Losers, Inc.

West Creek Middle School

by Claudia Mills

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.

Genres: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Young Adult, Childrens, School, Contemporary

150 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Claudia Mills is the author of Nixie Ness, Cooking Star, 7 x 9 = Trouble!, Zero Tolerance, Write This Down, and many other books for children. She was born in New York City in 1954. She received her bachelor's degree from Wellesley College, her master's degree from Princeton University, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University. She also received an M.L.S. degree from the University of Maryland, with a concentration in children's literature. She had a second career as a professor of philosophy at the Colorado at Boulder, until leaving that career in 2014 to write full time. She now teaches in the graduate program in children's literature at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. All of her books have been written between 5 and 7 in the morning while drinking Swiss Miss hot chocolate.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/claudi...

Reviews

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book, but I loved the series as a whole together. It is perfect for the age 10 to 13 set, because it takes a small group of kids and each book is written from each middle school child's point of view. We see that everyone has challenges and different talents and we are not as different as we think. I frankly made my 10 and 12-year old read these and they liked them as well. The series in order is:
Losers, Inc.
You're a Brave Man, Julius Zimmerman
Lizzie at Last
Stop That, Alex Ryan
and Makeovers By Marcia

[Taralen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Losers, Inc. is a cute book whose main themes are responsibility and trying your best.
The story also features an adorable love square. The two main characters are in love with the student teacher, Grace, but only one of them (Ethan) tries his best to change who he is for her (and for the better!)
Lizzie, a shy but intelligent little girl, also loves Ethan but he does not want her to.
I like how this author used the idea that, even if you try your best, you might not get exactly what you want but it will benefit you in one way or the other.
Grace is like an angel to the main characters, also made evident in her appearance (long blond hair, flowery colors, bright personality), who indirectly guides the youths to become better people.

I'm way beyond the age level for this book but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

[Swankivy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just grabbed this while I was bored at my internship and waiting for my teacher to come back for an evaluation. This was well-written and had an interesting plot, very realistic for school-age kids.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a middle school audience... I would compare it to A View from Saturday, but not as sophisticated. The book does reflect on how often the "geeks among us" have the kindest hearts and will go the farthest in life.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel tells a story that could be very real life for many young teens. Good story, great moral.

[Brian Tran · Rating 1 out of 5]

Both me and my girlfriend Lizzy have seen our share of bad books. This book, however, is so terrible yet the fact that it tries to be more "entertaining" and "meaningful" than it actually is only backfires and makes it worse. Kind of like a Florida Georgia Line song. When you take away all the fluff and strip this book down to what it really is, it's just downright terrible. The plot could've made for something good, but the writer just had to squander that potential. You have unlikeable characters and a stupid title. In fact, when I first showed this book to my girlfriend Lizzy, she thought this book was a joke. Not a good first impression for either of us. Either way, the horrible writing, the characters, and the cringeworthy title all make this excuse for literature a bigger trainwreck than Metallica's 2003 album "St. Anger".

[Madeline Pratchler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book from this author! My son and I read it together. We enjoyed getting to know Ethan and Julius, after meeting them as minor characters in a previous book about the West Creek Middle School kids.

Good lessons in making things right, standing up for oneself, and accepting one's own strengths. Also a great reminder to the educators / influencers in kids' lives as to how much their words / encouragement / approval makes a difference.

[Lexi B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very good. I was kinda sad because these kids were calling themselves losers. At the end of the book they learned their lesson and they were happy. In the middle of the book they were fighting to be losers and they weren't.

[ukuklele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cara bertuturnya saya rasa merepresentasikan secara tepat pembawaan seorang anak cowok yang baru duduk di bangku SMP: sederhana, calm and cool (atau berusaha untuk tampak seperti itu), tetapi kadang-kadang juga jenaka karena canggungnya, polosnya, romantisismenya, sesumbarnya .... Saya kagum terhadap penulisnya. Di samping seorang perempuan, beliau tentunya sudah "berumur" pada waktu menggarap novel ini. Namun ia dapat menampilkan detail-detail yang meyakinkan dalam menghidupkan dunia anak SMP: masalah selalu mendapat giliran paling belakang, risi karena dijodoh-jodohkan dengan teman sekelas yang tidak disukai, angan yang melambung ketinggian ....

Alurnya mungkin bisa dibilang formulaic. Diawali dengan problem self-labeling sebagai loser yang selalu berpikir dunia ini tidak adil, serta persaingan subtil dengan abang yang sempurna, titik baliknya berupa kemunculan guru PPL bagai bidadari yang memotivasi si tokoh utama untuk cari perhatian dan pembuktian. Komplikasinya, dia justru disukai orang yang tak diharapkan hingga dia terlibat dalam skema busuk untuk mempermalukan cewek tersebut. Menuju akhir, setiap masalah teratasi satu demi satu. Si tokoh utama dan tokoh-tokoh lain di sekitarnya pun memperoleh pelajaran dan hidup bahagia selama-lamanya ....

Well, being formulaic isn't a big deal. Saya justru sedang mempelajarinya.

Cerita ini juga baik dari segi character development. Saya belajar bahwa suatu sifat ibarat koin yang punya dua sisi. Misal, Ethan tampak lebih mudah beradaptasi daripada Julius. Namun sifat tersebut justru dapat menyulitkan dia untuk bertindak tegas pada hal yang mengusik nuraninya. Adapun Julius memang keukeuh dengan ke-loser-annya, tetapi dia juga tidak ragu untuk membela sahabat yang disalahpahami dan tidak mau terseret dalam persekongkolan jahat.

Walaupun cerita ini ditujukan kepada anak remaja, sebagai pembaca "dewasa", saya tetap dapat menarik amanat yang sepatutnya direnungkan. Memang lebih mudah memperoleh kekalahan daripada kemenangan. Namun dalam upaya memperoleh kemenangan, akan ada lebih banyak hal yang bisa kita dapatkan (yah, setidaknya begitulah kata seorang reviewer buku ini).

Sebelum melanjutkan ke novel berikutnya dalam seri ini, saya tertarik untuk menyimpang terlebih dahulu ke beberapa novel klasik yang disebut-sebut dalam novel ini:
1. Jane Eyre
2. A Tale of Two Cities
3. The Yearling

[Julie Decker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ethan's a zero next to his smart and talented older brother Peter, and he knows he'll never be that good, so he decides to find comfort in being a loser. Joining up with his friend Julius, who's also a pretty big loser, they decide to take pride in their ability to always do the least and not care about school or sports. Things change when Ms. Gunderson, a student teacher, arrives and makes them want to impress her, and because she challenges them and praises them, they find it rewarding to work harder. When a girl named Lizzie needs defense from bullying, Ethan steps up--hoping the student teacher will be impressed again--but he only succeeds in making the school think he is romantically interested in Lizzie. Can the science fair be his avenue to making Ms. Gunderson like him? If not, is it worth it anyway?

Lots of kids will find this easy to relate to; many children feel they can never achieve what others have (especially if they have older siblings who excel), and most children experience bullying at some point in their lives. Ethan having a notebook of things that aren't fair was fun, too. (That's what my diary was full of when I was his age.) The girl Ethan defends latching onto him felt a little forced, though, and I doubted the realism of the student teacher's behavior at times. The message also felt a little bit overt for me--not as character-led as I wanted it to be.

[Ben Jensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julius and Ethan are best friends. Feeling out done by everyone else they decide to start a club called Losers, Inc. As they go through their first year of middle school and all that goes along with it. Ethan falls for the new student teacher Grace Gunderson; unfortunately, Julius has as well. Ethan, worried about proving himself worthy for Grace tries to impress her by being nice and trying to be do his best. As he continues to excel his friendship is parting from what he would like.

I really enjoyed this book. Even though it was short the message this book contained was amazing. This book gives a wonderful perspective of what it is like to be in middle school. It shows the good and the bad along with what it means to be a true friend.

[Mara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a sweet little book (with a truly terrible cover) about a sixth-grader "loser" and his best friend, who is also, not surprisingly, a loser. In the space of five weeks, Ethan grows up way more than is realistic, but there's lots of good middle school feelings and problems in here.

[Skittles :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ethan is the vice prez of the losers Inc. But when the new teacher in training comes he tries his best to become a unloser. his 100 pg. books turn into 500 or more pg. books. Is he always going to be a loser...

[Carterkempgmail.Com · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty standard juvenile fare, but well written, easy to read, and there are kids who'll see themselves in the protagonist who almost reluctantly starts to achieve in school to impress a student teacher.

[Sadia · Rating 5 out of 5]

What to say? I've read this book way too many times to have anything to add onto it. From bunsen burners to basketballs to crushes to A Tale of Two Cities, this book is fun and cute in every way. Would read again!

[Hannah]

So far this is a good book.

[Sylvia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A grade 6 boy and his friend decide it's better to underachieve and found the club "Losers, Inc." for themselves. Then things get complicated when they both fall for the new student teacher.

[Deborah Harris]

AR Quiz No. 17782 EN Fiction
Accelerated Reader Quiz Information IL: MG - BL: 4.6 - AR Pts: 5.0
Accelerated Reader Quiz Type Information AR Quiz Types: RP, VP

[Daniel Klyuchits · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ethan and Julius, best friends since 2nd grade, feel they are losers at everything...school work, sports, and sometimes even friendship. They've decided to form a club and call it Losers, Inc.. But when a student teacher comes into their lives and takes over science class for 5 weeks, they both become infatuated with her. Both of the boys want to impress her in their own way...Ethan quietly and subtlety and Julius, boisterously and demonstratively.

Ethan starts to take his schoolwork to heart and does well in all of his classes, but never really lives up to the spectacular work his older brother, Peter, completes. Ethan desperately wants to impress the new teacher, but in the mix of it all, he does something that hurts a fellow classmate. He feel bad about it and finally decides to take ownership of his wrongdoing. So...is he still a loser? Probably something he will have to decide for himself and he'll have to make a wrong a right.

Losers, Inc. is very simplistic in its approach, is outdated for today's kids, and has little meaningful character development. I'm happy recent Caudill nominees have more substance and thought-provoking plots.