Nate the Great and the Monster Mess Read online

  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 Denke 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 © 1999 by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat

  New Illustrations of Nate the Great, Sludge, Fang, Annie, Rosamond, the Hexes, and Oliver by Martha Weston based upon the original drawings by Marc Simont.

  All other images copyright © 1999 by Martha Weston

  Extra Fun Activities copyright © 2005 by Emily Costello

  Extra Fun Activities illustrations copyright © 2005 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, Inc., New York. Originally published in hardcover by Delacorte Press in 1999 and reissued in paperback with Extra Fun Activities by Yearling, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books in 2005.

  Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

  Visit us on the Web! randomhouse.com/teens

  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: 978-0-385-37230-5

  Trade paperback ISBN: 978-0-440-41662-3

  Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-385-32114-3

  v3.1

  First Delacorte Ebook Edition 2013

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

  For ANNA RICHARDSON WEINMAN,

  the world’s best mother,

  who, by the way,

  created the world’s best chocolate cookie

  —M.W.S.

  To my CBI buddies—

  Mira, Dwight, Susan, and Ashley

  —M.W.

  Contents

  Cover

  Other Books By This Authors

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter One: Draculas, Frankensteins, and Werewolves!

  Chapter Two: The Long and Short of It

  Chapter Three: One Big Mess

  Chapter Four: Tasty in Lemon

  Chapter Five: The Best Follow

  Chapter Six: Something Fishy

  Chapter Seven: Crossed-Out Werewolves!

  Chapter Eight: The Right Place

  Chapter Nine: A Scribble Among Scribbles

  Extra Fun Activities

  About the Authors

  My name is Nate the Great.

  I am a detective.

  My dog, Sludge, is a detective too.

  Today Sludge and I had big plans.

  To do nothing.

  Suddenly I saw something.

  There was a note under the door

  of my room.

  It was written in scribbles.

  I knew it was from my mother.

  She scribbles when she is in a hurry.

  I read it.

  “I love those monsters,”

  I said to Sludge.

  “Strawberry Draculas,

  Chocolate Frankensteins,

  Cinnamon Werewolves.

  My mother hates the werewolves,

  but she bakes them for me anyway.

  I must find that recipe.”

  I, Nate the Great,

  had never solved a case

  for my mother.

  My mother knew

  where everything was.

  Until now.

  “We will look inside,”

  I said. “Perhaps my mother

  did not look everywhere in the house.”

  I, Nate the Great, liked this case.

  I could stay home.

  I would not have to see

  Rosamond or her four cats.

  I would not have to see

  Annie’s dog, Fang.

  I could make as many pancakes

  as I wanted.

  Sludge and I went to the kitchen.

  My mother kept her recipes there.

  Each short recipe was written

  on one side of a card.

  Each long recipe was written

  on one side

  of a long piece of paper.

  The cards were in one pile.

  The papers were in another.

  My mother liked the cards.

  They were all neat and clean.

  She did not like the papers.

  They were crinkled, wrinkled,

  and stained with food.

  The pile of papers was a mess.

  And it was huge!

  But I, Nate the Great,

  had to look for Monster Cookies.

  “The recipe should be easy

  to find,” I said to Sludge.

  “It’s the only one with

  drawings of werewolves.

  Dozens and dozens of werewolves.

  All crossed out.

  My mother has never seen

  a werewolf she likes.”

  I spread every sheet on the floor.

  I found recipes for foods

  I had never eaten

  and would never want to eat.

  Like Squash Slosh.

  I found great names like

  Chocolate Bumps and Pecan Plops.

  I found scribbled names

  that I had never heard of.

  Like Lemfan.

  There was nothing listed under that one.

  And Fig Fizzle.

  Nothing was listed under that either.

  There were more pages

  with scribbled names.

  Maybe the recipes

  would be added later.

  I, Nate the Great,

  could not find

  Monster Cookies.

  It was time to think.

  I made some pancakes.

  I gave Sludge a bone.

  We ate and thought.
>
  I knew that my mother

  had not made Monster Cookies

  for a week.

  Today she’d discovered that the

  recipe was gone.

  So the recipe might have

  been missing for a week

  or less than a week.

  I turned to Sludge.

  “We will look in every nook

  and cranny of this house.

  Look hard. It’s for my mother.”

  Sludge and I looked, sniffed,

  climbed up, bent down,

  knocked things over,

  pulled things out,

  pushed things around.

  We crumbled stuff.

  We jumbled stuff.

  Nothing.

  “I, Nate the Great, say

  there is a big clue

  missing in this case.

  The clue is my mother.

  We have to find her

  and ask her questions.”

  Sludge and I walked toward

  the front door.

  “Ouch!”

  We stumbled over the mess

  we had made.

  “We will clean this up

  when we get back,” I said.

  We went outside.

  “Think about where

  my mother would go,” I said.

  Sludge sat down.

  “No, don’t sit and think.

  Walk and think,” I said.

  Suddenly I knew why

  Sludge had sat down.

  Fang was up ahead with Annie.

  I went up to Annie.

  “I am looking for my mother,”

  I said. “Or her recipe

  for Monster Cookies.

  Have you seen either one?”

  “I saw your mother

  three days ago,” Annie said.

  “She said hello.

  Then she looked at Fang.

  She kept staring at him.

  Then she took a

  long piece of paper

  out of her pocketbook

  and wrote something down.

  She said that Fang

  would be tasty in lemon.

  What did that mean?”

  “You wouldn’t want to know,”

  I said.

  Sludge and I walked on.

  “Maybe my mother is adding

  Fang to her list of

  tasty monsters,” I said.

  “I can hardly wait to eat him.

  But that does not

  help us find my mother.”

  Sludge turned around.

  “Where are you going?” I asked.

  Sludge led the way to Oliver’s house.

  Oliver lives next door.

  Oliver is a pest.

  Oliver follows people.

  Oliver follows animals.

  Oliver follows the world.

  Oliver was in his yard.

  “Oliver,” I said.

  “Did you follow my mother today?”

  “Your mother went out today?”

  Oliver said. “Oh, phooey, I missed her!

  Your mother is a great follow.

  She goes to good places.

  Like the fish store.”

  Oliver collects eels.

  He likes anything fishy.

  “Oliver,” I said, “did you

  follow my mother this week?”

  “Yes. Three days ago.

  It was my favorite follow

  of the month.”

  “Where did she go?”

  Oliver looked proud.

  He opened a box.

  He took out a card.

  “I know who I follow

  and when I follow them

  and where they go,” he said.

  “I have a card for everybody.

  Let’s see.

  NATE THE GREAT’S MOTHER.

  Thursday. 2 P.M.

  She spoke to Annie.

  She looked at Fang.

  She took a long piece of paper

  out of her pocketbook.

  She scribbled something on it.

  It was probably her grocery list.

  She went to

  the supermarket next.

  She looked at the paper.

  Then she took a jar

  of cinnamon from a shelf.

  She stared at the jar.

  She put it back.

  She bought chocolate,

  strawberries, and a lemon.”

  “A lemon?” I said.

  Was she really going to make

  Lemon Fang Cookies?

  “What happened next?” I asked.

  “She went to the fish store,”

  Oliver said. “She took more long papers

  from her pocketbook,

  looked at them, and bought

  lots of fish.”

  “Aha!” I said. “More long papers.

  They could not be grocery lists.

  They must have been recipes.

  At the fish store for fish dishes.

  At the supermarket

  for Monster Cookies.

  What did she do next?”

  “I don’t know,” Oliver said.

  “I had to go home

  and feed my eels.”

  “I must go to the fish store,” I said.

  “I must follow you,” Oliver said.

  “I know it,” I said.

  Sludge and I walked

  to the fish store.

  Oliver followed us.

  Rosamond and her four cats

  were there.

  Rosamond was buying tuna.

  “Here,” she said

  to the man behind the counter,

  “is some paper to wrap my tuna in.

  You wrapped my fish in it

  two months ago.

  But the other side hasn’t been used.

  Just turn the paper over

  and use the other side.”

  The paper was stained,

  rumpled, and crumpled.

  And smelly.

  The man made a face.

  But he wrapped the tuna

  in the paper.

  “I recycle everything,”

  Rosamond said. “But fish paper

  is the best.”

  I, Nate the Great,

  was disgusted to hear that.

  I went up to Rosamond.

  I did not want to do that.

  “Have you seen my mother?

  Or her recipe for

  Monster Cookies?” I asked.

  Rosamond looked mad.

  “I saw your mother

  a few minutes ago.

  She asked me if I

  had seen her recipe.

  Now you are asking me questions.

  You always ask me questions.

  From now on I will

  charge you for my answers.”

  Rosamond was strange.

  Now I, Nate the Great, had

  to be even stranger.

  “Well, from now on,

  I, Nate the Great,

  will charge you

  for my questions,” I said.

  Rosamond shrugged.

  “Okay, no charge,” she said.

  “The answer is that I have not

  seen your mother’s recipe.

  And I don’t know

  where she went

  after I saw her.”

  “For that you wanted money?” I said.

  Rosamond hugged her tuna package.

  “Well, when I answer your questions

  I have to think hard,

  I have to breathe harder,

  my toes tingle,

  my cats get hungry,

  my …”

  It was time to leave.

  Sludge, Oliver, and I went outside.

  Oliver took out a card

  and scribbled something on it.

  Hmmm.

  It was just the way my mother

  scribbled her short reci
pes

  on her cards.

  Sludge sniffed the card.

  Was he thinking what I was thinking?

  Sludge and I rushed home.

  “We have solved the case,” I said.

  I opened the front door.

  We tripped.

  “We’ll clean up soon,”

  I said. “But first we

  have to use our clues.

  We know that my mother

  had the recipe when she

  went to the supermarket

  three days ago.

  She almost bought cinnamon there.

  But she didn’t.

  My mother really hates

  Cinnamon Werewolves.

  So she must have decided

  not to bake them anymore.

  And that meant she didn’t need

  all those crossed-out werewolves!

  I, Nate the Great, say that without them,

  the Monster Cookies recipe

  was short enough to write on a card.

  So when my mother got home,

  she copied the recipe

  from the piece of paper

  onto a card.

  She threw out the paper.

  Then she forgot that

  the recipe is now on a card.”

  I went to the pile of cards.

  I thumbed through them fast.

  I knew I would find

  Monster Cookies.

  Sludge wagged his tail.

  He knew it too.

  I looked once.

  I looked twice.

  I looked three times.

  Sludge stopped wagging.

  “The recipe is not

  on a card,” I said.

  “I should have known

  that my mother knows

  what she is looking for.

  A long piece of paper.”

  I opened a cupboard.

  There was plenty of cinnamon.

  My werewolves were safe.

  “We have to keep looking

  for my mother,” I said.

  Sludge and I rushed to the door.

  Thud! Bump! Thump!

  We fell down.

  “We will clean up

  this place soon,” I said.

  Sludge was tired of hearing that.

  We sat there.

  “It’s hard work being

  a detective,” I said.

  “I have to think about

  what I am looking for

  and who I am working for.

  I am working for my mother.

  I know that she does not lose things.

  She puts things in the right place.