Nate the Great, San Francisco Detective Read online

and brought them home.

  I put the pancake bag in the freezer

  and the other bags over there

  in that corner.

  But the Booksie’s bag isn’t there.”

  “Hmmm,” I said.

  I went over to the corner

  and looked inside all the bags.

  No book.

  “Both the book and the Booksie’s bag

  are missing,” I said.

  “I, Nate the Great, say

  that we should go

  to Booksie’s Bookstore.

  I think you dropped your book

  in its bag when you were

  in front of the pancake house.

  It wasn’t there today.

  Perhaps somebody found it

  and took it back to the store.”

  Duncan kept looking at his feet.

  “Somebody could have found it

  and taken it home,” he said.

  “Or taken it on a trip.

  Or mailed it. Or kicked it.

  Anything! This is a big city.

  My joke book could be anywhere!”

  “You are right,” I said.

  “I am?”

  “Yes. This is a big-city case.

  Your book could be anywhere.

  But we don’t have enough time

  to look everywhere.

  So I, Nate the Great,

  have to choose where to look.

  And because the book was probably in

  the Booksie’s bag when you lost it,

  I choose Booksie’s Bookstore.”

  “Oh,” Duncan said. “There

  is more to this detective

  business than I thought.”

  Willie drove Duncan, Sludge, and me

  to Booksie’s Bookstore.

  He waited outside with Sludge.

  Duncan and I went inside.

  “Are books returned here?”

  I asked a lady behind the counter.

  “Yes.”

  “Was a joke book returned today

  or yesterday?”

  “You’re the second person to ask,”

  the lady said. “A girl with a feather boa

  and a bunch of signs

  was just asking the same question.

  I told her a mystery book

  had been returned.

  And a children’s book,

  a cookbook, and a science book.

  But no joke book.”

  “What happens when a book

  is brought back?” I asked.

  “We put it on the shelf again,” she said.

  Duncan and I walked away.

  “Show me the joke book department,”

  I said.

  “Why? It won’t be there,” Duncan said.

  “We can’t be positive,” I said.

  Duncan led the way.

  “Here,” Duncan said. “This is

  the exact place I found the book.”

  I looked around.

  I looked hard.

  The book wasn’t there.

  “You did not choose the right

  place in the city to look,” Duncan said.

  I, Nate the Great, already knew that.

  I saw Sludge peering

  through the front window.

  Sludge had not been much help

  on this case.

  Or had he?

  He had looked in the wrong place

  for the joke book.

  But he knew that

  sometimes the wrong place

  is the right place.

  The wrong place!

  “Follow me,” I said to Duncan.

  I rushed up and down aisles.

  At last I came to the place

  I was looking for.

  The wrong place.

  I waved to Sludge.

  He wagged his tail.

  Then I looked up and down

  and across shelves.

  And there it was!

  Duncan’s joke book.

  Joke Stew!!!

  I took it down

  and handed it to Duncan.

  “My book! My book!” he said.

  “But this is the cookbook section.

  Why is my book here?”

  “I, Nate the Great,

  say that the lady told us

  a cookbook had been returned.

  Whoever put your book

  back on the shelf

  thought it was a cookbook.

  With a name like Joke Stew,

  it could be.”

  Duncan smiled. He smiled.

  I knew the world was safe for now.

  Duncan skipped off.

  Suddenly I heard a voice.

  “You solved my case number twenty-two!”

  A bunch of feathers hugged me.

  It was Olivia. In person.

  “I owe you one,” she said.

  “Let me know if I can ever

  solve a case for you. Any case.

  Big, small, easy, hard.”

  “I think I have something

  for you right now,” I said.

  “It’s big and it’s small

  and possibly it’s hopeless.

  Willie can take us to it.”

  I, Nate the Great,

  enjoyed the ride

  back to the Golden Gate Bridge.

  Nate’s Notes: The Golden Gate Bridge

  The Parts of a Suspension Bridge

  Nate’s Notes: Things Lost and Found

  10 Fun Things to See and Do in San Francisco

  How to Build a Suspension Bridge

  San Francisco Jokes

  How to Make Joke Stew (If You Want to Laugh)

  How to Make Joke Stew (If You’re Hungry)

  The Golden Gate Bridge under construction

  1. The Golden Gate is a suspension bridge. That means the roadway hangs from towers.

  2. The cables are pulled tight and tied down at the bridge’s ends. They hold the towers up straight.

  3. Two big towers support the roadway. More than 600,000 rivets hold each tower together.

  4. Triangular trusses keep the roadway from flexing.

  5. The roadway is suspended high above the water. More than 100,000 cars zip over the bridge every day.

  Here’s Nate’s list of things

  to see and do in San Francisco.

  1. The Golden Gate Bridge is 1.7 miles long. You can drive (a limo), bike, or walk the span.

  2. The Exploratorium is a funky museum. You can touch all of its more than 650 exhibits. Go to learn about science and have fun.

  3. Fisherman’s Wharf overlooks San Francisco Bay. Watch the fishing boats unload their catch.

  4. Sea Lions at Pier 39. Stand on the pier. Watch and listen as the seals bark, nap, and swim.

  5. San Francisco’s cable cars are fancy trolleys. Underground cables pull the cars up steep hills. The cable cars are old. They’ve been running since 1873. Andrew Hallidie came up with the idea while watching horses pull the city’s streetcars. He saw a team of five horses slip on a wet street. They slid backward down a steep hill. It was a terrible accident. Cables are safer in the hilly city.

  6. Try climbing steep Lombard Street. It may be the most crooked street in the world. (Good place for a detective.)

  7. Redwood trees grow in Muir Woods. These trees are huge! They grow as tall as thirty-six stories. They are old! Some live more than two centuries. Some of the movie Return of the Jedi was filmed in Muir Woods.

  8. Coit Tower is 210 feet high. It was built in 1933. Lots of people say it looks like a fireman’s hose. From the top, you get a great view of the city.

  9. Alcatraz Island (also known as the Rock) was once a prison. It was famous for being hard to escape. To get away, you’d have to climb down a sheer cliff. Then you’d have to swim to San Francisco. The ocean water is cold. The tides are strong. Several prisoners got away. Everyone doubts they survived the swim. The prison closed in 1963. Now you can tak
e a boat ride to the island. Pretend to lock yourself into a cell!

  10. The Japanese Tea Garden is one neat thing to see in Golden Gate Park. Workers built it for the 1894 World’s Fair.

  The Golden Gate is a suspension bridge. Steel and concrete make it strong. But suspension bridges aren’t new. The Inca (South American Indians) built suspension bridges centuries ago. They used grass! Try building your own suspension bridge. See how strong you can make it.

  GET TOGETHER:

  • scissors

  • several sheets of newspaper

  • two chairs

  • masking tape

  • four paper clips

  • a hole punch

  • a foam cup

  • coins

  BUILD YOUR BRIDGE:

  1. Cut the newspaper into strips. They can be as wide or narrow as you like. Make them at least two feet long.

  2. Place the chairs about two feet apart. Connect the chairs with a “bridge” of newspaper. Use tape to secure the ends of the bridge.

  3. Build a load tester to see how much weight your bridge can hold.

  • Unfold the paper clips into “S” shapes.

  • Punch three holes in the sides of the cup.

  • Slip a paper clip through each hole.

  • Hook a fourth paper clip through the other three clips. Now you have a hanger.

  4. Hook your load tester to the bridge. Add coins to the cup until the bridge breaks.

  5. Experiment to improve your bridge. Try twisting the newspaper. Or braid it. (TIP: Study pieces of twine or rope to see how they’re made.)

  6. How much weight can your strongest bridge carry?

  Doctor, Doctor, I think I’m a bridge!

  Why, what’s come over you?

  Two cars and a bus.

  Doctor, Doctor, I think I’m a cable car!

  Feeling strung out, are we?

  Q: A penny and a quarter were rolling down the Golden Gate Bridge. Only the penny fell off. Why?

  A: The quarter had more cents!

  Knock, knock.

  Who’s there?

  Cable cargo.

  Cable cargo who?

  Cable car go “clang clang.”

  Q: What did the prisoners at Alcatraz use to talk to each other?

  A: Cell phones.

  Duncan got his jokes from a book. It was called Joke Stew. What if he had made up his own jokes? Somebody’s got to do it. Why don’t you try?

  STEP ONE: Read a lot of jokes. Copy down the ones that make you laugh.

  STEP TWO: Every joke has two parts. They are the setup and the punch line. The punch line is the funny ending.

  Look at your list of funny jokes. Find each punch line. Think about what makes it funny. Is it silly? Or surprising? Or something else?

  STEP THREE: Try writing a joke. Start with a simple one. Knock-knock jokes are easy. So are Doctor, Doctor jokes. (See page 20 for some examples.)

  STEP FOUR: Try your jokes. Tell them to your mom. Any giggles? Try to make your best friend laugh. If you are shy, write your jokes down. Show them to someone you trust.

  STEP FIVE: If your jokes flop, try rewriting them. Can you make them funnier?

  STEP SIX: Don’t give up! Jokes are hard to write. But it’s worth the work. Everyone loves to laugh!

  No, this isn’t really stew. It’s Joke Stew. But it’s still yummy!

  GET TOGETHER:

  • a bowl

  • a spoon

  • “meat”—a bowl of your favorite cereal

  • “veggies”—a handful of fruit, like sliced banana, diced apples, blueberries, or dried cherries

  • “spices”—a shake of cinnamon, nutmeg, or cocoa powder

  • “broth”—milk

  MAKE YOUR “STEW”:

  1. In the bowl, stir together the “meat,” “veggies,” and “spices.”

  2. Add the “broth.”

  3. Eat!

  Have you helped solve all Nate the Great’s mysteries?

  Nate the Great: Meet Nate, the great detective, and join him as he uses incredible sleuthing skills to solve his first big case.

  Nate the Great Goes Undercover: Who— or what—is raiding Oliver’s trash every night? Nate bravely hides out in his friend’s garbage can to catch the smelly crook.

  Nate the Great and the Lost List: Nate loves pancakes, but who ever heard of cats eating them? Is a strange recipe at the heart of this mystery?

  Nate the Great and the Phony Clue: Against ferocious cats, hostile adversaries, and a sly phony clue, Nate struggles to prove that he’s still the greatest detective.

  Nate the Great and the Sticky Case: Nate is stuck with his stickiest case yet as he hunts for his friend Claude’s valuable stegosaurus stamp.

  Nate the Great and the Missing Key: Nate isn’t afraid to look anywhere—even under the nose of his friend’s ferocious dog, Fang—to solve the case of the missing key.

  Nate the Great and the Snowy Trail: Nate has his work cut out for him when his friend Rosamond loses the birthday present she was going to give him. How can he find the present when Rosamond won’t even tell him what it is?

  Nate the Great and the Fishy Prize: The trophy for the Smartest Pet Contest has disappeared! Will Sludge, Nate’s clue-sniffing dog, help solve the case and prove he’s worthy of the prize?

  Nate the Great Stalks Stupidweed: When his friend Oliver loses his special plant, Nate searches high and low. Who knew a little weed could be so tricky?

  Nate the Great and the Boring Beach Bag: It’s no relaxing day at the beach for Nate and his trusty dog, Sludge, as they search through sand and surf for signs of a missing beach bag.

  Nate the Great Goes Down in the Dumps: Nate discovers that the only way to clean up this case is to visit the town dump. Detective work can sure get dirty!

  Nate the Great and the Halloween Hunt: It’s Halloween, but Nate isn’t trick-or-treating for candy. Can any of the witches, pirates, and robots he meets help him find a missing cat?

  Nate the Great and the Musical Note: Nate is used to looking for clues, not listening for them! When he gets caught in the middle of a musical riddle, can he hear his way out?

  Nate the Great and the Stolen Base: It’s not easy to track down a stolen base, and Nate’s hunt leads him to some strange places before he finds himself at bat once more.

  Nate the Great and the Pillowcase: When a pillowcase goes missing, Nate must venture into the dead of night to search for clues. Everyone sleeps easier knowing Nate the Great is on the case!

  Nate the Great and the Mushy Valentine: Nate hates mushy stuff. But when someone leaves a big heart taped to Sludge’s doghouse, Nate must help his favorite pooch discover his secret admirer.

  Nate the Great and the Tardy Tortoise: Where did the mysterious green tortoise in Nate’s yard come from? Nate needs all his patience to follow this slow … slow … clue.

  Nate the Great and the Crunchy Christmas: It’s Christmas, and Fang, Annie’s scary dog, is not feeling jolly. Can Nate find Fang’s crunchy Christmas mail before Fang crunches on him?

  Nate the Great Saves the King of Sweden: Can Nate solve his first-ever international case without leaving his own neighborhood?

  Nate the Great and Me: The Case of the Fleeing Fang: A surprise Happy Detective Day party is great fun for Nate until his friend’s dog disappears! Help Nate track down the missing pooch, and learn all the tricks of the trade in a special fun section for aspiring detectives.

  Nate the Great and the Monster Mess: Nate loves his mother’s deliciously spooky Monster Cookies, but the recipe has vanished! This is one case Nate and his growling stomach can’t afford to lose.

  Nate the Great, San Francisco Detective: Nate visits his cousin Olivia Sharp in the big city, but it’s no vacation. Can he find a lost joke book in time to save the world?

  Nate the Great and the Big Sniff: Nate depends on his dog, Sludge, to help him solve all his cases. But Nate is on his own this time, because Sludge has disappeared! Ca
n Nate solve the case and recover his canine buddy?

  Nate the Great on the Owl Express: Nate boards a train to guard Hoot, his cousin Olivia Sharp’s pet owl. Then Hoot vanishes! Can Nate find out whooo took the feathered creature?

  Nate the Great Talks Turkey: There’s a turkey on the loose, with Nate, his cousin Olivia Sharp, Sludge, and Claude in hot pursuit. Who will find the runaway bird first?

  Nate the Great and the Hungry Book Club: Rosamond has started a book club. Nate and his dog, Sludge, attend a meeting as undercover detectives. The case: find out what “monster” has an appetite for ripping book pages and making others go missing.

  MARJORIE WEINMAN SHARMAT was born and grew up in Portland, Maine. She has been writing since age eight and is the author of more than 130 books, which have been translated into nineteen languages. She is probably best known as the creator of the series about the world-famous sleuth Nate the Great.

  MITCHELL SHARMAT was a native of Brookline, Massachusetts, and a graduate of Harvard University. He wrote numerous picture books, easy readers, and novels, and was a contributor to textbook reading programs. His wildly popular Gregory, the Terrible Eater, a Reading Rainbow Feature Selection, has become a children’s classic.

  MARTHA WESTON illustrated How Will the Easter Bunny Know? by Kay Winters (Yearling), as well as more than forty other books for children, including six she also wrote.