BOOK: HUMOR (ages 8-12)
Brief Description: 6th grader Nate Wright fully believes himself to be capable of greatness…sometime in the future, but the here and now is a different matter entirely. When he opens a fortune cookie and reads “Today you will surpass all others” he’s sure his time has come to show what he’s worth. The rest of the book recounts the day as Nate finds himself with detention after detention. In the end, Nate does, in fact, surpass all others, but not exactly in the way he expects.
Awards: Best Children's Books of the Year; 2011; Horn Book Fanfare, 2010; Children's Choice Book Award, 2011Personal Opinion: Nate is a spinoff from the popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, and while it was entertaining, I didn’t find Nate nearly as funny or creatively drawn as Greg Heffley. The illustrations accompanying the story were great, and I’ll bet the ending will be supremely satisfying to 5th and 6th graders, but I just prefer the Diary series much more.
Programming Idea: I’d hold a special book club over the summer and would include this diary or illustrated story format for all the books; then I’d challenge the attendees to write their own similar story about school using images and text. Kids might also write a character comparison of Nate and Greg Heffley after reading both books.
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