Nate the Great and the Musical Note Read online

  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 © 1990 by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and Craig Sharmat

  Cover and interior illustrations copyright © 1990 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 Children’s Books, a division of Random House LLC, New York, a Penguin Random House Company. Originally published in paperback in the United States by Delacorte Press in 1991.

  Reprinted by arrangement with Putnam & Grosset Book Group, on behalf of Coward-McCann

  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: 978-0-385-37681-5

  Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-0-440-40466-8

  Book design by Trish Parcell

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

  v3.1

  For Mom and Dad

  with

  —C.S.

  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.

  This afternoon I was cleaning up

  after a big case.

  I was sitting in my bathtub singing.

  My dog, Sludge, was howling.

  I heard a third sound.

  The doorbell was ringing.

  I stood up.

  I rushed toward the door.

  I stopped.

  I, Nate the Great, was all wet.

  I grabbed a towel and my detective hat.

  I answered the door.

  Pip was there.

  “I have come to see you,” he said.

  Pip’s hair covers half his face.

  I’m surprised he sees anything.

  “Why did you come to see me?” I asked.

  Pip didn’t answer.

  Pip doesn’t say much.

  “Do you need a detective?” I asked.

  “Do you have a case to solve?”

  Pip nodded his head

  up and down twice.

  Then he opened his mouth.

  “Right away!” Hurry!” he said.

  Pip handed me a piece of paper.

  It was a note for Pip from Rosamond.

  I knew it would be strange.

  I read the note.

  “A MUSICAL NOTE FROM ROSAMOND:

  Dear Pip,

  Your mother phoned.

  At four o’clock

  when your lesson is through

  this is what you have to do:

  A note. Step left until

  you reach the middle.

  Step up and you will

  solve this riddle.

  Your piano teacher, Rosamond.”

  I read the note once.

  I read the note twice.

  I read it three times.

  Some things get better with time.

  Rosamond’s note just got stranger.

  I could see why Pip needed me.

  “You’re taking piano lessons

  from Rosamond?” I asked.

  Pip nodded his head up and down.

  “At Rosamond’s house?” I asked.

  “At Rosamond’s garage,” he said.

  “I went there to take my lesson.

  But I found this note

  instead of Rosamond.”

  “Do you have any idea what

  your mother wants you to do

  at four o’clock?” I asked.

  Pip shrugged.

  “Do you know where

  your mother is?” I asked.

  Pip shrugged again.

  “So what does the note mean?” he asked.

  “It means that I, Nate the Great,

  have a case I must solve

  by four o’clock.

  It is ten past three.

  We don’t have much time.”

  I got dressed fast.

  I wrote a quick note to my mother.

  “We must go to Rosamond’s garage,”

  I said to Pip.

  Pip, Sludge, and I rushed to

  Rosamond’s garage.

  I heard piano music.

  I knew we were on the right track.

  I rushed into the garage.

  I rushed out of the garage.

  Annie and her dog, Fang,

  were in there,

  sitting on a piano bench.

  Annie was playing

  an old piano.

  Fang’s mouth was wide open.

  He was getting ready to sing.

  Or bite.

  I didn’t want to find out which.

  But I had to look for clues.

  I went back into the garage

  with Pip and Sludge. Slowly.

  Annie stopped playing the piano.

  Fang closed his mouth.

  I was glad about that.

  I held up Rosamond’s note.

  “Do you know anything

  about this?” I asked Annie.

  “No,” Annie said.

  “And Rosamond isn’t here.

  She went out to buy stars.”

  “Stars?”

&
nbsp; “Yes. Rosamond sticks a star on you

  if you have a good music lesson.

  But now she’s late for my lesson.

  It was supposed to start at three.”

  Suddenly Pip spoke.

  “Hey, so was mine!” he said.

  “Rosamond needs more than stars,” I said.

  “She needs an appointment book.”

  I turned to Pip.

  “Show me where you found your note.”

  Pip pointed to the music stand

  just above the piano keys.

  “Right there,” he said.

  I looked at the piano.

  It was scratched and sagging

  and peeling.

  But that was not a clue.

  I looked around the garage.

  In the middle of it I saw

  some wide wooden boards

  on top of some old blankets.

  There was a sign on it.

  It was strange, but it was not a clue.

  Or was it?

  “Sit down at the piano, Pip,”

  I said, “as if you were

  taking a lesson from Rosamond.”

  Annie moved over.

  Pip sat down between Annie and Fang.

  He was brave.

  I, Nate the Great, thought about

  where Pip would be if he took

  some steps to the left.

  He would be in the middle

  of the garage.

  That fitted with the riddle.

  Then if he stepped up,

  he would be on Rosamond’s stage!

  I had solved the case.

  It was my easiest case.

  Or was it?

  Sludge and I sat down on the stage.

  I was thinking.

  Why would Pip’s mother

  want him on this stage?

  It was full of splinters.

  It was not a good place to be.

  It couldn’t be the answer.

  I said, “We will have to wait

  for Rosamond to come back

  and tell us what the note means.”

  Pip spoke up.

  “I already did that.”

  “You talk too much,” I said.

  We all waited.

  And waited.

  How long could it take

  to shop for stars?

  Too long.

  What if Rosamond didn’t come back

  until after four o’clock?

  Suddenly I saw something shiny.

  Rosamond walked into the garage,

  carrying a bag full of stars.

  She was followed by her four cats,

  Super Hex, Big Hex, Plain Hex,

  and Little Hex.

  They were covered with stars.

  I held up Pip’s note.

  “What does this mean?” I asked.

  Rosamond smiled.

  “Pip’s mother phoned with a message.

  I turned it into a music lesson.

  Pip has had fifteen minutes

  of piano lessons,

  so he should know

  what my note means.

  You’re a sharp detective,

  so you should also know

  what it means.”

  “I, Nate the Great,

  know what this means.

  It means I still have a case to solve.”

  Rosamond grabbed my arm and

  pulled me over to the piano.

  “How about a piano lesson?” she said.

  Pip, Annie, and Fang

  got off the bench.

  Rosamond sat down.

  “I’m going to play the scale

  starting from middle C.

  Watch my finger

  as it moves to the right.”

  “No,” I said. “You watch me

  as I move out of this garage.

  I am leaving.”

  Rosamond grabbed my arm again.

  “Watch! Middle C.

  D. E. F. G. A. B. C.”

  Rosamond played eight white notes

  in a row on her piano.

  “I just played a scale

  starting with middle C,” she said.

  “Got it, Nate?”

  I, Nate the Great, got it.

  But I didn’t want it.

  I started to sneak out of the garage.

  Rosamond kept on.

  “See the black notes?

  A black note is called a sharp

  when it’s above a white note,

  and it’s called

  a flat when it’s—”

  Rosamond stopped talking.

  She got up and pulled me back

  to the piano.

  “I’m not done,” she said.

  “I gave my cats singing lessons.

  Do you want them to know

  more than you do?

  Do you want them to have

  more stars than you?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  Rosamond pressed a white key

  near the middle of the keyboard.

  I knew it was middle C.

  I, Nate the Great, am a fast learner.

  Super Hex screeched middle C.

  “Very good,” Rosamond said.

  Sludge did not think so.

  He ran out of the garage.

  Rosamond moved her finger up

  to the black note above middle C.

  I knew it was C-sharp.

  “This is Big Hex’s favorite note,”

  she said.

  I, Nate the Great, did not want

  to hear Big Hex screech C-sharp.

  I ran after Sludge.

  Pip ran after me.

  Rosamond ran after Pip and me.

  “You owe me five cents

  for the piano lesson,”

  she said to me.

  Then she reached for Pip.

  “It’s time for your lesson.

  You only have until four o’clock.”

  Pip turned, took two steps,

  and tripped over Sludge.

  Rosamond pulled a hairbrush

  out of her pocketbook.

  She brushed Pip’s hair

  back from his eyes.

  “Now you can see

  where you’re going,” she said.

  I said, “I will be back

  when I’ve solved the case.”

  I turned to Sludge.

  “We must look for musical clues.

  We have to go where there is music.”

  Sludge ran ahead.

  I knew where he was going.

  Five minutes later we were

  at the band concert in the park.

  Sludge and I sat down under a tree.

  “We have to listen hard,” I said.

  “We have to use our ears and our eyes.”

  Sludge got up.

  He took one step to the left.

  He took one step to the right.

  He stepped backward and forward.

  Sludge was dancing to the music.

  Sludge was not dancing to the music.

  A bee was after Sludge.

  I went to rescue him.

  Now the bee was after me.

  The bee buzzed away.

  “Let’s go home, Sludge,” I said.

  I, Nate the Great, needed pancakes.

  Pancakes help me think.

  Sludge and I started to walk home.

  We walked fast.

  I only had until four o’clock

  to solve this case.

  Did I have any good clues?

  I had a strange musical note

  that told Pip what he had to do

  at four o’clock.

  But if he did it, he would still be

  in Rosamond’s garage.

  I did not see or hear

  any clues in her garage.

  All I got was a strange piano lesson.

  I did
not see or hear any clues

  at the band concert.

  All I got was a buzzing bee

  after Sludge and me.

  I kept thinking and walking.

  I had to take this case one step at a time.

  One step at a time?

  I looked at Sludge.

  “Sludge, you’re a genius.

  Your dance steps

  that weren’t dance steps

  at the band concert

  have just solved the case.”

  Sludge and I took giant steps

  back to Rosamond’s garage.

  We stepped inside.

  Pip was playing the piano.

  Rosamond was leaning over him.

  Annie and Fang were watching.

  “Stop the music!” I said.

  “I, Nate the Great,

  have solved your case, Pip.

  Please get up, step left to the middle

  of the garage, and step up.”

  Pip followed my directions.

  “I’m on the stage!” he said.

  “And I, Nate the Great, say

  that’s where your mother wants

  you to be at four o’clock.”

  “Why?” Pip asked.

  I said, “When Sludge and I were

  at the concert in the park,

  I thought I saw Sludge do dance steps.

  That gave me the answer to this case.”

  “I don’t get it,” Pip said.

  “I will explain,” I said.

  “Rosamond gives piano lessons

  to you and Annie.

  Rosamond gives singing lessons

  to her cats.

  So Rosamond gives different

  kinds of lessons.”

  “So what?” Pip said.

  “I, Nate the Great, say that

  the steps in Rosamond’s note

  are a double clue.

  Ordinary steps

  to get to the stage

  and dance steps

  after you get there.

  At four o’clock your mother

  wants you to start taking

  dancing lessons from Rosamond.”

  Rosamond clapped her hands.