Big Nate in a Class by Himself / Lincoln Pierce / 214 pages / First Book in a Series

When a patron asked for a "Nate book", I directed them to the Nate the Great series.  The young reader said these were not the book he was looking for.  We discovered what he really wanted was Big Nate.  Filled with cartoon-like drawings and Nate's misadventures at school, it is laugh-out-loud funny.  Poor Nate's fortune cookie says he "will surpass all"...and he does...in detentions.  Although butthead is used and a joke about telling a male chromosome from a female chromosome by pulling down its genes is present, Nate is sure to appeal to fourth through sixth grade readers...and me.  He is after all a Scorpio, like me.  "That means I'm dynamic, loyal, and chock-full of animal magnetism.  In other words, I rock."  (Nate's words, not mine.)