Big Nate: On a Roll

Nate Wright is in detention, as earlier his art teacher Mr. Rosa asks him to hold a ladder for his rival Artur, so that he can paint the scenery for the school play. He recalls Artur dripping paint on him and Mr. Rosa getting mad at Nate and giving him detention. When detention is over, Nate tries to get to his Timber scout troop meeting which is held in his best friend Teddy's house on his skateboard, which lands in oily water under a bridge (due to him crashing into a woman's poodle's stretched leash). This results in Nate having to walk and being late and ultimately missing the meeting. Francis and Teddy tell him that Artur has joined their scout troop, much to Nate's horror. Nate's anger only increases when he realizes that the last of Mrs. Ortiz's chocolate chip cookies that Nate really loves was eaten by Artur. Artur offers to give Nate and Francis rides home in his mother's car, but Nate wants to walk, and Francis decides to accompany him. As the two are walking home, Francis talks to Nate about the fundraiser where they have to sell Warm Fuzzies, wall hangings with little statements underneath (which Nate says are horrible), as they need money for their camping gear. When Nate finds out that the grand prize is a new skateboard, he becomes motivated to sell Warm Fuzzies. The next day, Nate meets Teddy and Francis at his mailbox, where Francis tells Nate that Artur's his competition. At school, Nate sees Artur and Gina sucking up to the teachers, and Nate says that they're made for each other. Which makes Nate make a plan to have Gina and Artur fall for one another so he can go after Jenny. Nate opens his locker saying that he will "Sweep Jenny off her feet" when random junk flies out leaving Nate on his back, which makes him a laughingstock. Jenny sees what happens and calls Nate a slob while Artur suggests that if Nate cleans his locker, it will not be messy. Later, during the last period of school, Science, his mind wanders to the prize skateboard and he starts doodling in his notebook. Gina peers over his shoulder and tells Mr Galvin that Nate was drawing. Mr Galvin lets Nate off the hook "for a fellow Timber scout". After school, Nate tries to get Artur to like Gina by mentioning that she is smart. Artur soon says goodbye and mentioned that he would spend the afternoon sailing, which makes Nate realize that he could get a head-start selling wall hangings. As he is trying to sell some, he heads to his next-door neighbor Mr Eustis's house, where he is jumped on by Spitsy, Mr Eustis's moronic dog. Mr Eustis apologizes and buys a warm fuzzy. After a couple of hours of trying to sell wall-hangings he has managed to sell five. When Nate gets home, he is shocked to find Artur in his uniform talking to his dad, Marty. He confronts Artur, only to realize that he mispronounced the word "selling" and pronounced it "sailing". After talking a bit longer, he finds out that Artur has sold twenty wall hangings. After talking to Artur, he goes into his house and sees that Artur felt bad for Nate and baked him brownies which Nate thinks is obnoxious. Nate's exited to see the opening night of the Peter Pan play put on by the Drama Club. He mentions that he is exited to check it out because Francis and Teddy were going, and he had only seen Peter Pan before once in his life. An hour later he meets up with Francis and Teddy, and Francis mentions that the tickets are sold out. Teddy remembers about the wall-hangings and asks about how many wall-hangings they have sold yet. Nate answers five which Francis thinks was good. Then Nate says "Not as good as Artur." and mentioned that he already sold twenty. Francis and Teddy are clearly shocked, and Nate said that winning the skateboard was going to be harder than he thought. Francis mentions that Nate already had a good skateboard. Nate mentions the whole "crashing into a poodle leash" incident and Francis and Teddy burst into laughter. When they get to P.S. 38, it is crowded. when Nate grabs some programs, he sees Jenny standing alone. He thinks that his plan has worked and goes over to say hi to Jenny when Artur comes in and takes Jenny. Nate is disappointed and then realizes that Artur was wearing his scout uniform and wonders why. The play starts and Nate gets into his seat next to Francis and Teddy. At intermission, they walk out of the theater to get some snacks. But Nate gets shocked when he sees Artur selling the wall-hangings to theater-goers. Annoyed that he didn't think of it, he spends the rest of the night [2]

These characters appear in the book:[1]

• Nate Wright - The main protagonist.
• Francis Pope - Nate's highly intelligent best friend.
• Teddy Ortiz - Nate's comedic and jokester best friend.
• Artur Pashkov - Nate's nemesis and Jenny's boyfriend; a Belarusian exchange student, who is mild-mannered and unassuming, and without realizing, annoys Nate by his superiority at everything and his great luck. In the book, he is the "main antagonist" (on Nate's side, at least), as Nate is trying to win the grand prize (a new skateboard) on his scout troop and has to beat Artur (as he is sure Artur will win), by selling Warm Fuzzies door-to-door. Nate tries to sabotage Artur, by using many attempts that backfire (such as his attempt to get Artur to be attracted to Gina, which results in Artur muffling it up into Nate is attracted to Gina). Though in the end, Artur wins the second place prize (a telescope), and congratulates Nate on winning the skateboard.
• Chad Applewhite - One of Nate's friends; a chubby, red-haired, freckled boy. Like the previous books, he plays a minor role in the book.
• Marty Wright - Nate's divorced, middle-aged father.
• Ellen Wright - Nate's older sister.
• Gordie - Ellen's boyfriend. He works at the comics store, Klassic Komix, where Nate tried to sell his comic book, Nate's Komix Krack-Up, but was unsuccessful.
• Don Eustis - Nate's middle-aged bachelor neighbour, who owns the idiotic and pathetic dog, Spitsy. In the book, he plays a minor role; asking Nate to walk Spitsy, ending Nate in horrible pain.
• Spitsy - The moronic and pathetic pet dog of Nate's next-door neighbour, Mr. Eustis. In the book, like his owner, he plays a minor role, where Nate agrees to walk him, causing him serious pain.
• Jenny Jenkins - Nate's crush and Artur's girlfriend.
• Gina Hemphill-Toms - Nate's other nemesis who has a very high IQ and brags about it. Nate and Gina hate each other and they are both mad when Artur says that Nate has a crush on Gina.

The book has received positive acclaim. School Library Journal praised the book that the main character Nate "delivers what fans come to expect", and Kirkus Reviews called the book the "slickest of the series". As of September 2020, 95% of google users liked the book. The book website Goodreads.com rated it a 4.4/5. The online bookstore Barnes & Noble rated it 4.2/5. A critic from Common Sense Media said that it was "sure to entice reluctant readers with its funny blend of misadventures and comic-style art."[3][4]