Line #56 Literature/BigNate


1	[[quoteright:333:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bignatebook1.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:333:The very first book in the series and Nate ''still'' can't resist [[ItsAllAboutMe hogging the cover.]]]]
3	-> ''"The point is, I want to use my talents for more than just memorizing useless facts. I'm meant for bigger things. I am... destined for greatness!"''
4	-->-- '''Nate'''
5
6	The ''Big Nate'' chapter books are a book series by Lincoln Pierce based on [[ComicStrip/{{BigNate}} the comic strip of the same name.]] The first one, ''Big Nate: In a Class by Himself'', was published in 2010 by [=HarperCollins=] Publishers. Books 1-6 were published by this same company, while the last two books were published by Balzer + Bray.
7
8	The books contain further adventures of Nate and his friends Francis, Teddy, Chad, and Dee Dee in a blended comic strip/text format. Eight books in the series have been published, which are as follows:
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10	* ''Big Nate: In a Class by Himself'': The first novel in the series. At the beginning of the school day, Nate gets a fortune cookie that reads, "Today you will surpass all others" and Nate spends his day trying to make it come true, while getting lots of detentions from teachers in the process.
11	* ''Big Nate: Strikes Again'': The second novel in the series. Nate finds himself both working on a social studies project with Gina and on a fleeceball team with her. He's afraid that Gina will hinder his fleeceball team's success, while Gina thinks the same about him and the social studies project.
12	* ''Big Nate: On a Roll'': The third novel in the series. After losing his skateboard in a creek, Nate is eager to win a better one in a Timber Scouts contest to sell the most wall hangings. Artur provides plenty of competition, however, and Nate has to beat him to the prize.
13	* ''Big Nate: Goes for Broke'': The fourth novel in the series. Due to problems at P. S. 38, the students are sent to their rival school, Jefferson, temporarily. They are determined to break Jefferson's winning streak against P. S. 38... and in all the drama, Nate breaks his arm. This is the first chapter book to include CanonImmigrant Dee Dee.
14	* ''Big Nate: Flips Out'': The fifth novel in the series. After Nate supposedly loses an expensive school camera and accidentally reveals to the entire school Francis' EmbarrassingMiddleName, Francis breaks their friendship. Nate wants to become neater so he can find the camera if he still has it, and is hypnotized by Teddy's uncle. It works, and he is praised by the teachers for his neatness, but he feels miserable in his new personality.
15	* ''Big Nate: In the Zone'': The sixth novel in the series. After Nate suffers a particularly bad string of terrible luck, Chad lends Nate his good luck charm. Nate's life suddenly takes a sharp turn for the better, but it builds a rivalry between Nate and the seventh graders, especially Marcus.
16	* ''Big Nate: Lives it Up'': The seventh novel in the series. A new kid arrives in school named Breckenridge Puffington III, and Nate is assigned to be his "buddy" and show him around. Unfortunately, the kid has a fascination with plants and is annoying to Nate when he's around. Meanwhile, the 100th anniversary of the school is approaching, and the historical records written by a former student are ''much'' more interesting than Nate thought they would be.
17	* ''Big Nate: Blasts Off'': The eighth and currently final novel in the series. Nate fights with Randy one too many times and they both get sent to peer counseling to work it out. The school's annual Mud Bowl is approaching, and Nate is on the team to beat Jefferson... and maybe impress a new girl at school, Ruby Dinsmore.
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19	So far no more books have been planned for the series. Internet rumors of supposed 9th and 10th books generally have no basis in WordOfGod.
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21	On February 19, 2020, it was announced that Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} had [[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/spongebob-prequel-live-action-loud-house-movie-set-at-nickelodeon-1279863 greenlit]] an AnimatedAdaptation based on the series. In December 2021 it was announced that the series would instead premiere on Creator/ParamountPlus on February 17, 2022.
22
23	!!These tropes are destined for greatness!
24	* AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: There's a lot of this in ''Flips Out.'':
25	** In the comics, Francis's embarrassing middle name "Butthurst" was just invoked as a one-off gag. In this book, it's a dark secret that Francis told Nate, and Nate revealing it in a moment of anger results in Francis breaking off their friendship for a while.
26	** The same thing happens for Nate's hypnosis to be neat. In the comics, this was just a goofy story arc in which Nate gets hypnotized to have better grades and has this easily undone when he finds he no longer enjoys [[TrademarkFavoriteFood cheez doodles.]] In this book, Nate does it out of guilt at losing the school's camera and Francis getting blamed for this. It's played much more seriously, with Nate being absolutely miserable and not even impressing Francis. It can't be undone easily, and the whole thing ends with a very earnest BeYourself message.
27	** Nate's fear of cats is mostly open in the comics, and usually isn't played seriously. In ''Flips Out'', Nate pretends that he just doesn't like cats, and his admission that he's afraid of cats is a big, serious moment.
28	* AdaptationDistillation: The novels tend to combine many different story arcs from the comic at once. For example, the time when the students had to temporarily go to Jefferson because their own school was full of mold was combined with the "We have to beat Jefferson at ''something''" arc.
29	* AllGirlsLikePonies: Amanda is ''obsessed'' with ponies. She shows her friends stories about Wonderflanks the horse, once drew a picture of ponies that went in the art display case, and was excited about hearing that people rode horses to school a hundred years ago. Even as a preschooler, shown in one of Nate's comics, she loved ponies.
30	* AnnoyinglyRepetitiveChild: In "Big Nate On a Roll", Nate talks about the time he went to a ''Franchise/PeterPan'' play when he and Ellen were kids. He says it wasn't that great of an experience for him, especially since Ellen sang songs from the play every day for two years.
31	* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: In “Big Nate: In the Zone”, Ultra-Nate fights a “saber-toothed swamp cat” around 1800 BC. It’s what clues him in that they traveled back much further in time than intended, as the big cats had apparently been extinct for “over 3,000 years”. In actuality, the last saber-toothed cats in North America died out around 10,000 years ago and would’ve been long gone by 1800 BC; however, said anachronism is justified as it’s in a comic that Nate, who is most certainly NOT a paleontologist, drew.
32	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Just like in the strip, when Nate becomes neater in ''Big Nate: Flips Out'' he becomes ''so'' neat that he can no longer enjoy anything.
33	* BigNo:
34	** In "Strikes Again", Nate and Gina both have this reaction when they hear that they're getting paired up for a school project. This leads to the two of them glaring at each other.
35	** In ''Big Nate: Goes for Broke'', Nate, Francis, and Teddy do this upon seeing the email their parents got that tells them to send their children of P.S. 38 to [[TheDreaded Jefferson Middle School]].
36	* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In early strips, Chad was represented as pathetic and pitiable. In newer strips, Chad is shown to invoke a CutenessProximity in a way that makes him instantly popular, and he is generally treated with a lot of respect by Nate and his friends.
37	* DamnedByFaintPraise: In ''Strikes Again'', after Gina miraculously makes the winning hit for her Fleeceball team and wins the trophy, Nate decides to make an editorial for his newspaper about the event, praising her for the "lucky hit". [[RightBehindMe Gina happens to be in the library at the time and sees him writing it down, and is furious]].
38	-->'''Nate:''' [[NotHelpingYourCase It was lucky, Gina! You hit the ball with your eyes shut]]!
39	* DidntThinkThisThrough: In ''Big Nate: On a Roll'', Nate is at the mall trying to sell his comics in order to get money for a new skateboard. When he notices an employee using the building loudspeaker, Nate decides to make an announcement himself after her, to tell the whole mall to see his comics. This sends a mall cop running to the loudspeaker and lambasting him for breaking several mall rules. Then he makes him call his father and explain what happened, causing Nate to [[YouAreGrounded be grounded for a week]].
40	* TheDreadedToiletDuty: In the first book, Nate says he's heard that students are forced to clean the toilets in the men's room in summer school. He then says he hopes this isn't true, because the toilets are "totally disgusting".
41	* ElderlyAilmentRambling: Coach John is old enough to be of retirement age, and according to Nate, he often talks about his knee surgeries ("And the ''bone was poking through the skin''!") and has shown off [[CollectorOfTheStrange his kidney stone collection]].
42	* FeigningHealthiness: In "Big Nate Strikes Again", [[AgonyOfTheFeet Randy stomps on Nate's foot]], leaving him unable to join the fleeceball game. To take Gina's place in the game, Nate limps over and claims that his foot doesn't hurt anymore [[BlatantLies while he's yelping and groaning in pain]]. Coach Calhoun is not convinced, and he just sends Nate right back to the bleachers to sit down.
43	* FooledByTheSound: In one book, Nate, Teddy, and Francis are doing some band practice. Artur walks in and says he thought he heard a Siberian mountain goat. The indignant Nate then clarifies that it was [[HollywoodToneDeaf actually him singing]].
44	* {{Gesundheit}}: In ''Big Nate Flips Out'', a frustrated [[NeatFreak Francis]] stops to fix a crooked poster in the hallway, because according to him,
45	-->'''Francis:''' It detracts from the room's overall feng shui.
46	-->'''Nate:''' Feng ''who''?
47	-->'''Teddy:''' (''whacks Nate from behind with a notebook'') Gesundheit!
48	* GettingSuspendedIsAwesome: In "Flips Out", upon hearing the news that [[spoiler: Nick got suspended for a week because he was caught stealing the camera and framing Francis]], Nate is incredulous and believes it's a much lighter punishment that what ''he'' got, in which he started a fight with Randy, which resulted in him getting three days of detention and the principal calling his father to tell him what happened.
49	* GoneHorriblyRight: In ''Big Nate: Flips Out'' when Nate is hypnotized into becoming neat, it works...too well. Nate starts wearing a suit and tie to school, can't eat Cheez Doodles because he's disgusted by the cheesy powder all over them, and even blows a chance to [[spoiler:catch Nick]] when he runs into a desk and must stop to clean up.
50	* GrossGumGag: In "In the Zone", Nate sits at a table in the cafeteria and says he feels like he's got a target on his back because of [[ButtMonkey all the bad things that have happened to him lately]]. Then Dee Dee comments that he should worry more about the gum stuck to [[JokeOfTheButt his butt]].
51	* HatesReading: In "Lives It Up", one of Nate's drawings depicts [[BigEater Mark Cheswick]] admitting that he hates reading and that he's only in the Breakfast Book Club [[JustHereForTheFreeSnacks for the snacks.]]
52	* HoldingInLaughter: In ''In a Class by Himself'', Mr. Galvin confiscates Nate's pen and puts it in his pocket, but the ink leaks out of it and leaves a huge stain on his shirt. Nate tries not to laugh, but bursts out guffawing, and the annoyed Mr. Galvin sends him to detention afterwards.
53	* IronicEcho: In "Strikes Again", because of Nate's comics saving the project that he and Gina were working on, he decides to smugly say "You're welcome" to her right afterwards, which makes her go ''ballistic''. And later that day, when Nate's failing fleeceball team is saved by Gina hitting a home run, the arrogant girl gets the trophy and walks right up to Nate to throw his words back in his face. Nate is ''not'' amused by this.
54	* IveHeardOfThatWhatIsIt: In ''Flips Out'', Francis tells Nate and Teddy that they need to get candids around the school to make their new yearbook interesting. Teddy is adamant and agrees with him, then sheepishly asks what a candid ''is''.
55	* JawDrop: In ''Big Nate: Lives It Up'', Teddy reacts to Nate quite abruptly snapping at Breckenridge with this trope "like a wagon dumping its load".
56	* LighterAndSofter: When compared to the comic strips that predated the books. In the books, Nate much less frequently falls into JerkWithAHeartOfJerk territory, teachers and classmates are generally nicer, and the semi-frequent ParentalBonus seen in the comics is mostly absent.
57	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: In ''Big Nate: In the Zone'', was Chad's and Nate's good luck ''really'' due to the "lucky foot", or was it all a coincidence?
58	* MegaphoneGag: In ''Big Nate: On a Roll'', Nate uses the PA system at the mall to advertise his comics, only to get caught by a mall cop. He then has to awkwardly explain to Dad what happened, and gets grounded for one week.
59	* NeverTrustATrailer: Or rather, never trust a preview. The sneak peeks at the end of each book are sometimes misleading as to what is going to happen in the next book. For example, the preview to ''Big Nate: Lives it Up'' made it look as if Nate would be sticking up for Breckenridge all the time, whereas in the book Breckenridge is an annoying TagalongKid whom Nate dislikes. The preview of ''Big Nate: In the Zone'' is probably the worst, as it shows Nate making the school honor roll and the all-star sports team, as well as ''Jenny falling in love with him'' when he gets lucky. None of those things happen in the book. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], since most of the time it's a tactic to hype next book in rather comedic effect.
60	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: There's a girl with glasses and black hair who is only referred to by Nate as [[OverlyLongName "That weird girl whose name I can never remember."]] Although in one storyline of the comic, the same girl appeared with the name Becca, and Nate had no trouble remembering her name.
61	* UnfortunateNames: A new kid is called Breckenridge Puffington III. He clearly doesn't like his name, and for good reason, as he's always getting mean nicknames based on it.
62	* UnreliableNarrator: Nate, of course.

Context Literature / BigNate