DESTINED FOR AWESOMENESS

Nate Wright returns in a new format.

Spiky-haired sixth grader Nate Wright is back for three new adventures adapted from his recently animated show. The first, “The Legend of the Gunting,” tells the legend of Brad Gunter, an infamous student who purportedly got five detentions in one week and then disappeared. When a prank-loving new student tips Nate toward a feared fifth detention, can Nate stop him before it’s too late? In the second tale, “Go Nate! It’s Your Birthday,” Nate mischievously interprets his dad’s birthday offer, maxing out his credit card and finding himself in thousands of dollars of debt. “CATastrophe,” the final story, pits Nate against his crush—and his long-standing fear of cats. Unlike its predecessors, this nearly full-color offering (there are some black-and-white panels as throwbacks to Peirce’s comic strips) may have some visual appeal, but for those who have seen the show, this volume is simply a collection of screenshots from the first few episodes. This long-running and well-loved series has seen many iterations, from chapter books to graphic novels, and while an animated counterpart makes sense, further adapting that medium back into print feels utterly unnecessary; even devout fans may roll their eyes at this. Nate is White; his friends portray a mix of skin tones and body sizes.

Redundant.