Henry Winkler is Hank Zipzer

While Jason Bateman spends the morning dishing with MTV about the “bent and twisted” script that may one day become the Arrested Devlopment movie, his Arrested co-star Henry Winkler is on the road in the UK getting Brit-kids into books.

Winkler is in London promoting his Hank Zipzer series of books featuring a 10-year-old protagonist with dyslexia. His tour of London schools as a representative of the First News for Young Minds group kicked off at St. Matthews Church of England School in Westminster. UK Schools Secretary Ed Balls was on hand to help Winkler in promoting 2008 as the UK’s National Year of Reading.

Winkler is quoted in the Epsom Guardian discussing his objective with the Zipzer stories: “Just because we learn differently, that does not mean that we are not incredibly smart human beings. That’s something I need every child to understand.”

The Hank Zipzer novels boast some great titles like I Got a ‘D’ in Salami!, The Curtain Went Up, My Pants Fell Down, and Barfing in the Backseat: How I Survived my Family Roadtrip. The latest (they’re up to 14!) came out in May. It’s called The Life of Me: Enter at Your own Risk and features Hank putting together a memoir-scrapbook while dealing with the ups and downs of a major crush. They’re published by Penguin.

Winkler takes on the Independent‘s “5-minute Interview” here.