Big Nate: Flips Out

Francis is annoyed that Nate is messy and calls him a slob. Nate then accuses Francis of having color coded underwear, and wedgies him. He describes to the readers about his friendship with Francis and his "neat" personality. Nate, Francis, and their friend Teddy are walking down the corridor to science class. Mr. Galvin hands out the marked homework assignments. He tells Nate that his homework is the messiest out of all the other students and that it must be rewritten with no sloppy handwriting, no food stains, and no cartoons.

Later, Nate and his friends go to the yearbook meeting, surprised to find that the official editor of the yearbook is Gina. Nate then nominates Francis as co-editor of the yearbook, Mrs. Hickson approves and Gina gets angry at Nate. Nate is soon told off by Mrs. Hickson for ruining a book he took out from the library. After that fallout, Francis is seen alphabetizing the yearbook portraits (whereas Nate's is the funniest).

Nate wants to take candids for the yearbook, so he and the guys find Mrs Godfrey for a camera, Francis collects it as Mrs. Godfrey would not approve of Nate having the camera, due to Nate's sloppiness, but Nate secret swears that if Francis borrows the camera, he won't get him into any trouble. (This follows up to a view of the friendship pact.)

In the yard, Randy snatches the camera and throws it in the air, but Nick catches it and though Nate proves it intact, Nick still gives him a lecture not to "play with" school property.

Nate plans to get an embarrassing photo of Gina after she puts up a poster of retake day, using Nate's hideous school picture. But when looking for the camera in his locker, he cannot find it. Francis accuses Nate of losing the camera, even though Nate insists that he didn't. Annoyed, Nate inadvertently reveals that Francis' middle name is "Butthurst" in front of the whole school, resulting in breaking a promise that Nate and Francis agreed on not to reveal Francis's middle name, and Randy bullying Francis about it and giving him nicknames for his middle name, like "Butt Hurts". Humiliated, Francis ends his friendship with Nate.

Afterwards, while Nate was drawing a cartoon before school, he thought that Randy Betancourt was the camera thief. Dee Dee came along and asked about Randy. She wanted to spy on him with Nate, much to Nate's dismay. On the way to school, Dee Dee questions about Nate usually walking to school with Francis instead of her. Nate says that he'll probably never walk to school with Francis again, But Dee Dee comments that all he needs to do is get the camera back and he'll be fine. Then Teddy came and when the trio went to their lockers they heard Francis and Mrs. Godfrey arguing about the camera.

Nate wants to be neat so he and Francis can be friends again, so he gets hypnotized by Teddy's uncle, Pedro, which he finds uncomfortable. Being neat gets him better grades, but stops him from doing his favorite hobbies.

During lunch, when Nate sees Randy bullying Francis about his middle name again, he loses his temper and attacks Randy. Nate almost wins the fight, but Mrs. Czerwicki intervenes and sends Nate to the principal's office. After a lecture from Principal Nichols, Nate meets with Francis and shows him his clean locker before finding the camera inside. Nick then comes by and laughingly confesses that he stole the camera, which Dee Dee records on her phone, resulting in Nick getting suspended for a week. At Dee Dee's encouragement, Nate and Francis reconcile. When Dee Dee points out to Nate that he is dirty due to his fight with Randy and that he doesn't care, Nate realizes that the fight with Randy un-hypnotized him.

A few days later, at the Trivia Slam, Nate takes the candids. Thanks to Nate's phobia of cats, Nate answers the winning question correctly, and Nate's team beats Gina's team. Francis talks to Nate and decides that he is better as a slob.

These characters appear in the book:

• Nate Wright - The main protagonist; a preadolescent boy, known for his large ego and sarcasm.
• Teddy Ortiz - Nate's #1A best friend, who is a jokester and known for his skill at Yo mama jokes. The book is less focused on him.
• Francis Pope - Nate's #1 best friend, who is known for his high intelligence. He breaks up with Nate in the book, he is bullied by Randy in the book.
• Chad Applewhite - Nate's trusty friend, makes a minor appearance in the book, a member of Nate's Triva Slam team.
• Dee Dee Holloway - Nate's friend, a member of the doodlers. In the book, she spies in Randy.
• Marty Wright - Nate's somewhat clueless father, who plays golf and is known to make horrible food.
• Gina Hemphill-Toms - Nate's overachiever nemesis. She is the captain of the Triva Slam team, "Gina's Geniuses".
• Randy Betancourt - One of Nate's other rivals; the school bully. In the book, he bullies Francis.
• Mrs. Clara Godfrey - Nate's ultimate nemesis; his social studies class teacher.
• Mrs. Clarke - Nate's English teacher, hosts the Trivia Slam.
• Mr. Staples - Nate's math teacher, in the book. He describes Nate's homework as the "Mona Lisa of bar graphs".
• Mr. Galvin - Nate's science teacher.
• Ellen Wright - Nate's older sister.
• Nick Blonsky - He makes his first major appearance as the main antagonist, stealing the camera in the book.
• Uncle Pedro - Teddy's uncle who hypnotizes people. He makes his first appearance in this book.

The book was rated 4.37 starts on Goodreads.[1] The whole series was listed 117 times in The New York Times Best Seller list, it included Big Nate: Flips Out, along with a few other books in the series at times.[2]