Review Detail

There are a lot of reasons that I recommend Big Nate to students who only want to read Wimpy Kid books. For one thing, Nate is a far more pleasant character. He is nice to his friends and classmates, even when they are overly quirky. While the hypnotism seems a bit far-fetched, it was amusing to see Nate clean up his horrendously messy locker, shock his father with his clean room, and surprise all of his teachers with assignments that are not crumpled and messy.

Peirce has a good eye for embarrassing moments. While few students have school pictures that go awry in such an epic fashion, he paints a convincing picture of how Nate's experience goes badly wrong. Middle grade books tend to concentrate heavily on topics like bullying and class elections, so having a plot involving a year book is fresh.

One of the best things about Big Nate books is the excellent mix of pictures and text. I prefer the typeface style font that is used over the faux hand drawn ones that appear in many notebook novels, and there are drawings on every page. This is a huge draw for struggling readers, especially since the drawings do help the text to be understood.

It's hard to find a middle grade reader who doesn't enjoy Big Nate. These books are a little easier than Tommy Greenwald's Charlie Joe Jackson or Angleberger's Origami Yoda series, but slightly more challenging than Watson's Stick Dog books. Now that the paperbacks are available, they are an excellent choice to pick up at the grocery store for a middle school student who is having a particularly bad day and needs some laughs.