Lincoln Peirce

This book is laugh-out-loud funny and wildly popular in my classroom! Nate’s misadventures—complete with doodles, detention slips, and over-the-top confidence—are perfect for students who love Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It’s fast-paced, easy to follow, and filled with relatable middle school chaos. I’ve had kids who “don’t like reading” finish this in one sitting and ask for the next one. Big Nate is a must-have for any classroom library.

Yes, this one does get a little cliche with bully has a bad home life, so they act out trope, but that happens in real life sometimes. Anyway, this is one of my favorite Big Nate books! The story gets the slightest bit emotional (gasp!), we see a glimpse of Nate's dad as an actual character (which means he had a life and aspirations before he was just Nate's dorky dad), and a cute preteen romance that doesn't hog the entire story. Wow, Nate finally stopped pining over Jenny.

I definitely show more recommend! show less

I love cartoons and comics of all kinds, and my LT files indicate that I've read more than 150 book collections on this genre. However, I found nothing remotely amusing or entertaining in this particular work. Nate is a wise-ass little 6th grade boy who dislikes his teacher, bothers his older sister, and mocks his father. The characters are primitive and unlikeable, and the attempts at humor are puerile. The vague similarities to Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes reflects the author's lack of show more originality. However, this work lacks the wit, cleverness, irony, and humanity of such cartoon treasures as Calvin, Bloom County, and even Peanuts. Most reviewers at Amazon give books of this series high ratings, and I wonder if they know what they're missing. I found the 140 strips included herein to be unfunny, repetitive, and boring. show less

Since I'm not a 10 year old reluctant reader, I generally stop after the first in series like this. But I'm glad that I didn't. Funny, clever, intelligent, heartwarming, & exciting. Rounded up to four stars for a few reasons:
First, I'm going to continue the series.
Second, there's a scene where a book forms a face that speaks words of doom, and the uncle says "And people wonder why I'm a reluctant reader."
Third, there's the warning that we can't encourage the public to start spying on their show more neighbors, or we'll be seeing bodkins everywhere... just like Stalin had people reporting millions of their neighbors.

Definitely recommended to the target audience and family. And, btw, it does catch one up if they've missed the first, but it really would be better to start at the beginning. show less