner of the PEN/Norma Klein Award, grew up on the islands of Oahu and Hawaii. Later, he graduated from California State University, Northridge, and received an MFA degree from Vermont College of Norwich University. In fact, he was a member of the founding faculty of Vermont College's highly successful MFA program in Writing for Children, now the Union Institute & University.
Other important things to know about this author: He worked as the skipper of a glass-bottom boat, as a deckhand on a deep-sea charter fishing boat, and as an Montessori elementary school teacher. His
rock-and-roll band, The Millennium, had a number one hit in the Philippines, which he composed. He once surfed with a shark, got stung by a Portuguese man-of-war (several times!), and swam for his life from a moray eel. Believe it or not, he didn't wear shoes until the sixth grade and never saw snow until he was nineteen. Graham Salisbury now lives with his family in Portland, Oregon.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 5, 2012
I love the Calvin Coconut books. They are realistic (parents divorced, mom has a boyfriend, older girl lives with them because of her own family problems, teenage bullies in the neighborhood, etc.), but they are NOT trauma books -- Calvin has very age-appropriate problems and solutions, moral dilemmas, and, most of all, adventures. Lots of great Hawaiian flavor, but low-key -- Stella's boyfriend brings her a lei instead of a corsage when he picks her up for a dance; Ledward (Mom's boyfriend) grills on a hibachi, not a BBQ; etc. The natural world is much in evidence. Calvin and his friends are outdoors as much as in, and they inhabit their neighborhood as much as they do their individual houses; no helicopter parents in evidence. NB: They are written on a 2nd/3rd grade level, but the Hawaiian patois spoken by some characters might be confusing to some struggling readers. These would be great books to read along with your kids, either your own kids or in a classroom setting.
August 15, 2011
For Calvin Coconut, island life isn't all beach bumming and boogie boarding. After Calvin secretly sabotages his somewhat curmudgeonly live-in babysitter Stella's big date, and discovers that revenge tastes sourer than it does sweet, he strives to clear his heavy conscious by surprising her with the sweetest birthday present ever--the latest Chris Botti album! But redemption and CDs come at a price, so Calvin treks all over Kailua in pursuit of mula. He goes to work as a can-hunter, a weed-warrior, and a Snow Cone salesman, but his profits are perpetually depleted by Tito, Bozo and Frankie Diamond, a roaming bunch of good-for-nothing sixth graders! Will Calvin manage to make amends by the end of Stella's big day? A quick read full of hard work and quirky slang!
June 24, 2011
This is a really good series for second and third graders. The series is boy oriented but I would recommend it to girls as well. This is not the gross out off putting style of commercial fiction for boys. It's just a good story, real conflicts and no sacharin.
May 14, 2011
Calvin Coconut is a great character that any elementary-age boy is going to relate to. The thing that really makes this series stand out, though, continues to be the portrayal of Hawaiian culture.
December 12, 2017
1.5 stars
My students mildly enjoyed this story as a read aloud, but I did not enjoy reading it to them. The prose seemed dense and redundant, and the author tried to differentiate character voices by writing them with slang or accents, and it was absolutely terrible (an epic fail). The voices did not sound authentic to the characters themselves but a mockery of their personhood. I strongly disliked this book, and I have no intentions of introducing this series to any other students whom I will work with in the future.
My students mildly enjoyed this story as a read aloud, but I did not enjoy reading it to them. The prose seemed dense and redundant, and the author tried to differentiate character voices by writing them with slang or accents, and it was absolutely terrible (an epic fail). The voices did not sound authentic to the characters themselves but a mockery of their personhood. I strongly disliked this book, and I have no intentions of introducing this series to any other students whom I will work with in the future.
January 18, 2019
I think the book was outstanding it really had a lot of conflict in it and a lot of regretfulness. I really recommend you read this the main character of the book is Calvin coconut you´ll see his name every time in this text. But if you looking for a good fiction book this is the one you should be going for and also I give it a 5star!
October 15, 2018
Cute story of how a mistake is redeemed through hard work and grit.
Read
November 14, 2018I really enjoyed this book. It was a great story with realistic problems without being overly dramatic. It's also a great way to expose kids to a culture they may know nothing about.
July 28, 2012
As is so typical for me, I ended up reading the second book in the series, Calvin Coconut: The Zippy Fix by Graham Salisbury first.
In this one, Calvin still isn't happy with having to give up his bedroom to the girl from Texas. She picks on him constantly and makes home life for him hell since his mom is too busy to notice how much of a bully she is. He decides to convince her to go home by making her life as miserable as possible.
Calvin knows she's allergic to cats. So he sneaks the neighbor's cat into his old room and lets it lounge on her pillow. What he doesn't realize is just how allergic she is. The prank gets out of hand and Calvin is faced with the consequences of his desire for revenge.
With her birthday coming up, Calvin decides it's time to be the better person and make amends with a nice birthday gift. Most of the book centers on his efforts to cobble together the money to buy her what she wants most.
Along the way he has to deal with school bullies, his own bad luck and many other typical kid problems. All of this is set against a Hawaiian setting that feels genuine with out being exotic.
In this one, Calvin still isn't happy with having to give up his bedroom to the girl from Texas. She picks on him constantly and makes home life for him hell since his mom is too busy to notice how much of a bully she is. He decides to convince her to go home by making her life as miserable as possible.
Calvin knows she's allergic to cats. So he sneaks the neighbor's cat into his old room and lets it lounge on her pillow. What he doesn't realize is just how allergic she is. The prank gets out of hand and Calvin is faced with the consequences of his desire for revenge.
With her birthday coming up, Calvin decides it's time to be the better person and make amends with a nice birthday gift. Most of the book centers on his efforts to cobble together the money to buy her what she wants most.
Along the way he has to deal with school bullies, his own bad luck and many other typical kid problems. All of this is set against a Hawaiian setting that feels genuine with out being exotic.
September 20, 2009
There are few enough books out there for kids written from the Asian American perspective; almost none that reflect the Hawaiin cultural mix. This is a fun and angaging little story that fills that role.
July 31, 2014
I loved that this book portrayed family situations that kids today can relate to but it really bothered me that Calvin did something wrong, recognized that he did something wrong, and never owned up to the wrong-doing!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 28, 2015
I thought this was a cute, realistic story set in Hawaii. Calvin is a typical boy with typical problems, though he probably gets into a little more trouble. He is a good kid, though, and works hard to fix his mistakes.
December 31, 2009
Second of the Calvin Coconut books. Also good and interesting about Hawaii.
January 2, 2010
Fun story abuot Calvin Coconut and his adventures in order to earn money for his babysitter's birthday present. Good read for grades 2-4.
October 9, 2012
Sorry...couldn't finish, kids got bored. Maybe we'll try again another time. :(
November 21, 2012
This was marked as a 2nd grade level but I think that's a stretch. This book was too long for a 2nd grader as well and bored me to death. My son wasn't all that interested either.
April 8, 2013
This was really cute! I enjoyed the character and his everyday adventures. Having read 1, I would definitely recommend this series to kids in 3rd-4th grade!
September 25, 2013
Calvin plays a terrible trick on his babysitter, Stella. To make up for it, he gives her an exceptionally thoughtful birthday present. Another sweet story in the series.
February 23, 2016
One of five books awarded the 2011 Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews