Losers, Inc. [Paperback]

Claudia Mills (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 20, 1998 | Grade Level: 3 and up

Although he knows that his efforts to impress a beautiful student teacher and outdo his perfect older brother jeopardize his status in the losers' club that he and his best friend have started, twelve-year-old Ethan realizes that he no longer wants to be a loser.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6. Twelve-year-old Ethan Winfield thinks life is unfair. His older brother is a top student and eighth-grade basketball star at their Colorado middle school, while he prefers low-level reading books and has little aptitude for sports. When his best friend, Julius, suggests they form a club called Losers, Inc., Ethan is ready for membership, making a game of the quest for super-loser status. However, with the appearance of Ms. Gunderson, a beautiful student teacher who will help the sixth-graders prepare quality science-fair projects, Ethan comes to realize that he has no desire to do badly. In fact, his crush unleashes an unfamiliar determination to succeed that both confuses and energizes him, putting a strain on his friendship with Julius. As Ethan begins on an original and hopefully prize-winning project, he is pestered by a classmate, Lizzie Archer, who sends him love poems. He takes part in a scam to trick her into applying to a bogus poetry contest of which she will be the sole winner, but later rues his dishonesty and cruelty as he strives to be worthy of his idol, Ms. Gunderson. Pacing and readability are strengths in this third-person tale with a comfortable mix of adolescent angst and decency. The characters are believable, and even the eccentric and intellectual Lizzie, whose unpopularity overshadows her human vulnerabilities, is portrayed sympathetically. An appealing mix of classroom scenes, basketball action, and tentative steps toward maturity.?Susan W. Hunter, Riverside Middle School, Springfield, VT
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 5^-7. Life is unfair to middle-grader Ethan Winfield and his best friend, Julius, so they form a losers' club. Then Ethan gets a crush on the new student teacher, and suddenly losing is no longer attractive. He wants to impress her. He reads Dickens for his book report (instead of the shortest book on the shelf). He wants to do the best science project (and without his bumbling pal). Maybe Ethan could do as well as his perfect older brother: is that a betrayal of his friend? Meanwhile, the class nerd gets a crush on Ethan, and, to his shame, he joins the bullies in a mean trick to humiliate her. As she did with the girls' scene in Dinah Forever (1995), Mills writes here with touching comedy about a boy's muddle at home and at school. The dinner table scenes are a delight: there are those who talk and those who don't. The teacher is too perfect--as beautiful as Rapunzel and also wise and gentle--but many kids will recognize the power of a crush to change the way you see the world. Most moving is the friendship-disloyalty drama. Who's the loser? Hazel Rochman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (September 20, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786812745
• ISBN-13: 978-0786812745
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #445,962 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Losers INC., December 1, 2003

By 

nate prokuski (huntley, il) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Losers, Inc. (Paperback)

The book I read was Losers INC. It was about this kid who is oin these losers group, it takes place around when they were middle school people. Ethan, the main character, was the vice president. He finds this girl and has a choice of trying to impress this girl and not be a loser, or stay with the losers and not go for the girl. This book is Fiction but in life it could actually happen.

I would recommend this book to anyone who would have the same "friends or fame" kind of problem. Anyone else can read it also. A kid would like this book, maybe a teen. It would have the same kind of problem in life and could help out a little. When i read this book i kind of had the idea that it has happened to me once. The plot, the choices. The plot i liked alot. It was one of the greatest books i had ever read. The title was good. At first i thought it was non-fiction but it wasn't. There are 2 themes, one the girl isn't everything. The 2nd theme is you don't have to be a loser to get the attention you want.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars As long as you try your best, you're never a loser!, January 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Losers, Inc. (Paperback)

Twelve year old Ethan Winfield compares everything he does in life to that of his older brother Peter, who just happens to be perfect. This causes Ethan to consider himself a loser at basketball, book reports, and life in general. He also writes down all of the injustices of the universe in a journal everytime he thinks life is unfair. His only consolation is that his best friend Julius Zimmerman is a bigger loser! When they decide to form their own club, they set strict guidelines for all members. They must aspire to never be inspired!

Most 8-14 year olds will be able to relate to the many mishaps that Ethan and Julius must survive as pre-teens. The most rewarding part of the book is when Ethan decides to right an injustice he has done to the friendless Lizzie who is in love with him. Claudia Mills also satisfys the reader with an ending of self discovery for Ethan that provides hope for all youngsters struggling with adolesence.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I recommend this book to people who don't get good grades., October 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Losers, Inc. (Paperback)

Ethan and Julius are middle school students. Everybody including themselves think that they are losers at school. They always read the shortest books for book reports. They never win at the annual science fair. Ethan and Julius suck at sports too. So Julius thought of making a club called Losers Inc. There are only two members in the club. Julius is the president and Ethan is the vise president of the club. But, when Ms Gunderson who is a student teacher comes, both Ethan and Julius fall in love with her secretly. Then Ethan tries to impress her by reading a 422-page book for a book report. Ms Gunderson did not believe he actually read such a long book and told him to read short ones. His friend Julius stood up for him and tried to tell the teacher that he had really read the book "A City for Two". Ethan also tried to impress the teacher by winning the Nobel Peace Prize by winning the science fair. All the previous years he got his ideas from a book his mother borrowed from the library. This year he thought of the idea for the science fair himself. He wants to find out why some balls bounce and some don't. He tested ten different balls including a basketball, soccer, football, and tennis, baseball on three different surfaces - carpet, wooden floor and concrete. Isn't a shame that he didn't win after all his effort? He becomes a better student. He got three A's in math, one A in science and one in English. His friend Julius thought he wasn't a loser after all. Julius thought he is the only loser in school and the club Losers Inc is no longer needed.