Hank Zipzer

The Hank Zipzer: The World's Greatest Underachiever series of American children's books (2003-2010) by actor Henry Winkler and writer Lin Oliver, tells the story of a dyslexic child, Hank Zipzer. The series is based on Winkler's difficulties with school as a child, and are set in his childhood home. After finishing the main series, Winkler and Oliver created a prequel called, Here's Hank. This series explores Hank's life as a second grader (2014 to 2019). In addition, Winkler and Oliver created a television series (and Christmas film) called Hank Zipzer that ran from January 2014 to December 2016 on the CBBC channel. HBO Max began streaming all three seasons of Hank Zipzer in May 2022 and Hank Zipzer's Christmas Catastrophe in December 2022. Overview Hank Zipzer is a young boy who is dyslexic. He lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with his family, and attends P.S. 87 at Amsterdam Avenue and W 78th Street. His best friends are Frankie Townsend and Ashley Wong. Major characters Context Henry Winkler states that in 2003, he experienced "a lull in my acting career." Winkler's then-manager, Alan Berger suggested to Winkler that he should write children's books about the difficulties he experienced as a child before he knew that he was dyslexic. Winkler was resistant to the idea, which he initially thought "was insane," saying that he "couldn't do it." He finally agreed however, after Berger suggested that he co-write the books with an experienced author.