Big Nate Lives It Up: Join Big Nate on His New Animated Nickelodeon Series

Big Nate Novels #7

by Lincoln Peirce

For fans of the hilarious Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, here comes the seventh novel in the New York Times bestselling series Big Nate.

BIG NATE IS LIVING IT UP!

Principal Nichols wants Nate to be buddies with new kid Breckenridge Puffington III and show him around. But that's no easy task when Breckenridge is a plant-doodling total fun-sponge. There's also something strangely familiar about this guy. . . . What in the world could it be?

Meet BIG NATE, Mr. Big-time Doodler and definitely NOT the teacher's pet.

Genres: Humor, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Comics, Childrens, Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 10, 2015

About the author

Lincoln Peirce is a cartoon artist from Portland, Maine. He lives with his wife and two children, and occasionally gives lectures to students about cartoon creating. Peirce writes the comic strip "Big Nate". Peirce's comic strip, Big Nate, is featured as an island on the famous children's website, Poptropica. Big Nate appears as the first cartoon on The Maine Sunday Telegram in the comics section.

He studied art at Colby College in Maine were he began cartooning. He also studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture before teaching art and coaching basketball at a New York highschool for 3 years. He currently plays hockey with "an old men's league" and describes it as his best sport as a child. In an interview with the Washington Post, Peirce stated that his last name is pronounced "purse" and is not a misspelling of "pierce."

Lincoln Peirce was a member of the "Surviving as a Print Cartoonist" Panel at the Maine Comics Art Festival with fellow cartoonists Corey Pandolph (Barkeater Lake, Toby: Robot Satan, The Elderberries), Norm Feuri (Retail, Gill) and with Mike Lynch moderating. On the panel Lincoln revealed he is currently working with some animation and licensing projects including the addition of a Big Nate island to the online game Poptropica.

Reviews

[♛ Garima ♛ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Generally all Nate books are 5 stars to me but in this one I found Nate really acting mean to new kid. Like extra mean. His character is like that but I could have used less obnoxious. Cheers to Dee Dee who came to rescue!

[Fatma Al Zahraa Yehia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LOVE YOU NATE WRIGHT ♥
One of the funniest books I have read.

[Jocelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a new kid at P.S. 38, and principal Nichols wants Nate to show him around. This isn't a normal kid though. His name is Breckenridge Puffington III, and instead of drawing cartoons like other kids or playing football, he likes to draw and look at flowers. It's also P.S. 38's 100th anniversary, which is no surprise, because the school is falling apart. To celebrate, they're having a scavenger hunt, which Nate's team is determined to win.

I picked up this book, because my brother borrowed it from the library, and I read the other books in the series. I finished it because It was a pretty short book, and I wanted to know what would happen to Breckenridge Puffington III.

I would recommend this book to Claudia. I think she would like the humour in this book, and she read the other books in the series.

[Chantelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 8 year old son begged to read this & I was hesitant. All I can say now is that we are BOTH very glad I took a chance and read it to him (and the rest of the series) before bed every night (he read on his own at other times).

Surprisingly, this was the first book (in a REALLY long time) that literally made me laugh out loud - repeatedly!! I WILL admit that Nate - the way he thinks, acts, and his imagination - is extremely similar to my son so, I'm sure that influenced how often I laughed.

Although Nate is disrespectful to his father and has a general disdain for school & education, the "tongue in cheek" writing style communicated that his attitude wasn't really ideal for yourself. Also, I didn't find anything in the books that was unrealistic for a school-aged child to think, feel, do, and experience. In fact, it reminded me of my own elementary and middle school "life".

Even though I didn't approve of Nate's attitude toward his dad, school, and adults in general, because my son my son identified with this character, I seized the opportunity to have discussions about the importance of education, respect, appropriate behavior, bullying, friendship, and a host of other topics.

If your child is in this stage of life and appreciates a good story and a good laugh - I confidently recommend these books. (BTW, my son is now 11 and STILL reads these books!)

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nate Wright may be living it up in Big Nate Lives It Up, but he’s doing a bit of growing up as well.

Based on the syndicated comic strip of the same name, the Big Nate book series is a collection of full-length illustrated novels that still retains the wit and humor of the daily comic strip. In his latest book, author and illustrator Lincoln Peirce goes beyond superficial middle school dilemmas like group projects, gross lunches, and school rivalries and delves into issues that readers on the cusp of young adulthood are likely dealing with themselves.

Plot synopsis with spoilers.

Big Nate Lives It Up has plenty of classic Nate humor, and Nate’s own drawings are as brilliant and funny as ever, but it’s the flowing narrative and its underlying lessons of acceptance and forgiveness that make this book more than a mere comic strip collection and instead an illustrated novel that resonates with middle school readers.

[Charles Darrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

wowza! 2 million bucks!!!

[Samin_pzr · Rating 5 out of 5]

مجموعه جالب و بامزه ای بود و برای گروه سنی ۸ تا ۱۵ میتونه خوب باشه و موقع خوندنش لذت ببرن 😁👌🏼

[Matthew Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Big Nate" by Lincoln Peirce was an amazing book! It is book number 7 in the big Nate series. In this book you are introduced to a new kid, but most things stay the same. Some being bully's, competitions, and same old Gina. But you need to read the book for the good stuff.

Nate is a natural kid at school today. He is minding his own business, and not bothering anyone else. But when Principle Nicolas introduces the new Kid to Nate, things get complicated. Nate saves him from Randy, the big bully, and now the Breckinridge (the new kid) goes wherever Nate goes. He won't leave him alone and it really starts to tick Nate off. He can't do anything because Principle Nicolas. When the Scavenger Hunt comes around, Nate needs to include Breckinridge or he will get in trouble. The scavenger hunt begins, and Nate's rival, Gina, is already in the lead. They hurry as fast as they can, and Before you know it, Nate and Gina are hurrying to find the last item, something that will make the school better. Breckinridge finds an expensive mural, so Nate's team wins, and they use the money to repair the school. So everyone wins. Except for Gina.

I recommend this book for all boys and girls. Mostly for people in grades 6-8. For people who like a funny book then this is for them.

[Jairo Lopez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was about that this new kid named Breckenridge 111 was new to Nates school.And the principle put in charge that Nate should show him around the school. and then Nate had a backlash in him brain and he remembered that, that kid used to bully Nate when they were a child.I liked this book because it was cool and funny enough for me. At the end of the book it took place at his school and they had a scavenger hunt and the prize was going on a hot air balloon. I liked this book because it was really cool. I also thought it was funny because it had lots of jokes and it had lots of comic. It was also worth reading because some book aren't worth reading. I mainly liked it because it was similar to the diary of a wimpy kid books and I love Diary of a wimpy kid books. I recommend this book to Alex Ma, Alex F, Jose Y, and also to Jesus because they like the Diary of wimpy kid books.

[Kinectplayer02 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow... Just Wow...

I gave thing book and it's wonderful author, Lincoln Pierce, 4 stars because a teensy little bit of it I could already predict what was going to happen next, but besides that, it was our money's worth. From about page 117 and up my son and daughter had chills that made them want to stay awake so I would keep reading to them. I would recommend this jumble of words that came together as one big exciting book to girls and boys, but mostly boys, around the age of 7 to 10. Well... I hope this helped you if you couldn't decide to buy this or not. ENJOY READING!!!!

[John Yingling · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll be blunt: I LOVE the Big Nate books! He has his plans and schemes, and most of them don't always work out, but he always keeps his sense of humor---and it is laugh-out-loud funny. In this particular title, he learns some valuable lessons about forgiveness and about not judging people before you get to know them. And the artwork is delightful; I get the biggest kick out of the facial expressions. I can't wait to revisit Nate and the gang!

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this solely because the pharmacy made me wait when I got there to pick something up, so I had to do something to while away the time.

From what I recall, there's more of an actual story than Wimpy Kid and the main character is less irritating.
Still, I see why the target audience is 8 and up...

[miketheboy89 · Rating 2 out of 5]

A decent 7th book of the series, however the Breckenridge/Nate conflict is resolved a little too quickly, in just one or two chapters. The writing, as usual, is written as though by an eleven year old, however Peirce manages to pull off a decent book, although he may be running out of ideas for this series.

[Althea · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a awesome, funny book!

I chose 5 star because this is another awesome book in Lincoln Peirce's big nate series. I recommend this book to children of all ages. Be sure to get it now or from your local library!!

[Zahra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice you always have friends in high places.

[Leoquiroz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book

[Jennifer Mangler · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've finally got around to reading a few of the Big Nate books and am going to review them together with one review. My biggest sticking point is that I don't particularly like Nate. He's a bit of a jerk. I get not every kid likes school, or likes his teachers, but Nate really goes over the top in his disdain for school and for adults that never seems to go away. I have a problem with that. While it's not up my alley, I can see why this would be a book that middle school students would enjoy and I can think of several students who might like the series.

[Lashon's Fire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like to read big Nate at school

[Omkar Kumble · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved every bit of it!

[Ro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it.

[Mega · Rating 3 out of 5]

After having taken an involuntary hiatus from the series for quite some time, I finally managed to jump back into the Big Nate book series with the sixth entry in the series, In the Zone, which turned out to be about as fun as I would've expected it to be. Of course, it did have some flaws that did end up holding it back at the end of the day, along with it not really having much of a concrete plot and a new "central" character that isn't really anything all that special, but it mostly still managed to make up for it in the many different ways that these books tend to, such as with the simple, yet still pretty fun story, a set of really solid characters that are given mostly really solid writing, art that still looks just as great as ever before, and humor that may not be the best that the series has to offer, but it still managed to have enough funny moments that did end up getting me to smile and chuckle quite a bit while reading it, which is all I could've really asked from it at the end of the day. And of course, just like with the other Big Nate books, it did manage to be really successful, to the point where the series would keep on keeping on with yet another book that would release almost one year later (literally was off by a single day), which would be known as Big Nate: Lives It Up.

As you all should probably know by now, I have mentioned plenty of times that I have read a lot of these Big Nate books in the past, as I did love them and I ended up almost going through the entire series back when I was a kid, but in terms of this book, this is actually the first entry in the entire series that I didn't read. That's not to say that I thought that it was gonna be bad, or that I thought the series was bad, but this was getting around the point to where I just stopped reading things in general, and I just ended up dropping it to focus on other things instead. Luckily now though, after over a decade since this book came out, I am now finally here to properly give this entry the shot it deserves to see if it is good or not, which I suspected it would be. I mean, it is Big Nate after all, so of course it was gonna be pretty solid, but I didn't know just how much better or worst it was gonna be compared to the other books we have gotten so far. Well, I went ahead and read the whole thing to figure that question out, and yep....... it certainly is another Big Nate book, alright. It is definitely nowhere near the best that the series has to offer, due to it still offering the same handful of problems and annoying tendencies as ever before, but it does manage to make up for that in all of the usual ways that you would expect it to as well, resulting in yet another solid enough book in this pretty solid series.

The story is more or less more of what you would expect, with this one centering around the whole "new student that main character has to become friends with" trope we have seen a million times before, with there being little to no difference in this story compared to other stories out there, which does make it less interesting, but it still manages to be really solid and have all of the typical Big Nate moments that make one of these books what they are, so it works out in the end, the characters are mostly pretty solid, with most of the returning characters still being just as great and charming as ever before, and Chad this time around is also slightly better too, with the only character in here that I didn't like too much being that of Bobby (I know that's not his name in the book, but that is the name I remembered, so fuck it), who is more or less just your average nerdy kid that likes flowers, with no real distinct character traits or personality to make him stand out or be more interesting, which does kinda blow, the writing is still mostly solid, once again giving us all of the typical Big Nate dialogue that you would expect and a lot of funny stuff too, although once again, there does seem to be some outdated dialogue to be found here that did stick out a lot of the time, which is a bummer, the art is still great, featuring the same great art style and drawings as ever before, so not much more to say about that, and the humor is also good too, not being anywhere near the funniest book in the series, but it still managed to have enough funny and humorous moments to where it still ended up getting some chuckles out of me regardless.

With all of that being said though, as you could probably expect, this book does have its own set of problems that do end up holding it back from being anything all that fantastic, including some old favorites that we have discussed previously. For one thing, this book doesn't change up anything from the formula once again: it is more or less just more of what you would expect from a Big Nate book, while also taking on a somewhat different story then usual, which makes it so that if you aren't a big fan of this series, or books like this in general, then you probably wouldn't end up liking this book either, even if it doesn't become any worse as a result of this. That in itself, however, doesn't really bother me that much compared to what is probably my biggest problem with not just this book, but the series in general at this point is that...... it has just gotten really stale. Think about it, for the past seven books in this entire series, EVERY SINGLE ONE of them have all followed along the same story beats and patterns that you have come to expect, with there being some exceptions to this rule here or there, but this is the formula that every single book follows. Nate goes about his daily life, a new character enters that will be the center of attention alongside him, plenty of whacky shenanigans ensue, Nate earns a lesson that brings him closer to said friend, there's some kind of big competition at the end, so on and so forth. This is the set of events that has been used ever since the SECOND book, and while I wasn't necessarily that big of a problem with this at first, now that I have gone through this same ol' song and dance seven times now, it is starting to get a lot less enjoyable. And you may be wondering "Well, it's a kids book, so obviously it is gonna be repetitive and dumb", but it doesn't have to be this way, and if you want to know what I mean, just take a look at another series I am reviewing, Captain Underpants. That series has an extremely basic set-up and set of events, almost laughably so, but it makes up for this not only by making fun of this a lot of the time, but it also isn't afraid to try new things with the story, switch things up, evolve and expand the universe with its characters that do actually carry over to the next book in the series, which makes it all the more interesting. I'm not saying that Big Nate needs to do all that in order for me to love it, I just wish that it would consider some more variety every once in a while, y'know?...... that's not too much to ask.

Overall though, despite the set-up getting tiring and with the book not offering that much compared to other books in the series, Big Nate: Lives It Up still manages to be a solid entry in this great series, giving us yet another round of Nate and his overexaggerated world, mindset and the circumstances that he and his friends get into, while also further expanding upon the initial crew and giving us all of the elements that we expect from these books, which ended up making for yet another entry in the series that I did enjoy, what with its simple and enjoyable, albeit not creative in the slightest, story, a set of mostly really good characters paired up with some mostly good writing, art that still manages to be just as great as ever before, and humor that isn't the funniest thing in the world, but it manages to be funny enough to where fans would be able to get into it either way. I would recommend it for those that were huge fans of the previous books, as well as for those who are huge fans of these kinds of books in general, as while it may not be anything too extraordinary or exciting, it still manages to give you everything you could want from one of these books (for the most part) and still manages to be mostly entertaining from start to finish, which is all I can ask from it at the end of the day. Although, with all of that being said, I'm serious, Big Nate: just try doing something different for the next installment, ok? Just give me a new type of story and a new type of circumstances that will get me interested in this series again, because I wouldn't want this series to go out on a whimper just because it wouldn't ta- oh wait, the next book is the last one in the entire series?............ well, isn't that just GREAT.

Book #28

[Jared Honaker]

it was good

[Mehsi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A school celebration, a new person, forced friendship, comics, and more!

My second Big Nate novel, and while I didn't like it as much as I did the first book, it was still very fun to read!

My main trouble with the book was Breckenbridge. Sorry, I just didn't like the little guy. How he never even tried to participate in whatever Nate wanted, how he dismissed Nate's likes, and how he just stuck like glue to him. Sorry, especially the last one was just something I didn't like. I understand that you are new here, and you may have a hard time adjusting, however I feel that you should also do things on your own. The forced friendship stuff was just not my favourite, especially when it later turned into real friendship (though would you call it that?).

Of course, Nate wasn't always being the friendliest, but I can kinda (just kinda) forgive him. After all he was forced to be buddies + the guy just didn't think to go and find another friend or a group.
But in the end he sees his faults, and I am happy he did.
His comics, though there are less than in the previous book I read, were still fun. He still has a lot to learn about being kinder, but I still liked reading the comics.

We also have comics by someone from a hundred of years ago. I have to say that I wasn't that interested in them. They were plain and a bit boring. I just didn't get what was funny about them.

The mystery behind Breckenbridge, I had several theories, though I never guessed the one that was the truth. Wow, I never expected that from Breckenbridge!

The centennial? I loved it, that, even with limited funding (as really, the school was falling apart, to the point of it being very dangerous), they made a really fun day for the kids. That scavenger hunt? I wanted to participate! The price was terrific. Plus it was fun and exciting to see what Nate and his group found. Sure, a bit coincidental, but eh, it is a children's book and they do love those coincidences. :P

I still love the combination of illustrations and text, they fit perfectly with Nate's story.

Oh, I would love a book from Dee Dee's POV, she is just such a hilarious character, always bouncing around and wearing outfits whenever there is a special day.

All in all, an OK book, and I hope that my libraries will get more of them.

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

[Jabari Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book Big Nate Live it up, it was about a a 6th grader named Nate and all his friends that went to school called PS,38. there is a series of books but this i one of the newest ones. In the story Nate and his friends had a breakfast club at school where they meet and talk about book and stuff. One day when they was there breakfast club the library teacher had shown them an old dairy from 100 years ago from when there school was first built and a student that went there had wrote about what it was like. after that principal Nicholas had made Nate become friends with a new kid and after a while it turns out that the kid was the one of the kids that bullied him when he was little but at the end of the they made up and Nate became best friends with the kid.

[Leslie Ramirez]

This is the seventh book of the Big Nate series by Lincoln Peirce. It is about Nate having to become buddies with the new kid. The new kid is named Breckenridge Puffington III and he is into plants. Nate has a feeling that he has met him before and than her realizes that the boy went to school with him when they were younger. Nate was not very fond of Breckenridge because he was mean to him but at the end Nate forgives him.

This graphic novel is full of wonderful illustrations that go along with the story. The whole story is in black and white, the only thing that is colorful is the outside (the front and back cover). There is a lot of framing and speech bubbles. All the images are fun and humorous which is always nice.

[Thames · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is about Nate and his new friend and he needs to win a scavenger hunt.


I don't know how Brekenridge just know who painted the mural like that.

I like the fact that Nate is kind of like me.

[Jaylin Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a funny book and a good book I would recommend this book to whoever likes funny books and this book has bullies and friends and people being brave. And this book is just like the title says big Nate really does live it up.

[Lisa Hall]

Good with funny stuff

It was good it had funny stuff .hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi

[Cameron Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10 Would read again. Can't wait till next book.

[Shashwat]

Awesome other ones have been better though