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Tom Gates #9

Top of the Class [Nearly]

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From the winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, the Best Book for Younger Readers - Red House Children's Book Award, the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 5 - 12 year-olds and the Blue Peter Best Story Book Award 2013, comes the ninth amazing instalment of this brilliant series!

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First published October 8, 2015

313 people are currently reading
2417 people want to read

About the author

Liz Pichon

178 books573 followers
L. Pichon says that when she was little, she loved to draw, and her mom said she was very good at making a mess (this is still true today). She kept drawing, went to art school, became a designer and art director at Jive Records, and began to publish children’s books. After its publication in the U.K., The Brilliant World of Tom Gates won several prestigious awards, including the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize, and the Blue Peter Book Award. L. Pichon lives in Brighton, England, with her family.

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5 stars
2,514 (64%)
4 stars
809 (20%)
3 stars
363 (9%)
2 stars
104 (2%)
1 star
81 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews
8 reviews
October 27, 2015
AWESOMENESS

I just love it the way they also brought in a new character it was so funny the way it comes out at the end
1 review2 followers
Read
January 4, 2016
it is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Jess.
15 reviews1 follower
January 1, 2016
It was a funny book and it was very easy to read
11 reviews
January 19, 2016
a very good book that i could not stop reading
Profile Image for J..
334 reviews30 followers
June 22, 2021
Fun as usual.
My son adores these books 🙂
Profile Image for Ezekiel.
10 reviews
June 30, 2025
MARCUS IS SO ANNOYING! (No change there then)
Profile Image for Mairéad.
866 reviews10 followers
May 3, 2021
This high interest - low difficulty series of books is ideal for encouraging independent reading among children aged 8-11. The protagonist is amusing and engaging, the doodles are interesting and the plot is very relatable for the target audience. I enjoyed the unexpected twist in this particular story - it would be a great opener for a discussion about the assumptions we make about other people with my pupils. I have no doubt this, and the other Tom Gates books will be firm favourites in my class library.
14 reviews
January 13, 2021
This book is very good and made me laugh a lot🤣🤣.
I have read some of these book over and over again.Also if you enjoy reading 'Tom Gates' then you may enjoy 'Diary of a wimpy Kid' or 'The 13- Storey Tree House' series.
17 reviews
December 13, 2024
I bought this book from this scholastic book Fair, because my crush bought it as well. Then I proceeded to think about it for a day because it must've meant something. I was in 4th grade
Profile Image for Leah.
1,647 reviews339 followers
June 20, 2018
Top Of The Class (Nearly) is the ninth Tom Gates book and is a delightful read for younger children. I have never read a Tom Gates book before, but I dived headfirst into book 9, incredibly impressed by the fantastic layout of this book. It’s filled with tons of different fonts and different font sizes, there’s drawings of the characters in various situations and it feels like it’s interactive (even though it isn’t). It’s fully immersive and that’s incredible.

You don’t actually need to even have read the previous 8 books, because this reads easily by itself (although I WILL be reading the previous 8 books simply because of how amazing this one was). 8-12 year old children will absolutely gobble this up - it’s so easy to digest, with tons of learning opportunities for new words to extend kids’ vocabulary.

Liz Pichon is extremely talented - she writes and does the drawings for these books and she’s made Tom so likeable and easy to root for. I genuinely loved Top of the Class (Nearly) and I can’t believe this is my first foray into Tom Gates’ world because it was fantastic and I didn’t want it to end!
Profile Image for Stacey Kym.
394 reviews15 followers
September 19, 2016
'Top of the Class' seemed a lot like all the other novels/instalments in the 'Tom Gates' series.
I liked the new characters which Liz Pichon introduced. They added something new and different which didn't make reading the series so dull to read.
I still don't get what is so funny about this series.
And I don't get why Tom Gates is so fun to read.
Maybe I'm to old for this series.
Probably.
However, I did like how their was a bully in the story. It gave the novel a feeling of realism and something that all kids experience at some point.
Congratulations to Liz Pichon on publishing her NINTH instalment!
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1 review1 follower
Read
June 26, 2019
it was a very funny book and i liked the drawings. it was around my level and i would recomend it to lots of people.
25 reviews2 followers
December 2, 2018
Title: Tom gates, top of the class (nearly)
By L.pichon

Episode: 9

This episode is about a picture that a student Tom gates, draws an embarrassing picture of his teacher Mr.Fullerman. In his catch up class. But librarian Ms.Lucas almost spots him drawing the picture of his teacher Mr.Fullerman, For his friend Derek. But has to put his picture in a book named the big book of bird watching. But forgets it at catch up class and comes back the next day to see that it is gone. He asked the librarian Ms.Lucas if he can find & issue the big book of bird watching but the librarian refuses she explains to him that it is a display book he says he will take care of the book and finally persuades her. After The library he went back to class and searches the book down for the picture and finds that the picture is gone and can not take the large heavy weighted book back to the library.

Personally I would rate this book a 4.7 of 5.

My comment: This is one of my favourite books.
I would say this is a book for someone that likes mystery and adventure.
3 reviews
March 25, 2020
Review by KKK
Top of the Class (Nearly) (Tom Gates, #9) by Liz Pichon
I like the part "Buster got on a window", "Tom drew a drawing of Mr Fulerman". The author (Liz Pichon)thinks of things - everybody could laugh at.
Across the storyline everywhere Tom tried hard (which is funny) to be Top of the class 5F but the doodle (Each of the doodles which Tom drew was covers most of the page and no space for writing the answers) on the paper pushed him back always and he missed to do doodle in last paper which made him Top of the Class, Finally.
In the story, the pupils kept the funny middle name for each other which was most enjoyable and makes the reader ROL.
Profile Image for Eve beinguniquebeingme.
1,853 reviews49 followers
February 4, 2020
Tom gets into running for school council in this book however when he spots school bully Buster doing graffiti, Tom tells his best mate Derek via drawing and soon things get out of hand as people find out and spread it round.



When a drawing Tom did of a teacher inspired by Buster also goes missing Tom gets worried he may end up in a lot of trouble, did enemy Marcus or Bully Buster have anything to do with this?



Always fun and full of drama around school life I loved the story and how Tom's passion for drawing could get him in trouble as he prefers it over learning his lessons it's very relatable!

Profile Image for Muhammad Umar.
14 reviews
January 16, 2022
top Of The Class (Nearly) is the ninth Tom Gates book and is a delightful read for younger children. I have never read a Tom Gates book so fresh with new ideas In his brain. Tom gates is also in trouble with bully buster. He has a lot of trouble finding his FB drawing. New, incredibly impressed by the fantastic layout of this book. It’s filled with tons of different fonts and different font sizes, there’s drawings of the characters in various situations and it feels like it’s interactive (even though it isn’t). It’s fully immersive and that’s incredible. Would recommend this book to every reader in the world,
4 reviews
June 5, 2023
تام گیتس ۹ بهترین و جالبترین فصلی است که من تا الان خوانده ام. انقدر دوست داشتم این کتاب را بخوانم که یک لحظه هم دست از سرش برنمیداشتم. کل کتاب را در یک روز تمام کردم. تام گیتس ۹ در مدرسه بهترین کلاس میشود (تقریبا). پسری به اسم باستر که قلدر است کتاب امانت گرفته شده تام گیتس را میگیرد تا نقاشی لای آن را به بقیه معلم ها نشان دهد. آن نقاشی، نقاشی ای از آقای فولرمن است که باستر به او گفته اسم آقای فولرمن را گذاشته آقای کولرمن! و آخر تام گیتس میفهمد که باستر میخواسته کاغذ را به او بدهد که معلم ها نبینند. و فهمید که باستر آدم مهربانی است. امیدوارم از خواندن این کتاب لذت ببرید
1 review
May 23, 2017
Tom gates life is full of mayhem and sneaky looks. Tom gates,who just wants a normal school tearm,ends up having head banging adventures lucky, tom gets a fue treats once in a while join tom on an adventure to get his amazing loud band to the top will tom have a normal school tearm this time. Toms will have a tearm full of mayhem dose this sound like the book for you? I bet it dose age suitable for 7+ this book will leave you laughing your socks of 😀😀😄🦄🦄💎💎
Profile Image for Indy.
1,110 reviews42 followers
October 16, 2019
Another funny Tom Gates book. This time, Tom made a not so nice doodle, he hid it in one of the big library books, and accidentally lost it to a mischievous student. The whole story is about how Tom planned to get the picture back so that no teacher or student would find it and gets him into trouble, as well as how Tom prepared for School Council election, and went bird watching with his uncle.
4 reviews
June 24, 2020
Woww

So what can I say this book is amazing I personally as a 11 year old girl absolutely loved it so much it just has its own twerk of drama and humor now Tom gates being Tom ages having his oops or slips moments and his moments of pride overall it was great
Profile Image for Kelly (VanIslandCircus).
220 reviews3 followers
August 14, 2020
I quite enjoyed this. I really enjoyed that each page was unique and full of just so much more then an average page of text.

I think that this series is a great option for transitional readers to middle grade.
14 reviews
April 21, 2023
I like tom's journey in this book, going from bottom to top (despite his OWN family and others putting him down) is really satisfying to read, and the new addition of Buster Jones is Genius! The book is in my top 5 favourite tom gates books! don't skip it!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews

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