Nate the Great and the Fishy Prize
Page 1
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 © 1985 by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
Cover art and illustrations copyright © 1985 by Marc Simont
Extra Fun Activities text copyright © 2004 by Emily Costello
Extra Fun Activities illustrations copyright © 2004 by Jody Wheeler
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York. Reprinted by arrangement with the Putnam Publishing Group, Inc., on behalf of Coward-McCann, Inc., New York.
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: 978-0-385-37687-7
Trade paperback ISBN: 978-0-440-40039-4
Book design by Trish Parcell
Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
v3.1
for my father, Nathan “Nate” Weinman,
who inspired this series,
and who was in every way
Nate the Great
Contents
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
First Page
Extra Fun Activities
About the Authors
I, Nate the Great,
am a detective.
I solve important cases.
I do important things.
This morning I was doing something
very important.
I was at the supermarket
buying dog shampoo
for my dog, Sludge.
Today Sludge was going to be
in a contest in the park
to choose the smartest pet
in the neighborhood.
I, Nate the Great, knew that
Sludge was the smartest.
And the dirtiest.
I wanted Sludge to be a clean winner.
I bought dog shampoo,
and flour, eggs, butter, milk,
salt, sugar, and baking powder
to make pancakes.
I like pancakes.
I bought so many things
that the grocery bag bulged open.
I put the bag in the basket
on the back of my new bicycle
and started to ride home.
I rode past Rosamond’s house.
Strange noises
were coming from inside her house.
I wondered what was happening.
But I kept my eyes straight ahead
to see where I was going.
Besides, strange noises
were the right kind of noises
to come from Rosamond’s house.
Because Rosamond is strange.
When I got home,
Sludge was waiting for me.
“I bought you some shampoo,”
I said.
Sludge did not think
that was good news.
Sludge hates baths.
I put the grocery bag on the floor.
Before I could unpack it,
the telephone rang.
Rosamond was calling me.
She said, “I am in charge
of making the prize
for the Smartest Pet Contest.”
“I know that,” I said.
I, Nate the Great,
hated to think
what the prize would be.
“Well, I made the prize,
but it disappeared,” Rosamond said.
“What was it?” I asked.
“It was an empty tuna fish can
with the word SMARTEST
hand-painted on it
in big gold letters,”
Rosamond said.
“Any pet would love to have it.
But now it’s gone.”
“You will have to make
another prize,” I said.
“It’s too late,” Rosamond said.
“The contest starts in an hour.
Will you look for the tuna fish can?”
“I have to get Sludge ready
for the contest,” I said.
“But there won’t be a contest
unless you find the prize,”
Rosamond said.
I looked at Sludge.
He looked smart.
There had to be a contest.
“I, Nate the Great,
will take your case,” I said.
“Sludge and I
will be right over.”
I hung up.
I said to Sludge,
“We must look for a tuna fish can.
There is no time
to give you a bath.”
Sludge thought
that was good news.
I wrote a quick note to my mother.
Sludge and I rushed to Rosamond’s house.
There was no time to say hello.
“Show me where the prize was,”
I said.
Rosamond took me to her room.
It smelled fishy.
And there were things knocked over.
And things upside down.
And things all over the floor.
It was a mess.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Everyone came with their pets
to sign up for the contest,”
Rosamond said.
“An
nie came with Fang.
Pip came with his parrot.
Finley came with his rat.
Oliver came with his favorite eel.
Claude came with a pig.
And Esmeralda came by herself.
She doesn’t have any pets,
so she is going to be the judge.
Well, Fang ran after Claude’s pig.
The pig ran after my four cats.
My cats ran after the rat.
Pip’s parrot got all excited
and flew around and around.
Even Oliver’s eel got excited.
They barked and squawked
and oinked and all sorts of things,
and they messed up my whole room.”
“Yes, I, Nate the Great,
heard all the strange noises
when I rode by on my bicycle.
But where was the tuna fish can
when all of this was going on?”
“I had opened the window
and put the can on the sill
so the gold paint could dry
in the air,” Rosamond said.
“When did you notice
that the can was gone?” I asked.
“Right after the stampede,” Rosamond said.
“Everyone left,
and I started to clean up the room.
That’s when I saw
that the prize was gone.
I looked all over the room for it.”
“I will look again,” I said.
“It could be somewhere in this mess.
It must have been knocked off
the windowsill.
Then perhaps one of those pets
who’s supposed to be so smart
pushed or pulled
or dragged or kicked it.”
“My cats are smart,” Rosamond said.
“They are all going to win first prize.”
Rosamond’s cats could win first prize
for being strange.
I, Nate the Great, looked around the room.
“Did you paint the can in this room?”
I asked.
“No,” Rosamond said.
“Good. I am looking for smudges
of gold paint. They might be a clue
to where the can went.
But if you had painted in this room,
you could have left smudges.”
“I don’t smudge,” Rosamond said.
I, Nate the Great, went to the windowsill.
If I could find smudges of gold paint
inside the sill
or outside the sill,
I would know whether the can
went inside or outside.
But the can
had not left any clues behind.
Sludge was sniffing. And sniffing.
I asked Rosamond,
“Did you wash the tuna fish can
before you made it into a prize?”
“Sort of,” Rosamond said.
“Sort of?” I said.
“How do you sort of wash
a tuna fish can?”
“My cats licked it,” Rosamond said.
“They do a good job.
They love tuna fish.”
“But they don’t use soap,” I said.
“That means the prize
may still smell fishy.
That is a clue.”
I turned to Sludge.
“Fishy smell,” I said.
Sludge and I could not find
the can in Rosamond’s room.
“The can is not here,” I said.
“Perhaps it went out the window.”
Sludge and I rushed outside.
We looked around.
There was no tuna fish can.
There were no smudges of gold paint.
There was nothing but a sidewalk.
We walked back and forth.
Perhaps the can had been
pushed or pulled
or dragged or kicked up the street
or down the street.
But we could not find anything.
We went back inside.
“This is a very fishy case,”
I said to Rosamond.
“The can was on the windowsill.
So it had to be knocked
inside the house
or outside the house.
But it isn’t inside and it isn’t outside.”
“Maybe someone took the can on purpose,”
Rosamond said.
I, Nate the Great, did not want
to tell Rosamond that no one
would take her tuna fish can on purpose.
That it was the dumbest prize
for the Smartest contest.
“I will have to speak to everyone
who was in this room,” I said.
“Perhaps someone saw what happened
to the tuna fish can.”
Sludge and I rushed to Claude’s house.
Claude was there with a pig.
Claude is always losing things.
I was glad
he had not lost the pig.
Claude was brushing the pig’s bristles
while she ate a big pile of food.
“I am getting Anastasia ready
for the Smartest Pet Contest,” Claude said.
Anastasia oinked.
I watched her eat.
The food was disappearing fast.
I was thinking.…
The tuna fish can had completely disappeared.
Maybe it had disappeared inside something.
One way to make something disappear
is to eat it.
I, Nate the Great, spoke up.
“Pigs are supposed to eat like pigs.
Would Anastasia eat a tin can?”
“I don’t know,” Claude said.
“She’s not my pig. She lives on a farm,
and I borrowed her for the contest.
But I keep losing her.
She finds her way back to me.
She’s smart. That’s why
she is going to win the contest.”
Anastasia oinked again.
“May I open Anastasia’s mouth?”
I asked.
“If you really want to,” Claude said.
I, Nate the Great, did not really
want to open Anastasia’s mouth.
But I had a case to solve.
I had a job to do.
Slowly I opened her mouth.
Quickly I closed her mouth.
“Anastasia did not eat
the tuna fish can,” I said.
“How do you know?” Claude asked.
“Because the gold paint on the can
was wet. Anastasia would have
a gold mouth if she ate the can.
Tell me, did you see the can
on Rosamond’s windowsill?”
“I saw it and I didn’t see it,”
Claude said.
“That is an interesting answer,”
I said. “I, Nate the Great, say
that is an interesting answer.”
“Well, I saw the can on the windowsill
just before everyone started to run around,”
Claude said.
“When it was all over,
I didn’t see the can anymore.”
“That is an old clue,” I said.
“I already know that the can disappeared
during the animal stampede.
I, Nate the Great, need a new clue.
And I need it fast.”
Sludge and I left.
I was sorry I had seen Anastasia.
She made me feel very hungry.
I wished I had time to go home
and make pancakes with the things
I had bought at the supermarket.
But I hadn’t even had time
to unpack them.
And I knew there was not enough time left
to talk to everyone else
who had been in Rosamond’s room.
Annie, Oliver, Pip,
Finley, and Esmeralda were left.
I decided to go to Esmeralda’s house.
I had two reasons.
Esmeralda is smart.
Esmeralda does not have a pet.
Perhaps she had a chance to see something
when everyone was busy
with their pets.
Esmeralda was sitting quietly
outside on her steps.
She did not have anybody
to wash or brush or feed or brag about.
I said, “I am looking for the tuna fish can
that was on Rosamond’s windowsill.
Did you see it?”
“Yes,” Esmeralda said. “I saw it
before everything went wild.
Fang was standing under it.”
“Fang?” I said. “Tell me,
which way was he facing?”
“He was standing with his right side
next to the window,” Esmeralda said.
“His fangs were showing,
and his tail
was swooshing back and forth.”
I, Nate the Great, was thinking.
This was a new clue.
But did it mean anything?
Suddenly I knew that it was important.
Sludge and I
rushed to Annie’s house.
She was giving Fang a bath.
He was sitting in the bathtub
all soapy and foamy.
And fangy.
“I am getting Fang ready for the contest,”
Annie said. “Everyone knows he is pretty.
Now they will find out he is smart.”
I, Nate the Great,
already knew more about Fang
than I wanted to know.
Annie started to scrub Fang’s tail.
“Stop!” I yelled.
“Fang may be wearing a clue.”
“Fang isn’t wearing anything,”
Annie said.
I, Nate the Great, got close to Fang.
I did not want to do that.
But I had to see his tail.
I was glad the clue
was on that end of him.