Big Nate: In a Class by Himself
AuthorLincoln Peirce
SeriesBig Nate
GenreFiction
PublisherHarperCollins
Publication date
March 23, 2010
Media typePrint (Paperback and Hardcover)
Pages214
ISBN0061944343
LC ClassPZ7.P361Bi 2010
Followed byBig Nate: Strikes Again 

Big Nate: In a Class by Himself (referred to as Big Nate: The Boy with the Biggest Head in the World in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia) is a children's fiction novel based on the Big Nate comic strip, written and illustrated by American cartoonist Lincoln Peirce. It is the first of the Big Nate novel series, followed by Big Nate Strikes Again. It was published on March 23, 2010, by HarperCollins and was nominated in 2011 for a Children's Choice Book Award by the Children's Book Council.[1]

Plot

Nate Wright, a rebellious and semi-incompetent sixth-grader, heads to school one morning, only to realize that he accidentally left his lunch at home. His best friend Teddy Ortiz offers to share some Chinese leftovers for later that day, and offers Nate a fortune cookie, which contains the message, "Today you will surpass all others", much to Nate's delight.

Nate attends homeroom and Social Studies with Mrs. Godfrey, his least favorite teacher, who gives him a detention slip after catching Nate reading from a list of insulting nicknames he made up for her, though Nate almost got one for eating in class. In English class, Nate tries to write a love poem for his crush Jenny in-secret, only to get caught by Gina, a bratty know-it-all teacher's pet and Nate's rival, who tries to humiliate him in front of Jenny and her boyfriend Artur. Nate ends up making a scene and insults Gina, causing him to receive another detention slip from English teacher Ms. Clarke. During art class, Nate attempts to sneak one of his drawings into the display case just outside of the classroom, but gets caught by art teacher Mr. Rosa, who gives him yet another detention slip.

Nate becomes bitter over how poorly his day is going. During lunch, he, Teddy, and Nate's other best friend, Francis Pope, decide to sit with their other friend Chad, and find him reading from a book of world records. Nate and his friends get the idea to try and have Nate break a record in an effort to make the fortune come true. Their brainstorming leads them to have Nate try breaking a speed-eating record by eating 148 servings of green beans (provided by the rest of the students in the cafeteria) in 10 minutes. With the rest of the school cheering him on, Nate reluctantly starts the challenge, only for Principal Nichols to suddenly notice the commotion mere minutes later. Furious, he demands Nate to clean up the mess, only to slip on a puddle of bean juice and fall over, following which he demands Nate to come to his office for a lecture, during which Nate receives yet another detention slip.

Nate's meeting with Principal Nichols causes him to be late for gym class. Whilst by himself in the changing room, Nate accidentally gets his gym shorts wet. Fearing humiliation, Nate is quickly forced to grab a pair of extra-large-sized shorts he finds elsewhere in the room, and stuffs them full of towels in an effort to make them fit. After leaving the changing room, however, Nate discovers too late that the shorts belong to his psychopathic substitute gym teacher, Coach John. Believing that Nate is making fun of him, John forces Nate to run wind sprints and gives him a fifth detention slip.

During math class, class teacher Mr. Staples assigns a surprise pop quiz, which Nate apparently manages to breeze through with no hassle. Seconds after the time runs out, however, Nate discovers that there were more questions on the back of the sheet he did not notice. He desperately tries to solve them, writing numbers at random, but Staples then tries to take the quiz paper from him. With Nate trying to keep ahold of the quiz paper, it ends up tearing it half, and Nate receives a sixth detention slip. Finally, Nate has science class with his elderly teacher, Mr. Galvin, whom is rumoured by the students to have never laughed at anything. With his fortune in mind, Nate gets the idea to try and become the first person to make Mr. Galvin laugh. In his vain efforts, he tries showing off one of his comics to Galvin, only to get his special drawing pen confiscated for doing so. Later, however, Nate notices that his pen has opened and leaked whilst in Galvin's pocket, causing him to burst out laughing. Furious, Galvin gives Nate his seventh detention slip.

The school day finishes, and Nate bitterly makes his way over to the detention room. Upon presenting his slips, however, detention supervisor Mrs. Czerwicki informs Nate that he is the first student to have received seven detention slips in one day. Realizing that his fortune has "come true", Nate becomes ecstatic, choosing to celebrate by signing a drawing he had done on the desk during his last detention, in which he declares himself as a "school record holder".

Characters

  • Nate Wright - The main protagonist; an egocentric, naïve, and sarcastic sixth-grader.
  • Teddy Ortiz - Nate's other best friend who enjoys making jokes at Nate's expense.
  • Francis Pope - Nate's best friend, who is known for his high intelligence.
  • Marty Wright "Dad" - Nate's somewhat clueless father, who plays golf and is known to make horrible food.
  • Ellen Wright - Nate's fifteen-year-old older sister, who is the opposite of Nate. She is highly favored by Ms. Godfrey, as she was once her student.
  • Mrs. Clara Godfrey - Nate's social studies teacher, who he dislikes (which is shown by his twenty nicknames). In the book, she gives Nate two detentions: for his list of nicknames for her and throwing a lemon square at her posterior and his dad's pie at Randy (though the latter was in a flashback and the first was actually by a kid named Randy Betancourt).
  • Gina Hemphill-Toms - Nate's nemesis and Mrs. Godfrey's favorite student in the class.
  • Jenny Jenkins - Nate's love interest, whom he met in first grade. However, Jenny does not return Nate's feelings and instead goes out with Artur for "four months, six days, and three-and-a-half-hours", according to Nate.
  • Artur Pashkov - Jenny's boyfriend and Nate's frenemy; a Belarusian who speaks some broken English and unintentionally annoys Nate with his superiority and great luck. Artur is unaware of Nate's feelings toward him and considers him a friend. The two's "rivalry" began when Artur beat him in chess and knocked him down to the second-best chess player in the chess club.
  • Principal Wesley Nichols - Nate's school principal. In the book, he gives Nate detention for wasting lunch servings of green beans by spitting them out and making Nichols slip on them.
  • Coach John - A substitute gym teacher at Nate's school who loves to show off his injuries and is described by Nate as a "sergeant without a uniform". In the book, he gives Nate detention for wearing his own gym shorts during class (as he thought Nate was trying to ridicule him), when Nate actually just needed them, as he accidentally poured water on his own, while trying to wash green beans off his mouth.
  • Ms. Clarke - Nate's English teacher, who gave him detention for shouting at Gina for ruining his love poem to Jenny.
  • Mr. Staples - Nate's math teacher, who gave him detention for not finishing and ripping his math test (though this was because Nate did not realize there was a back side of the test and did not have time to finish). He is known to tell corny knock-knock jokes.
  • Mr. Galvin - Nate's science teacher, known to for his boring personality and lack of laughter, who gave him detention for laughing at the ink of Nate's confiscated cartooning pen (as Nate tried to make him laugh at his Doctor Cesspool comic strip, and his other previous failed attempts) getting ink all over his shirt.
  • Mr. Ken Rosa - Nate's art teacher, who gave Nate detention for destroying the knob off the spotlight case (where students' pictures is selected to be in there), after his failed attempt to outshine Artur by putting his picture in there.
  • Mrs. Shipulski - Principal Nichols's secretary.
  • Mrs. Czerwicki - The sullen detention monitor.
  • Randy Betancourt - A rival of Nate's who tried to steal food from a bake sale in a flashback.

Reception

Booklist and Publishers Weekly praised Big Nate: In a Class by Himself,[2] with Publishers Weekly calling the character of Nate "sharp-witted and unflappable".[3] Kirkus Reviews recommended the book as a read for "fans of Jeff Kinney's Wimpy Kid", stating that Pierce "skillfully and often hilariously imports his comic-strip character into a full-length story."[4] The School Library Journal also gave the book a positive review, stating that "Kids will love Nate and all the trouble he gets into" and recommending it as a way to entice children into reading.[5][6]

References

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