Loser

1. swan dive (noun):

human entry into water, head first, with arms outstretched to right and left, as if wings

“Or it’s winter and you sled to the bottom of Halftank Hill, and you’re trudging back up and there he goes zipping down, his arms out like a swan diver, screaming his head off.” (1)

2. constraint (noun):

limit or restriction

“There are no other constraints. Not a fence in sight. No grown-up hand to hold. Nothing but the bright wide world in front of him.” (3-4)

3. giraffe (noun; in the story, used as adjective):

four-legged creature with a long neck and spotted hide, tallest animal in the world, native to Africa

“He loves his giraffe hat. His dad bought it for him at the zoo. If she has told him once, she has told him fifty times: Do not wear it to school.” (9)

4. cubbyhole (noun):

a small shelf or drawer for storing objects; in schools, cubbyholes are usually grouped together in rows and columns, each with a square opening and assigned to a single person

“Twenty-six heads turn to follow her as she carries the three-foot hat to the cubbyholes at the back of the room.” (11)

5. tintinnabulation (noun) (TIN-tuh-NAB-yew-LAY-shun):

the ringing of bells

“‘Twelve years from now will surely come, and you will have learned how to write a topic sentence. And how to solve an equation. And even how to spell the word . . .’ she pauses dramatically, she opens her eyes wide as if seeing the wonderful future . . . ‘tintinnabulation.’” (14)

6. clunker (noun):

worn-out and worthless, especially a car, named for the broken sounds it makes

“He walks all day on his job but drives to and from the post office in his clunker.” (25)

7. jabip (noun):

in the story, a nonsense word for a faraway place, the word made up by Donald’s first-grade teacher

“Someone calls out, ‘Where’s Jabip?’ Miss Meeks explains that there is no actual place called Jabip. It’s just her way of saying someplace really far away.” (29)

8. snickerdoodle (noun):

a cookie made with butter, sugar, and flour, and rolled in cinnamon before baking

“So when he announces that he intends to bake a cookie, his mother simply says, ‘What kind?’ He doesn’t hesitate. ‘A snickerdoodle!’ The snickerdoodle is his favorite cookie.” (37)

9. stomach valve (noun):

one of two flaps, like doorways, that open to let food into or out of the stomach and close to keep food in the stomach

“Zinkoff was born with an upside-down valve in his stomach. This causes him to throw up several times a week.” (40)

10. haphazard (adjective):

random, sloppy, unplanned

“But soccer is free-for-all, as haphazard and slapdash as Zinkoff himself.” (42)

11. boondocks (noun):

a place way out in the countryside, far from most people

“In the meantime he is packed off to the far back corner, last seat—the boondocks—as Mrs. Biswell assigns seats by first letter, last name.” (51)

12. atrocious (adjective):

really bad

“After two months of the worst penmanship she has ever endured, the teacher wrings her hands and calls out to the boondocks: ‘Your handwriting is atrocious!’” (54)

13. professional (adjective):

in the manner of a highly-trained expert

“‘What does ‘act professional’ mean?’ Donald wants to know. ‘It means behave like a grown-up doing a job.’” (64)

14. sleet (noun):

ice pellets made from freezing rain that fall from the sky during a storm

“Donald knows he’s supposed to deliver the mail despite rain, sleet or snow—but what about mean big kids who tear your letter in pieces?” (69)

15. Vietnam (noun):

a country in Southeast Asia where American soldiers once fought in a war

“‘His brother went away to fight in the Vietnam War and was MIA and never came back.’” (75)

16. MIA (noun acronym):

Missing In Action, a military term for a soldier who has disappeared, likely captured or killed in battle

“‘What’s ‘MIA’?’ ‘Missing in action. It means they’re pretty sure he was killed but they can’t find his body.’” (75)

17. walker (noun):

a waist-high metal frame on four legs that supports a person with limited ability to walk

“A white-haired lady in a mint-green dress is standing on a step waving her letter. She is surrounded by a four-legged aluminum walker. She’s smiling at him.” (77)

18. furnace (noun):

in a house, a large appliance that heats air or water, often located in a basement or cellar

“It’s when the people leave, when the light goes off and the door at the top of the stairs closes, in that purest darkness—that’s when the monster comes out from behind the furnace. To be in the cellar then, this is the most terrifying thing Zinkoff can imagine.” (85)

19. cellar (noun):

also called a basement, an underground room beneath the main floor of a house; in the story, the location of a furnace

“The next day he goes down three more steps. He is truly down into the cellar now, closer to the gray stone floor than to the top of the stairs. He looks back up at the light from the kitchen. He repeats to himself: ‘It’s only a cellar. It’s only a cellar.’” (87)

20. beat (noun):

in music, a rhythm or tempo marked by a repeating sound, often made by drums or by the waving hand of the conductor, which musicians use to play their instruments at the right moments

“They notice that every time he pounds the drum he is three beats early or three beats late, and they wince and roll their big-kid eyes at each other and scowl at the teacher as if to say, Do something.” (100)

21. loser (noun):

a person who loses a contest; someone who fails often; in the story, Donald’s nickname, acquired after he loses a footrace for his team

“Zinkoff looks up. Hobin sneers, ‘You’re a loser. A stinkin’  loser.’” (106)

22. clinker (noun):

something built wrong or that fails to work properly

“He has a bike, a secondhand yard sale two-wheeler with a junior rattle of its own that reminds him of his father’s car, so he calls it Clinker One.” (113)

23. earwax (noun):

a waxy, yellow-brown substance that coats the inside of the ear

“When a kid is making an earwax candle, he wants everything to come from his own ears.” (132)

24. graduating (present participle verb):

the act of finishing a level of schooling and moving on

“And suddenly it hits Zinkoff: He’s graduating! No more grade school.” (156)

25. diploma (noun):

an official document that shows that a person has completed a course of study and has graduated

“The superintendent of schools hands each graduate a rolled-up piece of paper with a blue ribbon around it. The diploma.” (157)