Big Nate: Flips Out

Big Nate: Flips Out is a realistic fiction novel by American cartoonist Lincoln Peirce. It is based on the comic strip and is the 5th book in the Big Nate novel series. The book was released in 2013. It is aimed at children aged 8 to 12. It was published by HarperCollins Publishers.

Plot

Francis is annoyed that Nate is messy and calls him a slob. Nate then accuses Francis of having color coded underwear, and wedgies him. Later, Nate and his friends go to the yearbook meeting, surprised to find that the official editor of the yearbook is Gina. Nate then nominates Francis as co-editor of the yearbook, Mrs. Hickson approves and Gina gets angry at Nate. Nate wants to take candids for the yearbook, so he and his friends find Mrs Godfrey for a camera, Francis collects it as Mrs. Godfrey would not approve of Nate having the camera. In the yard, Randy throws the camera away, but Nick catches it and gives a lecture on Nate. Nate plans to get an embarrassing photo of Gina after she puts up a poster of retake day, using Nate's hideous school picture. But when looking for the camera in his locker, he cannot find it. And Francis accuses Nate of losing it, even though he didn't, Nate and Francis shout at each other, Nate reveals that Francis' middle name is Butthurst in front of the whole school, Randy then bullies Francis about it. Nate wants to be neat so he and Francis can be friends again, so he gets hypnotised, which he finds uncomfortable. Being neat gets him better grades but stops him from doing his favourite hobbies. When Nate sees Randy bullying Francis about his middle name again, he attacks him, almost winning a fight with Randy in the process. Nate gets stopped and is sent to the principal's office. After a lecture with the principal, Nate finds the camera in his locker and finds out that the fight with Randy unhypnotised him. He also finds out that Nick stole the camera, this results in him getting suspended for a week. The next day, it is the Trivia Slam. And Nate's team beats Gina's team, thanks to Nate's phobia of cats.

Characters

These characters appear in the book:

• Nate Wright - The main protagonist; a preadolescent boy, known for his large ego and sarcasm.
• Teddy Ortiz - Nate's #1A best friend, who is a jokester and known for his skill at Yo mama jokes. The book is less focused on him.
• Francis Pope - Nate's #1 best friend, who is known for his high intelligence. He breaks up with Nate in the book, he is bullied by Randy in the book.
• Chad Applewhite - Nate's trusty friend, makes a minor appearance in the book, a member of Nate's Triva Slam team.
• Dee Dee "Dorcas" Holloway - Nate's friend, a member of the doodlers. In the book, she spies in Randy.
• Marty Wright - Nate's somewhat clueless father, who plays golf and is known to make horrible food.
• Gina Hemphill-Toms - Nate's overachiever nemesis. She is the captain of the Triva Slam team, "Gina's Geniuses".
• Randy Betancourt - One of Nate's other rivals; the school bully. In the book, he bullies Francis.
• Mrs. Clara Godfrey - Nate's ultimate nemesis; his social studies class teacher.
• Mrs. Clarke - Nate's English teacher, hosts the Trivia Slam.
• Mr. Staples - Nate's math teacher, in the book. He describes Nate's homework as the "Mona Lisa of bar graphs".
• Mr. Galvin - Nate's science teacher.
• Ellen Wright - Nate's older sister.
• Nick Blonsky - He makes his first major appearance as the main antagonist, stealing the camera in the book.

Reception

The book was rated 4.37 starts on Goodreads.^[1] The whole series was listed 117 times in the New York Times best seller list, it included Big Nate: Flips Out, along with a few other books in the series at times.^[2]

References