The Pyle Inside

“My Favorite Character from a Book”
by Zach Yaqub

My favorite character from a book is Big Nate. I have read all his 15 books at least 20 times each.
I like Big Nate because he’s a funny kid. He’s a lot like me in so many ways. We’re both 11 years old. His hair is the same color as mine and sometimes the same style. We both play chess. We both play baseball, usually right field. We both want to be pitcher, but we don’t get to do it as much as we want. He’s always dreaming about making an amazing play.
At school he is like me too. He bounces his leg up and down when he’s sitting at his desk. He’s always getting into wacky situations. His friends are either getting him out of trouble or getting him into trouble. He forgets his homework a lot. When that happens, his teacher gives him a really icy stare. He calls it the hairy eyeball. I have seen teachers do that in real life. My mom can do it too.
My mom thinks I should write a “Big Zach” book. Because sometimes I get into some situations like him. Like my teacher always thinks I hand in my tests too fast, because she thinks I rush through them. One day I decided I would wait until somebody else handed theirs in first. After I finished my test, I saw somebody else stand up to hand theirs in. So I stood up. But then I realized that he was just picking up his pencil, because he had dropped it. I didn’t know what to do then, because I was already standing up. The teacher was looking at me like a hawk. I thought about pretending to pick up an imaginary pencil and put it on my desk. But she was watching me too closely. So I had no choice. I just handed in the test.
Big Nate is creative, and so am I. He comes up with ideas, and also gets out of trouble. I have my ways too. Big Nate has lucky socks that he never changes. To me, every underwear is lucky underwear. I try to sneak not changing it. He plays the trombone but he is really bad. People pay him not to play. I tried learning the clarinet this year, but I am really bad. It’s under my bed right now.
Big Nate is a good kid. But sometimes he thinks it’s funny to do annoying things, like sing songs that get on his older sister’s nerves. I have an older brother. You could find me and Big Nate singing this song: I know a song that gets on everybody’s nerves, everybody’s nerves, everybody’s nerves. I know a song that gets on everybody’s nerves, and this is how it goes: I know a song that gets on everybody’s nerves, everybody’s nerves, everybody’s nerves. I know a song that gets on everybody’s nerves, and this is how it goes