Syndicated Cartoonist Brings BIG NATE Comic Strip to Tweens in a New Six Book Series

NEW YORK, March 8, /PRNewswire/ --

    
    
                                      BIG NATE
                               IN A CLASS BY HIMSELF
                                 By Lincoln Peirce
    
                           "BIG NATE is funny, big time."
                    –Jeff Kinney, author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid
    
                       "BIG NATE gets an "A" for awesome!"
                      -Harry Bliss, The New Yorker cartoonist
    
         Caution – Don't read BIG NATE in public, you will laugh out loud."
                 -Alec Greven, New York Times bestselling author
                       of How to Talk to Girls, 10 years old

BIG NATE is best known to millions as the hilarious and entertaining comic strip in newspapers nationwide.  Cartoonist Lincoln Peirce is the creator behind the wildly popular comic strip that has been amusing and inspiring fans all across the country for years.  This March, the "king of detention" will share his accidental antics when he stars in a new series for tweens.  The first book, BIG NATE: IN A CLASS BY HIMSELF (HarperCollins Children's Books, $12.99, ISBN #978-0-06-194434-5) will be simultaneously published in the U.S. and UK on March 23, 2010, and has already been licensed in 6 countries.

Lincoln Peirce created the BIG NATE comic strip in 1991.  Today, it's published in more than 200 newspapers, including The Washington Post and the Portland Press Herald and online at www.bignate.com. Jeff Kinney, creator of Diary of a Wimpy Kid says "Lincoln Peirce is one of my cartooning heroes, and BIG NATE ranks as a comics classic.  Year in and year out, BIG NATE is among the best comics on the funny page."  When Kinney was an undergraduate at the University of Maryland, he even wrote to The Baltimore Sun, calling the strip "the best of the new generation of cartoons that make the comics page worth reading."

BIG NATE, aka middle schooler Nate Wright, is eleven years old, four-and-a-half feet tall, a self-described genius and a sixth grade Renaissance Man.  He's equipped with only a #2 pencil and the unshakable belief that he is destined for greatness (a fortune cookie told him so).  But he fights a daily battle against overzealous teachers, undercooked cafeteria food and all-around conventionality.  "Nate is an enthusiastic and likable kid," says Peirce.  "Really, his only crime is that he has a naive and inflated sense of his own importance.  But, who doesn't?"

"BIG NATE is a hilarious tween book character," says Susan Katz, President and Publisher, HarperCollins Children's Books.  "The minute we met this irrepressible mischief maker, we fell in love and fell off our chairs laughing. Nate has captured our hearts and I know that he will steal yours, too."

On March 9, 2010, just 2 weeks before the book goes on-sale, HarperCollins Children's Books will launch www.bignatebooks.com, the interactive destination for everything you need to know about the world of BIG NATE.  Readers can...

• Enjoy ALL of BIG NATE: IN A CLASS BY HIMSELF for free for 2 weeks
• Watch a video interview between bestselling author Jeff Kinney and Lincoln Peirce
• Play interactive games including "The Fortunator" and "Cheese Doodle Tower Builder"
• Enter a sweepstakes to win a personalized signed copy of BIG NATE: IN A CLASS BY HIMSELF
• Read Lincoln's blog and a daily Big Nate comic from comics.com

....and much, much more!

In addition to the comic strip, BIG NATE is already a big hit on Poptropica.com, the web's fastest-growing virtual world for kids.  BIG NATE ISLAND launched in February 2009 and was Poptropica's biggest launch ever, visited by 2.2 million kids in its first week and more than 30 million to date.  Developed by Pearson's Family Education Network, the makers of Funbrain, Poptropica is a virtual world where kids play games, travel, collect objects and compete with other players.

"The BIG NATE comic strip has delighted and entertained newspaper readers of all ages for years," says Lisa Klem Wilson, Senior Vice President and General Manager of United Media. "We are thrilled that BIG NATE is now available in a wonderful new illustrated novel format that's perfect for tweens. We're sure that once they get to know him, BIG NATE will become their favorite character!"

Cartoonist Lincoln Peirce began creating comics in sixth grade, just like BIG NATE. He taught high school art in New York City and has created animated pilots for Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. He lives with his family in Portland, Maine.

About HarperCollins Children's Books

HarperCollins Children's Books is one of the leading publishers of children's books. Respected worldwide for its tradition of publishing quality, award-winning books for young readers, HarperCollins is home to many timeless treasures — Charlotte's Web, The Chronicles of Narnia, Goodnight Moon, Where the Sidewalk Ends, the Ramona series, Where the Wild Things Are; and popular new classics — The Graveyard Book, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Warriors, and Fancy Nancy. HarperCollins Children's Books has published some of the world's foremost authors and illustrators and has won numerous awards including the Newbery Medal, the Caldecott Medal, the Printz Award and the Geisel Award. HarperCollins Children's Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers, one of the leading English-language publishers in the world and a subsidiary of News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NCP, NCPDP). Consistently at the forefront of innovation and technological advancement, HarperCollins is the first publisher to digitize its content and create a global digital warehouse to protect the rights of its authors, meet consumer demand and generate additional business opportunities. Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Australia/New Zealand, and India. You can visit HarperCollins Children's Books at www.harpercollinschildrens.com and HarperCollins Publishers at www.harpercollins.com.

About United Media

United Feature Syndicate and Newspaper Enterprise Association are divisions of United Media, the worldwide syndication and licensing company that focuses on building brand equity around a wide range of creative content including Peanuts, Dilbert, Pearls Before Swine, Get Fuzzy, Cokie and Steven Roberts, Nat Hentoff, Precious Moments, Fancy Nancy and Raggedy Ann and Andy. United Media (www.comics.com) is a wholly owned subsidiary of The E.W. Scripps Company.

    
    
                        BIG NATE: IN A CLASS BY HIMSELF
                         HarperCollins Children's Books
                           ISBN #978-0-06-194434-5
                            Ages 8-12, Grades 3-7
                                    $12.99
                             On-sale:  3/23/2010

SOURCE Harper Collins Children's Books