Big Nate: In a Class by Himself (#1) by Lincoln Peirce

Nate is your average 6th grade boy who doesn’t really love school. He dislikes his Social Studies teacher, Mrs. Godfrey, and is a regular at school detention. When he thinks there is a test in Social Studies that he didn’t study for, he tries to think of anyway he can get out of it. When he discovers there is no test, he is thrilled and thinks his day is heading up.

He opens a fortune cookie that reads “Today you will surpass all others.” He is excited to see how this will come to pass. First, he thinks the girl that he likes will dump her boyfriend and go out with him. No luck. Then thinks his drawing might be put in the special display case. Wrong again. He tries to eat the most green beans, make a crabby teacher laugh, and more.  However, each time he attempts something, it ends up going wrong and he gets a detention slip each hour.

Finally, the day is over and he has not surpassed anyone in anything. When he enters detention and hands in 7 pink slips, the detention teacher tells him no one has ever received 7 detentions in one day. Nate has surpassed all others that day! He is very pleased.

While this book’s main character is a 6th grader, most children reading this- just as “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”- are much younger. In fact, Big Nate follows in the footsteps of Diary of a Wimpy Kid in many ways. The main character may paint an accurate picture of many middle school kids but that doesn’t mean I want my child to see these actions as acceptable. It heavily relies on gross or mean humor. Of all the undesirable behaviors in this book, none are made right, none are called out as wrong. There is just not enough, or really any, redeeming qualities in this book, which is why I have made it a Mom Stop.

Language Issues:
Referring to a teacher: big, ugly, nasty, a dog, mean, huge, gassy, a cow, fat, control freak,
Referring to students: geek, lame, total dork, moron, butthead, nasty, a nightmare, obnoxious, suck-up, suckers, hate, chubby
Referring to dad: psycho
Calls himself dorkasaurus
In a dream, a teacher calls students maggots and losers
Referring to a dog: doofy-looking, dog nerd
Says “Smell you later”, “My butt’s asleep”
A chair is like “sitting on a toilet lid”
While listening to sister says, “Kill me now” and “You can’t shut her up”
Referring to word and cookie: stupid

Questionable behaviors:
Nate says his teacher hates him and then draws a picture of her looking like Medusa
He approves of “checking out new kids from a distance because what if they turn out to be total losers?”
He is “way into horoscopes and Magic 8 balls.” He is a Scorpio and likes getting his fortune told.
He says someone is making a “constipated face.”
He thinks it would be great to be rich and it would solve his problems.
He throws carrot sticks at another student during lunch.

Sexual Content:
Nate checks out girls at lunch.
He likes Jenny and thinks there is electricity between them.
There is an illustration and description of 2 kids making out.
A book is described as “Femme Fatality.” It starts on a frozen planet.

Other:
It mentions yoga.
There is a picture of a “Java Man” or missing link looking man.

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