Nate the Great and the Snowy Trail Read online

  was still sitting.

  He liked it there.

  Maybe he would sit there

  forever.

  Or maybe he would jump down

  and follow us home.

  Sludge and I kept walking.

  I, Nate the Great,

  knew two new things.

  Never look up.

  And never look back.

  Sludge and I went home

  and sat by the fire.

  I was glad I had

  only one birthday a year.

  Nate’s Notes: Icicles

  Nate’s Notes: The Trails Cats Leave

  Nate’s Notes: How Cats Leap

  How to Make Ugly Cat Cupcakes

  How to Make Chocolate Frosting

  People Who Have Birthdays on July 12

  Who Shares Your Birthday?

  Cat Jokes

  One leap took Super Duper Hex from a sled on the ground to a tree branch high over Nate’s head. Nate wanted to know: How could a monster cat do that?

  1. Powerful back legs let cats jump as much as five times their own height.

  2. Cats can twist into a good landing position. Their spines and tails have about 60 vertebrae, or round bones. Human spines have only about half that number.

  3. Soft pads and sharp claws help cats land gently and hang on.

  Cupcakes are tasty after a snowy day outside. These cupcakes look like Super Duper Hex. They’re ugly.

  Ask an adult to help you with this recipe.

  Makes 24 cupcakes.

  GET TOGETHER:

  • a muffin pan

  • 24 paper or foil muffin cups

  • 1 package of cake mix

  • a mixing bowl

  • a large spoon

  • the oil, eggs, and water needed to make the cake (Look at the box for a list.)

  • toothpicks

  • a wire rack

  • 18 pieces of string licorice (Black looks best, but you can use red if you don’t like black.)

  • scissors

  • chocolate frosting (See the recipe, or use a can of prepared frosting.)

  • 24 round cookies like Oreos, Nilla Wafers, or homemade sugar cookies

  • 24 jelly beans, cut in half (Yellow and green look best.)

  • 48 chocolate chips

  MAKE YOUR CUPCAKES:

  1. Preheat the oven according to the directions on the cake mix box.

  2. Place the muffin cups in the pan.

  3. Prepare the cake batter as directed on the box.

  4. Spoon the batter into the cups, filling each one about ⅔ full.

  5. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove the cupcakes from the pan.

  6. Cool the cupcakes on the wire rack for at least an hour. (You can get started on your cat face decorations while you wait.)

  DECORATE YOUR CATS:

  1. Using the scissors, cut 24 “cat tails” from the licorice. Each tail should be about as long as your middle finger.

  2. Cut the rest of the licorice into “whiskers.” The whiskers should be about half as long as the tails.

  3. The cookies will be your cat faces. Use frosting as “glue” to attach licorice whiskers, jelly bean eyes, and chocolate chip ears. Let the faces dry for about 30 minutes.

  4. Frost the cupcakes.

  5. Stand one cat face on edge on top of each cupcake.

  6. Place a tail on each cupcake behind the face.

  7. Eat!

  Frosting is the icing on a (cup)cake! It makes everything taste good.

  Ask an adult to help you with this recipe. It will make enough frosting for 24 cupcakes or one cake.

  GET TOGETHER:

  • a saucepan

  • a large spoon

  • 2 cups of heavy cream

  • a 16-ounce bag of semisweet chocolate chips

  • 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

  MAKE YOUR FROSTING:

  1. Heat the cream over low heat in the saucepan until it just bubbles.

  2. Remove the saucepan from the heat.

  3. Stir in the chocolate chips and the vanilla extract. Mix slowly until the chips are melted and the frosting is smooth.

  4. Cool the frosting about 20 minutes so that it is easy to spread.

  Nate was born on July 12. He’s not the only one. Here are some famous people who share Nate’s birthday:

  Julius Caesar—emperor of ancient Rome. Born in 100 BC.

  Bill Cosby—a funny actor. Born in 1937.

  Henry David Thoreau—a writer who lived in the woods around Walden Pond, Massachusetts. Born in 1817.

  Kristi Yamaguchi—a gold medal—winning Olympic figure skater. Born in 1971.

  Pablo Neruda—a great poet from Chile. Born in 1904.

  Try checking this book out of the library:

  The Teacher’s Calendar of Famous Birthdays

  by Luisa Gerasimo.

  Or look at this Web site:

  www.kidsparties.com/birthdates.htm

  Q: What’s smarter than a talking cat?

  A: A spelling bee!

  Q: What do you call a cat who eats lemons?

  A: A sourpuss!

  Q: What’s every cat’s favorite song?

  A: “Three Blind Mice”!

  Q: What do cats eat for breakfast?

  A: Mice Crispies!

  Q: Did you hear the joke about the cat up a tree? Don’t worry about it—it’s over your head!

  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 Gre
at 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! Can 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 has written more than 130 books for children and young adults, as well as movie and TV novelizations. Her books have been translated into nineteen languages. The award-winning Nate the Great series, hailed in Booklist as “groundbreaking,” has resulted in Nate’s real-world appearances in a New York Times crossword puzzle, sporting a milk mustache in magazines and posters, and on more than 28 million boxes of Cheerios. Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and her husband, Mitchell Sharmat, have also coauthored many books, including titles in both the Nate the Great and the Olivia Sharp series. The Sharmats live in Tucson, Arizona.

  MARC SIMONT won the Caldecott medal for his artwork in A Tree Is Nice by Janice May Udry, as well as a Caldecott Honor for his own book, The Stray Dog. He illustrated the first twenty books in the Nate the Great series. Marc Simont lives in West Cornwall, Connecticut.