Nate the Great and the Missing Birthday Snake Read online

  Nate The Great

  and the

  Missing

  Birthday Snake

  Nate the great

  and the

  Missing

  Birthday Snake

  by Andrew Sharmat

  and Marjorie Weinman Sharmat

  illustrated by Jody Wheeler

  in the style of Marc Simont

  Delacorte Press

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Jody Wheeler would like to thank the families who helped

  Nate the Great on the road: the Phillips family and the Schnur family

  on Saratoga Lake, the Fisher family in Laguna, the Spensieri family, and

  Satish Kumar, the owner of the Robinhood Motel in Ballston Spa.

  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 © 2017 by Andrew Sharmat and Marjorie Weinman Sharmat

  Illustrations copyright © 2017 by Jody Wheeler

  Extra Fun Activities copyright © 2018 by Emily Costello

  Extra Fun Activities illustrations copyright © 2018 by Jody Wheeler

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Yearling,

  an imprint of Random House Children’s books, a division of Penguin Random

  House LLC, New York. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by

  Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, in 2017.

  New Illustrations of Nate the Great, Sludge, Rosamond,

  Annie, Claude, Harry, Fang, and the Hexes by Jody Wheeler

  based upon original drawings by Marc Simont.

  Yearling and the jumping horse design are registered trademarks of

  Penguin Random House LLC.

  Visit us on the Web! rhcbooks.com

  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.

  Hardcover ISBN 9781101934678 — Library Binding ISBN 9781101934692

  Trade Paperback ISBN 9781101934708 — Ebook ISBN 9781101934685

  Random House Children’s Books

  supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v4.1

  ld-am

  To Nathan and Madeline

  —A.S. and M.W.S.

  To cousins Ann, Arlene, Julie, and Anne

  —J.W.

  Chapter One

  An Invitation

  My name is Nate the Great.

  I am a detective.

  I have a dog named Sludge.

  He is a detective too.

  It was morning.

  We were in the kitchen.

  I was eating pancakes.

  Sludge was chewing on a bone.

  We heard scratching noises at the door.

  It sounded like a cat scratching.

  I opened the door.

  I saw Rosamond with her cat Super Hex.

  As always, Rosamond looked strange.

  So did Super Hex.

  Rosamond was pulling a wagon.

  Her other cats, Big Hex, Little Hex, and

  Plain Hex, were riding inside.

  The wagon looked like a birthday cake.

  Rosamond looked proud.

  “Aren’t you going to ask why my cats are

  in a wagon that looks like a birthday cake?”

  said Rosamond.

  I, Nate the Great, was not going to ask.

  Because then Rosamond would tell me.

  She told me anyway.

  “Sunday is my cousin Elizabeth’s birthday.

  She’s visiting. I’m having a party for her

  in my backyard.

  Here is your invitation.”

  I looked at the invitation.

  There was no writing on it.

  Just scratch marks.

  “Did one of your cats write the invitation?”

  I asked.

  “Little Hex did. Super Hex tried,

  but he kept ripping up the papers

  with his big claws.”

  That was more than I, Nate the Great,

  wanted to know.

  “So you’ll come?” Rosamond asked.

  “When is the party?” I said.

  Rosamond pointed to the invitation.

  “It says right here. Sunday at two o’clock.”

  I looked at the invitation.

  It didn’t say anything.

  Unless you knew how to read

  cat scratch marks.

  “Does your cousin have four cats, like you?”

  I asked.

  “She has no cats,” Rosamond said.

  I was glad about that.

  “She has four snakes,” she said.

  “Snakes?”

  “Ball pythons, actually.”

  “Pythons?”

  I, Nate the Great, suddenly remembered

  that I had many things to do on Sunday.

  Many, many things.

  I would not have time to attend a birthday

  party full of dangerous, slimy snakes.

  But I could not explain this to Rosamond.

  She and her cats were gone.

  They had more invitations to deliver.

  Chapter Two

  Raining Pythons

  Sunday was warm and cloudy.

  It looked like it might rain.

  I hoped that Rosamond would cancel

  her party.

  I had no cases to solve.

  That meant I had no excuses.

  Unless the party was rained out,

  I would have to go.

  The phone rang.

  It was Rosamond.

  “I have great news.

  The party is going on as planned.

  Rain or shine.

  I don’t want you to worry.”

  I, Nate the Great,

  was worried about a lot of things.

  I was worried that the pythons would be large.

  I was worried that they would have big fangs.

  And be out of their cages.

  I was worried that they would be hungry.

  And not for birthday cake.

  I was not worried that the party

  would be canceled.

  I wrote a note to my mother.

  Sludge and I walked to Rosamond’s house.

  It was raining hard now.

  Maybe the party would be canceled after all.

  We entered Rosamond’s backyard.

  Finally some good news.

  There was no sign of a party.

  I saw only Rosamond and someone

  I suspected was her cousin Elizabeth.

  And three really big, scary-looking snakes

  in three different cages.

  “I’m glad you and Sludge could make it

  to my cousin’s party,” said Rosamond.

  “Elizabeth, meet Nate the Great.”

  Elizabeth looked like Rosamond.

  She had the same long hair but red.

  They had on the same dress,

  but hers was white.

  Elizabeth also had the same strange look

  on her face.

  “Call me Lizzy,” she said.

  “Nate the Great, please meet my pet snakes.”

  I, Nate the Great, did not want to meet

  Lizzy’
s snakes.

  Sludge took a step back.

  He did not want to meet Lizzy’s snakes.

  “This is Super Chomp,” Lizzy said.

  She pointed to a large snake in a metal cage.

  “Then there’s Big Chomp, Little Chomp,

  and—”

  “Plain Chomp?” I said.

  “That’s a strange name for a snake,” Lizzy said.

  She pulled out a photograph.

  It was a picture of

  a snake riding on top

  of a car.

  The car was big.

  The snake was bigger.

  “His name is

  Ultra-Giant Goliath Chomp.

  I call him UGG Chomp for short,”

  Lizzy said.

  I looked at UGG Chomp.

  He wasn’t big.

  He was ultra-big.

  His teeth weren’t large.

  They were ultra-large.

  And he looked hungry.

  “Isn’t he beautiful?” Lizzy asked.

  “Beautiful” was not the word I had in mind.

  I changed the subject.

  “What is he doing on top of a car?” I asked.

  “It’s his favorite place,” Lizzy said.

  “He loves to ride around town.”

  I did not want to know the answer to my

  next question. I asked it anyway.

  “Where is UGG Chomp now?”

  “We can’t find him,” Lizzy said.

  “When it started to rain,

  we moved the party indoors.

  We brought all the food inside.

  Then we came back to check on the snakes.

  The three smaller ones were in their cages.”

  “Was UGG Chomp in his cage too?”

  I asked.

  “He doesn’t have a cage,” Lizzy said.

  “We couldn’t find one big enough.”

  “I’m not surprised,” I said.

  “We’re looking for UGG Chomp now,”

  Rosamond said.

  “Can you help us?”

  “I hope no one stole him,” Lizzy said.

  “He’s so sweet.

  Who wouldn’t want a wonderful pet

  like UGG Chomp?”

  I looked at the photograph again.

  I knew one thing.

  Nobody would ever steal Lizzy’s snake.

  But I might find clues if I talked to

  the party guests.

  “I need to go inside and talk to your guests,”

  I said.

  I stepped toward the back door.

  I noticed a thin layer of sugar on the ground.

  It was everywhere.

  Messy party, I thought.

  I jumped over the sugar.

  I was not going to be a messy detective.

  The party guests were in the kitchen.

  I saw Claude, Pip, and Oliver.

  There was a table with a birthday cake,

  cookies, chips, a nearly empty bowl of sugar,

  and a large jug of water.

  Claude was stirring a pitcher of lemonade.

  Annie was playing with her dog, Fang.

  Pip and Oliver were playing a board game.

  “Hello,” I said.

  “I’m trying to find Lizzy’s pet snake.”

  “We’re not trying to find Lizzy’s snake,”

  Pip said. “As long as that monster is outside,

  it’s safe inside.”

  He pointed to a corner.

  Rosamond’s four cats were huddled together.

  “Even they are afraid to be outside,” he said.

  “When was the last time anyone saw

  UGG Chomp?” I asked.

  “Right before the rain started,” Annie said.

  “He was in the back corner of the yard

  hissing at Fang.

  Fang was barking at him.

  Then Fang lunged.

  He knocked over a pitcher and spilled water

  all over his new T-shirt.”

  “Fang’s not wearing a T-shirt,” I said.

  “Rosamond took if off.

  She put it in the dryer in the basement,”

  Annie said.

  “Then the rain started, and we

  brought everything inside,”

  Claude said.

  “I brought in the sugar,” Oliver said.

  “Well, some of it.

  I tripped on the top step

  and dropped a pile of it on the porch.

  I was the last person to come in.”

  Chapter Three

  UGG Chomp! Where Are You?

  There didn’t seem to be any clues.

  I would have to wait.

  I would go outside.

  I would listen for the sound

  of someone screaming.

  That would tell me where Lizzy’s snake was.

  But that would not be a good way

  to solve the case.

  I had to find UGG Chomp before

  UGG Chomp found someone else.

  Then I remembered Lizzy’s car.

  It was UGG Chomp’s favorite place.

  Maybe he’d gone looking for it.

  I went out to the street.

  There was no sign of Lizzy’s car.

  Lizzy’s mother must have dropped her

  and her snakes off at the party

  and then driven away.

  But UGG Chomp would not know

  that the car was gone.

  Maybe he’d come back to the street

  to look for it.

  Then what?

  If he’d returned to the yard,

  someone would have seen him.

  If he’d slithered out onto the street,

  we would have heard screaming

  and police sirens by now.

  I, Nate the Great,

  decided that the street was

  not the best place to look for clues.

  I went back to the yard.

  I walked over to the corner of the yard

  where UGG Chomp had last been seen.

  There were several large holes.

  UGG Chomp had been busy.

  Busy digging.

  I, Nate the Great, knew one thing.

  I was not going to look in any of the holes.

  “Did you find him?” Lizzy asked.

  “No,” I said.

  Lizzy noticed the holes too.

  “He could be in any one of those,” she said.

  “UGG Chomp! Where are you?” she called.

  I, Nate the Great, did not know

  much about snakes.

  But I knew that calling a snake’s name

  definitely would not work.

  I walked around the yard.

  Behind the yard was a large field

  with tall grass.

  It was the perfect place for a snake to hide.

  “We need to search the field,” I said.

  “Snakes love tall grass.”

  Chapter Four

  Snake Eyes

  Sludge and I went out to the field.

  The other party guests followed.

  It was still raining.

  The field was big.

  The grass was tall.

  The field was filled with buggy things with wings.

  Flies, fleas, bees, mosquitoes, gnats, wasps,

  hornets, and a big flying thing that looked

  like a small bird.

  I, Nate the Great,

  was hoping that the big flying thing

  that looked like a bird was a bird.

  I also hoped we would find

  UGG Chomp quickly.

  We searched and searched.

  We found many, many things.

  Old toys, tires, books, candy wrappers,

  and orange peels.

  But we did not find UGG Chomp.

  “Ouch!” Rosamond yelled. “I think

  a mosquito bit me.”
r />   “I think I was bit by a flea,” Pip said.

  “I was just bit by something that looked

  like a small bird,” Oliver said.

  “The only thing we’ve done out here

  is feed the insects,” I said.

  Then Claude shouted from across the field.

  “I did it! I solved the case!”

  I ran to where I heard Claude’s voice.

  The other party guests followed me.

  The insects followed the party guests.

  Claude pointed to a swampy stream.

  There were branches in the water.

  There was also mud.

  And leaves.

  And hiding inside the leaves . . .

  two shining eyes!

  Chapter Five

  How Not to Scare a Snake

  “

  Claude, you did it!” Lizzy shouted.

  “You’re a detective.

  You are Claude the Great.”

  “Not really,” Claude said.

  “I was looking for a dollar I’d lost.

  I thought it fell into the water.

  When I looked down,

  I saw two eyes looking up at me.”

  Claude was always losing things.

  But this time, he had found something.

  He had found Lizzy’s snake.

  “The snake is buried under the leaves

  and mud,” I said. “We need to get it out.”

  “Maybe we could get him to come out if we

  had some kind of bait,” Annie said.

  “Pancakes,” I said.

  “Snakes don’t eat pancakes,” Lizzy said.

  “No,” I said. “But I do.

  They help me think.

  It’s hard to be a detective

  when you’re hungry.”

  “I have an idea,” Annie said.