Peirce, Lincoln. Big Nate: In a Class by Himself. New York: HarperCollins, 2010. ISBN: 0061944343
Awards: Horn Book Fanfare, 2010.
Author Website: http://www.bignatebooks.com/
Media: Non-photo blue pencils, Staedtler pigment liners on smooth-plate 2-ply Bristol board
Use of Simile: (p. 2) “She’s like a dog.” Nate says that his teacher, Mrs. Godfrey, can smell fear like a dog. (p. 3) “with my mouth turning as dry as a sack of sand.”
Use of Onomatopoeia: (p. 3) “WELL? She barks.”
Special Notation: 2010 Copyright
Annotation: Nate’s 6th grade school day starts off poorly and goes downhill from there . . . cartoons and classic middle school characters contribute to this hilarious middle school story.
Personal Reaction: In Big Nate: In a Class by Himself, Lincoln Peirce reinvents his comic strip in the form of a book for young middle school readers. Nate is in the 6th grade at a three-year middle school and he’s having a rough day. Detention slips are starting to pile up when Nate receives a fortune about surpassing others. Nate shifts into gear to win something or set a record. The story ends in the school office where Mrs. Czerwicki informs Nate that he has set a record for most detention slips received in one day. Big Nate’s story all takes place in a single day of middle school and gives readers a good sense of just how busy and emotionally demanding a day of middle school can be. Middle school readers will find Peirce’s cartoon drawings and Nate’s school situations humorous. Adult readers like myself get a reminder of how stressful a day of middle school often is for kids. Peirce conveys the social and academic pressures of middle school as he gives readers a view from the trenches of middle school. Nate’s perceptions about his parents and teachers are particularly funny, if not laced with some hard truth. Nate claims that his father is clueless about what it’s like to be in 6th grade. Although Nate’s attitude and schoolwork are less than ideal, Nate comes across as a real kid. Younger readers ages 9 and 10 will find Big Nate more accessible than Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, but older fans of Kinney will enjoy Big Nate, as well.
