READ ALL THESE
NATE THE GREAT DETECTIVE STORIES
NATE THE GREAT
NATE THE GREAT GOES UNDERCOVER
NATE THE GREAT AND THE LOST LIST
NATE THE GREAT AND THE PHONY CLUE
NATE THE GREAT AND THE STICKY CASE
NATE THE GREAT AND THE MISSING KEY
NATE THE GREAT AND THE SNOWY TRAIL
NATE THE GREAT AND THE FISHY PRIZE
NATE THE GREAT STALKS STUPIDWEED
NATE THE GREAT AND THE BORING BEACH BAG
NATE THE GREAT GOES DOWN IN THE DUMPS
NATE THE GREAT AND THE HALLOWEEN HUNT
NATE THE GREAT AND THE MUSICAL NOTE
NATE THE GREAT AND THE STOLEN BASE
NATE THE GREAT AND THE PILLOWCASE
NATE THE GREAT AND THE MUSHY VALENTINE
NATE THE GREAT AND THE TARDY TORTOISE
NATE THE GREAT AND THE CRUNCHY CHRISTMAS
NATE THE GREAT SAVES THE KING OF SWEDEN
NATE THE GREAT AND ME: THE CASE OF THE FLEEING FANG
NATE THE GREAT AND THE MONSTER MESS
NATE THE GREAT, SAN FRANCISCO DETECTIVE
NATE THE GREAT AND THE BIG SNIFF
NATE THE GREAT ON THE OWL EXPRESS
NATE THE GREAT TALKS TURKEY
NATE THE GREAT AND THE HUNGRY BOOK CLUB
AND CONTINUE THE DETECTIVE FUN WITH
OLIVIA SHARP
by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and Mitchell Sharmat
illustrated by Denise Brunkus
OLIVIA SHARP: THE PIZZA MONSTER
OLIVIA SHARP: THE PRINCESS OF THE FILLMORE STREET SCHOOL
OLIVIA SHARP: THE SLY SPY
OLIVIA SHARP: THE GREEN TOENAILS GANG
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 1977 by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
Cover and interior illustrations copyright © 1977 by Marc Simont
Extra Fun Activities text copyright © 2007 by Emily Costello
Extra Fun Activities illustrations copyright © 2007 by Jody Wheeler
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House LLC, New York, a Penguin Random House Company. Originally published in paperback in the United States by Delacorte Press in 1982.
Reprinted by arrangement with Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc.
Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Random House LLC.
Visit us on the Web! randomhouse.com/kids
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
eBook ISBN: 978-0-385-37682-2 — Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-0-440-46300-9
Book design by Trish Parcell
Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
v3.1
For 133 Dartmouth Street
Contents
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
First Page
Extra Fun Activities
About the Author
I, Nate the Great,
am a great detective.
I have just solved a big case.
It did not look
like a big case when
it started this morning.
My dog, Sludge, and I
were running
around the block
for exercise.
We ran past Annie
and her dog, Fang.
We ran past Rosamond
and three of her cats.
We ran past Finley
and his friend Pip.
We ran home.
I saw a piece of paper
on my doorstep.
I picked it up.
It was thin paper.
VITA was printed in ink on it.
The paper was torn off
around VITA.
What did it mean?
I got my dictionary.
I looked up “vita.”
I found that “vita” could be
the start of a word.
“Vita” could be the start of
“vitamin” A, B1, B2, B6, B12,
C, D, E, G, H, K, or P.
Or “vita” could be the middle
or end of a word.
It could even be
part of a long message.
The mystery got bigger
as I thought about it.
I, Nate the Great, knew
there was a missing piece or pieces
of the paper.
Who or what had torn them?
I let Sludge
sniff the piece of paper.
“We will look for the pieces,”
I said.
I, Nate the Great, thought.
Who or what tears paper?
Of course! Rosamond’s cats.
Four cats. Sixteen claws.
Sixteen claws could tear
a lot.
I wrote a note to my mother.
Then I tore it into pieces.
Then I fitted the pieces
back together.
I put a pancake in my pocket.
Then Sludge and I went
to Rosamond’s house.
Rosamond was outside
with three of her cats.
Rosamond looked strange.
But she always looks strange.
“Hello,” I said. “Did you
leave a note on my doorstep
this morning?
Did your cats tear it?”
“No,” Rosamond said. “I did not
leave a note on your doorstep.”
I looked at her cats.
They looked strange, too.
“My cats have been with me
all morning,” Rosamond said.
“Except Big Hex. Big Hex
spent the morning
in his favorite tree.”
“Big Hex tears paper,” I said.
“Yes,” Rosamond said.
“Big Hex tears, rips,
scratches, shreds, cuts,
slits, and slashes.”
“I see,” I said.
“Did Big Hex tear,
rip, scratch, shred, cut,
slit, or slash
a piece of paper today?”
“Ask him,” Rosamond said.
I looked up.
I saw Big Hex
sitting on a branch
of the tree.
I, Nate the Great,
was in luck.
I saw a piece of paper
stuck on a twig
close to Big Hex.
Too close.
I reached into my pocket
and pulled out the pancake.
I threw it on the ground.
Big Hex jumped down and started
to eat the pancake.
I reached up and grabbed
the piece of paper.
Now I had two pieces.
I put them together.
“They fit!” I said.
“It is a message. Look.
Now the paper says
INVITATION
COME TO MY HOUSE AT THREE.
‘Vita’ was part of ‘invitation.’ ”
“You solved the case,”
Rosamond said.
“No,” I said. “There is still a
missing piece with a name on it.”
“What name?” Rosamond asked.
“The name of the person who
wrote the invitation,” I said.
“I, Nate the Great,
will find the missing piece.
I will find it before three.”
I started to leave.
“Wait,” Rosamond said.
“Big Hex wants to thank you
for the pancake.”
“How does Big Hex thank?”
I asked.
“With a kiss,” Rosamond said.
I, Nate the Great, did not
want to be kissed by anyone
who tears, rips, scratches,
shreds, cuts,
slits, and slashes.
“No thanks for the thanks,”
I said.
Sludge and I ran home.
It was time for lunch.
I made some pancakes.
I gave Sludge a bone.
We ate and thought.
Where was the missing piece
with the name on it?
I, Nate the Great, had to know
by three o’clock.
Sludge and I started out again.
I saw Annie and her dog, Fang,
coming down the street.
They were with Finley and Pip.
Pip does not say much.
Finley says too much.
“I, Nate the Great, am looking
for a piece of paper
with a name on it,” I said.
“Why are you great?” Finley asked.
“I solve cases,” I said.
“I find and I find out.”
“Why don’t you find the piece
of paper?” Finley asked.
“Nate the Great will find it,”
Annie said.
“Ha!” Finley said.
“Maybe he’s great;
maybe he’s not.”
Pip said nothing.
Finley and Pip walked away.
Sludge turned and followed them.
I turned and followed Sludge.
Annie and Fang turned
and followed me.
I saw Finley drop a piece
of paper into the sewer
and walk away.
I looked into the sewer.
I did not like
the way it looked.
But the paper was there.
It could be the missing piece.
How could I get the paper out?
I, Nate the Great, needed
something long and sharp.
I saw something long and sharp
beside me.
Fang’s teeth.
Then I had another idea.
I looked down
at the paper again.
It looked blank.
“The print must be on the side
that is facing down,” I said.
“We must wait.”
“Wait for what?” Annie asked.
“Wait for the water in the sewer
to make the paper very wet.
The invitation is printed
in ink on thin paper.
When paper is thin and
the printing on it is dark,
water can make the printing
show on the other side.
Then we can read the name.”
“But won’t the printing
look backward?” Annie asked.
“Yes, but nothing is perfect.
I, Nate the Great, say that
nothing is perfect.”
The paper was getting
wetter and wetter.
I saw some printing on it.
I saw…
“Phony clue!” I said.
I, Nate the Great, was mad.
I had never had
a phony clue before.
I did not know what to do.
I could not find the missing piece.
I looked at the pieces in my hand.
I, Nate the Great, thought.
Then I said, “I am looking
at what I have.
Perhaps I should look
at what I do not have.”
“How can you do that,”
Annie asked,
“when you do not have it?”
“Look!” I said. “When I put
the two pieces together,
the empty space that is left
is shaped like a boat.
So the missing piece
is shaped like a boat.
I, Nate the Great, will
look for a paper boat.”
“What if you can’t find it
before three o’clock?”
Annie asked.
“Then I am sunk,” I said.
Sludge and I walked and thought.
I, Nate the Great,
had seen a boat today.
But where?
It was not
on the Atlantic Ocean.
It was not
on the Pacific Ocean.
It was on a paper ocean.
Sludge and I ran
to the paper ocean.
The paper boat was there.
I fitted my pieces
of the invitation
around it.
Aha! They fit. The paper boat
was the missing piece.
The paper boat was … blank.
It did not tell me anything.
Or did it?
Now I knew that someone
wrote an invitation to me
and did not sign it.
The same someone tore
the invitation into pieces
and left one piece
on my doorstep
and put one piece in the tree
and pasted one piece
on the paper ocean.
Someone did not think that
I, Nate the Great, could find out
who the someone was.
Someone was testing me.
I looked at the paper boat
on the paper water.
Hmmm. Paper and water.
I had just seen paper in water.
The phony clue in the sewer.
I, Nate the Great, had an idea.
Sludge and I ran home.
I filled my sink with water.
I took the two pieces
of the invitation
and turned them over
and put them in the water.
Now the printing on them
was wet and backward.
I, Nate the Great, looked
at the printing.
There was that funny E again.
The printing was the same
as the printing on the “phony clue.”
I, Nate the Great,
knew the case was solved.
It was not yet three o’clock.
This was an invitation
I wanted to answer exactly on time.
Sludge and I
ran around the block
and around the block
until it was three o’clock.
Then we went to Finley’s house.
Finley was with Pip.
Pip did not say anything.
“It is three o’clock,” I said.
“And I, Nate the Great, am here.
I have answered
your invitation, Finley.”
Finley gulped.
“I, Nate the Great, say
there is no such thing
as a phony clue.
The printing on your phony clue
is the same as the printing
on the invitation.
You wrote the invitation.
You tore it into pieces.”
Finley gulped again.
Pip opened his mouth.
/> At last he had
something to say.
“I win!” he said. “I told
Finley that you would
solve the case
by three o’clock.”
“I lose,” Finley said.
“You are a great detective.”
“Thank you,” I said.
I, Nate the Great, felt great.
I was glad the case was over.
Sludge and I started to run.
We ran past Annie and Fang.
“I solved the case!” I said.
“I knew you would!” Annie said.
Annie and Fang started to run
beside us.
We all ran home
for pancakes
and bones.
Nate’s Notes: Paper
Nate’s Notes: Ink
How to Make a Phony Log Cake
Funny Pages
How to Send Secret Messages
How to Make Paper
More Funny Pages
Looks like a log. Tastes like a cake. It’s a cake in disguise.
Ask an adult to help you with this recipe.
GET TOGETHER:
• one pint of cold whipping cream
• a mixing bowl
• an electric mixer
• ½ cup of powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• one package of round wafer cookies
• a spreading knife
• a large plate
• a fork
• ¼ cup of sweetened cocoa powder (like Nestlé’s Quik)
• a sifter
• about 12 Hershey’s Kisses
• about 12 mini-marshmallows
• 1 tablespoon of creamy peanut butter or Nutella or Marshmallow Fluff
MAKE YOUR PHONY LOG CAKE:
STEP ONE: Make the Whipped Cream.
1. Pour the whipping cream into the bowl.
2. Turn the mixer on to medium. Beat the cream until it is stiff. This should take about two minutes.*
3. Turn the electric mixer down to low. Mix the sugar and vanilla into the cream.
Nate the Great and the Phony Clue Page 1