Nate the Great, Where Are You? Read online

  Praise for the

  series

  ★ “Kids will like Nate the Great.”

  —School Library Journal, Starred

  “A consistently entertaining series.”

  —Booklist

  “Nate, Sludge, and all their friends have been delighting beginning readers for years.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “They don’t come any cooler than Nate the Great.”

  —The Huffington Post

  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 © 2014 by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and Mitchell Sharmat

  New illustrations of Nate the Great, Sludge, Rosamond, Annie, Claude, Harry, Fang, and the Hexes by Jody Wheeler based upon the original drawings by Marc Simont. All other images copyright © 2014 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, New York, in 2014.

  Yearling and the jumping horse design are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Visit us on the Web! randomhousekids.com

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition of this work as follows: Sharmat, Marjorie Weinman, author.

  Nate the Great, where are you? / by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and Mitchell Sharmat; illustrated by Jody Wheeler in the style of Marc Simont. — First edition.

  pages cm

  Summary: “Nate the Great and his dog, Sludge, would like to take a break from detective work, but new cases—cases they do not want—await them” —Provided by publisher.

  ISBN 978-0-385-74336-5 (hardback) — ISBN 978-0-375-99109-7 (glb) — ISBN 978-0-449-81077-4 (ebook) [1. Mystery and detective stories. 2. Dogs—Fiction.]

  I. Sharmat, Mitchell, author. II. Wheeler, Jody, illustrator.

  III. Simont, Marc, illustrator. IV. Title.

  PZ7.S5299Naz 2014

  [Fic]—dc23

  2013028764

  ISBN 978-0-449-81078-1 (pbk.)

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v4.1i

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  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter One: Too Many Cases

  Chapter Two: The Perfect Disguise

  Chapter Three: Out of Sight

  Chapter Four: Found!

  Chapter Five: Where Is the Walking Turnip?

  Chapter Six: Happy Endings

  Chapter Seven: The Walking Turnip Is Found!

  Chapter Eight: Forever Great

  Extra Fun Activities

  Learning with Nate

  About the Authors

  Chapter One

  My name is Nate the Great.

  I am a detective.

  My dog, Sludge, is a detective too.

  We have been together

  for a long time.

  We have been eating pancakes and bones

  and solving cases together.

  Sludge wasn’t on my first case.

  But he has been with me

  on all my cases

  since the day I found him in a field.

  Sometimes we have too many cases.

  Today I was eating pancakes.

  Sludge was crunching a bone.

  “Eating is the best part of the day,” I said.

  “Today we have five cases I do not want.

  And you do not want.

  Listen!”

  Sludge’s ears pricked up.

  “First case,” I said.

  “Rosamond asked me

  to find her missing turnip.

  She said it ran away.

  Second case: Annie said

  she couldn’t find Fang’s

  special dog toothpaste.

  ‘It makes Fang’s teeth look

  big and shiny and hungry,’

  she said.

  Third case: Claude, who is

  always losing things, just

  told me that he won’t

  have anything special

  to find today.

  ‘You are a great detective,’

  Claude said.

  ‘Find me something great to find.

  Something really, really special.’

  Fourth case…”

  Sludge looked bored.

  “Too many cases,” I said.

  “And Rosamond, Annie,

  Fang, Claude, and Harry

  are all after us,” I said.

  “We must escape.”

  I wrote a note to my mother.

  Sludge and I walked out the back door.

  “We are going to the Disguises for

  Detectives store,” I said.

  “We will walk fast.”

  Chapter Two

  Soon we were at the store.

  “I am Nate the Great.

  I am a detective,” I said to the man

  behind the counter.

  “Today I have five cases.

  Today I don’t want to look like

  Nate the Great.

  Sludge here is also a detective.”

  “He looks like a dog,” the man said.

  “I agree. But don’t you have

  disguises for dog detectives?”

  “Well, I have this soft scarf

  with three fluffy tails.

  It will be a fine disguise for your dog.

  Here, I’ll put it on him.”

  Sludge was excited.

  He wagged his four tails.

  Then he bit the three fluffy ones.

  “I might possibly be able

  to make him look like a cat,”

  the man said.

  Sludge bit again.

  “Do you have anything for me?”

  I asked.

  The man brought out a costume.

  “You will be from Mars,” he said.

  “I, Nate the Great, say that Mars

  is not in my neighborhood.

  Neither is a four-tailed dog.

  We would be noticed right away.”

  The man suddenly smiled.

  “Wait,” he said.

  “I have something perfect.

  Trees are in our neighborhood.

  I have a new tree costume for you.

  And your dog detective

  would look fine as a bush.

  And green is such a lovely color.

  You and your dog were meant for green.”

  Sludge sniffed and sniffed the bush costume.

  Was he trying to tell me something?

  Did he think he should be a bush?

  Sludge is not prickly.

  Sludge is not shedding leaves.

  “Thank you anyway,” I said to the man.

  “We’ll be back for Halloween.”

  Chapter Three

  “Let’s take a walk in the woods,”

  I said to Sludge.

  We rushed into the woods

  and found a bench

  that was surrounded

  by bushes and trees and flowers.

  “Nobody can see us here,” I said.

  Sludge wagged his one and only tail.

  He was happy.

  “It�
��s nice and quiet, too,” I said.

  “This will be a perfect day.”

  Suddenly we heard a loud voice.

  A strange loud voice.

  “NATE THE GREAT, WHERE ARE YOU?”

  Rosamond was calling.

  Rosamond has a strange voice.

  Rosamond has a strange everything.

  Then I heard more voices.

  “NATE THE GREAT, WHERE ARE YOU?”

  “NATE THE GREAT, WHERE ARE YOU?”

  “NATE THE GREAT, WHERE ARE YOU?”

  “NATE THE GREAT, WHERE ARE YOU?”

  Suddenly I wished that I were from Mars

  and that Sludge had four tails.

  Too late now.

  But not too late to go deep

  into the woods!

  Chapter Four

  “I’m not sure where we are,”

  I said to Sludge.

  “But neither are the people

  who are looking for us.”

  Sludge wagged his tail.

  Sludge was a great detective.

  He had been trying to tell me something.

  He had wanted to be a bush.

  If he had been a bush

  and I had been a tree,

  we could have easily mixed in with

  the real bushes and trees.

  But now we had gone deep into the woods

  and everybody thought we were lost.

  I heard a voice.

  Rosamond was talking.

  “I will send out a search team of my cats.”

  I, Nate the Great, did not like to hear that.

  Rosamond’s cats are the Hexes:

  Plain Hex, Little Hex, Big Hex,

  and Super Hex.

  I hoped they were not hungry.

  Claude spoke up.

  “I could find Nate if I wanted to,”

  he said.

  “But today I am not looking

  for Nate or Sludge.

  I am looking for something special.”

  Hmmm, I wondered.

  Sludge was not wondering.

  He was busy sniffing.

  He started to walk.

  He looked back at me.

  “You are a better sniffer than I am,”

  I said.

  “I’ll follow you, Sludge.”

  Sludge and I zigzagged our way

  back to the bench.

  Rosamond, Annie, Fang, Claude,

  and Harry were waiting.

  Rosamond said,

  “Nate the Great,

  you found yourself.

  What a great detective you are.”

  “No. Sludge is the great detective,”

  I said.

  “Sludge found us.

  He sniffed his way to success.”

  Sludge licked me.

  We sat down on the bench.

  It felt good.

  Rosamond, Annie, Fang, Claude,

  and Harry walked up to the bench.

  “We all have cases to solve,” Rosamond said.

  “I solved Claude’s case,” I said.

  “Just now he found Sludge and me.”

  Claude stared at me. He was mad.

  “You did not solve my case,” he said.

  “I can find Nate the Great

  and Sludge every day.

  And now I’ve found them,

  but so what? You are not special.”

  Annie spoke up.

  “My case was the first one,”

  she said. “Fang’s missing toothpaste.

  I rubbed the toothpaste

  on his teeth two days ago.

  I pressed the tube with my finger

  and out came the paste. Very easy.”

  “How long do Fang’s teeth stay shiny?”

  I asked.

  “Just a few hours,” Annie said.

  “Very well,” I said.

  “Let me see Fang’s teeth.”

  Why did I, Nate the Great, say that?

  Now I had to look at Fang’s teeth.

  “They look very shiny,” I said.

  “How can that be?” I turned to Annie.

  “Did Fang like what you did?”

  “I don’t know,” Annie said.

  “Fang never looks in the mirror.”

  “Where did you last see

  the toothpaste tube?” I asked.

  “On the bathroom counter. Easy to reach.

  Someone must have taken it.”

  I stood up. “Is anyone here brave enough

  to clean Fang’s teeth?”

  Silence.

  I, Nate the Great, was not surprised.

  “Here is what happened,” I said.

  “Easy to reach? Well, big Fang could

  easily have stood up

  and knocked the toothpaste tube

  off the counter.

  Then he had a good time.

  He easily pressed on the tube with his claws.

  The paste came out.

  Fang easily got his teeth into the toothpaste.

  Fang has a shiny smile.

  End of case.

  I, Nate the Great, say

  you will find the toothpaste tube

  wherever Fang collects his toys.”

  Harry raised his hand.

  “Can you take my case next?

  I’m really scared.

  A creature with four tails

  ran by me the other day.

  It was weird.

  It was even wearing a scarf.

  I looked in the library

  and school for an answer.

  But I can’t find one.

  Four tails. That’s a lot.”

  “Good for you, Harry,” I said.

  “Looking for information

  in a library and school.

  Well, I, Nate the Great,

  can solve your case right now.

  But it’s better for you

  to see the evidence yourself.

  Leave the woods, walk one block

  down Dartmouth Street,

  then turn onto Oakdale Street.

  Go into the store on the left corner.”

  “I’ll go with Harry,” Annie said.

  “Sometimes a little brother

  needs an older sister.”

  “Good,” Harry said. “Four tails.

  That’s trouble.”

  I turned to Sludge.

  “We are solving some cases.”

  “Just a minute,” Rosamond said.

  “I was Case Number One.

  The turnip who walked away.

  Remember?”

  “How could I forget? I need more pancakes,

  and Sludge needs more bones.

  We’ll have to go home and think.

  And think.”

  “Be sure to watch for the walking turnip,”

  Rosamond said.

  I, Nate the Great, now knew that

  there were worse things

  than becoming a man from Mars.

  Chapter Five

  Sludge and I went home.

  We looked just like

  Sludge and Nate the Great.

  And we ate

  just like Sludge and Nate the Great.

  Everything was the way it should be.

  No disguises for us!

  I looked at Sludge.

  “We did a lot of good detective work today,

  didn’t we?”

  The doorbell rang.

  “Not enough,” I said.

  Rosamond was at the door.

  “NATE THE GREAT, WHERE ARE YOU?”

  “I’m right here,” I said.

  “But the turnip isn’t,” Rosamond said.

  “You’re a detective,

  and you can’t find a walking turnip?

  I saw you and Sludge go into the

  Disguises for Detectives store.

  You came out looking just the way

  you looked when you walked in.

  How boring!”
/>
  She stamped her foot and walked away.

  I looked at Sludge.

  “When we were in the

  Disguises for Detectives store,

  I should have become a tree,

  and you should have become a bush.

  You knew that.

  When we went into the woods,

  nobody would have found us.

  Too late now.”

  Sludge wagged his tail. He agreed.

  “I, Nate the Great,

  think that I have a case and a clue.

  Somebody was unhappy about

  something I said today.

  And I think I know

  what to do about it.”

  Chapter Six

  “We are going to Claude’s house,” I said.

  Sludge and I took the last bites of our food.

  Then we rushed to Claude’s house.

  I knocked on his door.

  Claude opened it.

  “Well, hello, Nate the Great and Sludge.”

  Claude looked mad.

  He kept talking.

  “You should know that finding you two

  is not special,” he said.

  “I can find you any time I want.

  I know where you live.

  I know what you eat.

  But that’s not special enough for today.

  Today I want to find something

  really special.”

  Sludge looked sad.

  He thought he was special.

  Claude looked straight at me.

  “Do you know what’s really special to find?

  It’s a walking turnip.”

  “I, Nate the Great, say that a walking turnip

  isn’t special because there is

  no such thing as a walking turnip.”