Big Nate: In a Class by Himself is a children's novel written and illustrated by Lincoln Peirce

Lincoln Peirce

Lincoln Peirce is a mexican cartoonist who writes the comic strip Big Nate. Peirce is from Portland, Maine, lives with his wife and two children, and occasionally gives lectures to students about cartoon creating....

. It was published in 2010 by HarperCollins

HarperCollins

HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...

. The story centers around Big Nate

Big Nate

Big Nate is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Lincoln Peirce. The strip is about a boy named Nate Wright, a rebellious and energetic sixth-grader, and his classmates and teachers. Nate is portrayed as a boy with little interest in studies or conforming to standards. Because of...

.

Plot

Eleven Year Old 6th Grader Nate Wright is dreaming when he wakes up to another ordinary morning of his life: breakfast, his annoying sister Ellen, and then dragging to his (Middle School: P.S. 38) Thinking that there is a test, Nate is afraid that he will fail the test and go to summer school. Nate forges an excuse note, only to be caught by his friend Francis. Nate confesses and Francis is confused. Francis tells Nate there is no test. At school, his friend, Teddy Ortiz gives Nate a fortune cookie, marking, "TODAY YOU WILL SURPASS ALL OTHERS". Despite that Nate thinks fortune cookies are "lame", he believes what the fortune says. His school day starts when he makes up twenty insulting names about his least favorite teacher, Mrs. Godfrey, and gets a detention slip from her. He then goes to English, and as he writes a love poem to his crush, Jenny, Nate's nemesis, Gina, publicly humiliates Nate. In return, Nate yells for Gina to "keep her big fat mouth shut", thus having Nate earn his second detention slip of the day. Before art, Nate eyes the display board and sees his other half-nemesis Artur's picture in the spotlight, and immediately grows jealous. Nate tries to convince the art teacher, Mr. Rosa, to put his picture but Mr. Rosa refuses. While Francis distracts Mr. Rosa, Nate sneaks out to open the display board and put his picture on the spotlight. However, Nate makes a big racket, and Mr. Rosa catches Nate. Nate finally has his third detention slip. After that, Nate finds out about records, and has an idea about 45 slices of pizza in ten minutes. However, since there are no slices of pizza, green beans (disgusting, in Nate's opinion) are volunteered. In a short while 148 servings of beans are placed, and Nate is encouraged by all the students to eat all the green beans. The plan is cut by Principal Nichols, who noticed the whole commotion. He yells at Nate to clean the mess, but then slips on a puddle of juice. Nichols, furious, lectures Nate and gives him a detention slip. In PE, Nate, who is late, goes and changes into his clothes, but when he washes his mouth, Nate realizes that he looks like he wetted his pants. Finding no shorts in his locker or lost and found, Nate gets a hold of very large shorts. When Nate steps out hysterics run over the gym, but the substitute, the more-than-nice Coach John, is furious. Nate, with a sinking feeling, finds out it is Coach John's shorts. Coach John makes Nate run wind sprints. After that, Coach John gives Nate another detention slip. In math, a pop quiz is assigned, and Nate finishes his in a nick of time. When time is up, Nate realizes that there is a back side, and he only did the front side. Frantically, Nate tries to finish the quiz, but Mr. Staples the math teacher catches him. They do tug-o-war, to which the test rips. Unpleased, Mr. Staples gives Nate a detention slip. In science, Nate tries to have Mr. Galvin, the serious science teacher, to laugh, but always fails (having schemes like tickling his armpit, telling jokes, and writing comics). Mr. Galvin then takes Nate's pen (and puts it in his shirtpocket), but while he is lecturing the class, Nate notices that the ink from the pen is making a dot on Mr. Galvin's shirt and starts to snicker. When Mr. Galvin notices he is furious, but Nate, in hysterics, starts howling with laughter (to everyone's astonishment). Mr. Galvin angrily gives Nate another detention slip. At the end of the day, Nate enters the room, only to be told by the supervisor, Ms. Czerwicki, that Nate has "surpassed all others" in having the most detention slips. Nate, realizing that his fortune had "come true", is happy and on the desk signs "Nate Wright, School Record Holder".He as well admits he could hardly believe his good fourtune.

Characters

• Nate Wright- An 11-year old boy and a rebellious sixth-grader.
• Teddy Ortiz- Nate's 11- year old #1A best friend. He is good at doing Yo mama jokes.
• Francis Pope- Nate's 11- year old #1 best friend who is quite smart.
• Marty Wright- Nate's somewhat clueless father who plays golf and is known to make horrible food.
• Ellen Wright- Nate's 15 year old sister who is the opposite of Nate. She is highly favored by Ms. Godfrey.
• Clara Godfrey- Nate's teacher who he dislikes (which is shown by his twenty nicknames).
• Gina Hemphill-Toms- Nate's 'arch-enemy' and Ms. Godfrey's favourite student in the class.
• Jenny- Nate's crush who he met in first grade. However Jenny does not return Nate's feelings, and instead dates with Artur for "four months, six days, and three-and-a-half-hours, as Nate says.
• Artur- Jenny's "boyfriend", and Nate's nemesis. Artur is a Belorussian exchange student and speaks some broken English. Artur does not know about Nate's feelings toward him especially when Artur beat him in chess and knocked him down to #2 in the chess club. However Artur thinks of Nate as his best friend.
• Principal Nichols- Nate's principal at school who acts nice to him and mean.
• Coach John- A substitute P.E. teacher at Nate's school who loves to show off his injuries and is described by Nate as a "sergeant without an uniform."