Nate the Great and the Hungry Book Club Read online

  Rosamond, Annie, Fang, Sludge, and I

  went into the kitchen.

  The cookbook was still open on the table.

  Fang sniffed and ran to the table.

  “Ho hum,” Rosamond said. “We already

  know that Fang ripped a page yesterday.”

  “Wait!” I said.

  Fang jumped up and put his front paws

  on the table.

  He opened his jaws.

  He stretched.

  But he couldn’t reach the cookbook.

  “This table is too high and big for Fang,”

  I said.

  “Poor Fang,” Annie said. “He’s big

  and smart, but he isn’t that stretchy.”

  I, Nate the Great, already knew that.

  Fang would have grabbed the bits of meat

  during the meeting

  if he could have reached them!

  Rosamond sighed. “Okay, so Fang

  couldn’t have ripped the page yesterday.”

  “Correct,” I said. “Also, he doesn’t

  like tuna fish pie.”

  I pulled the cookbook photo out of

  my pocket.

  “This photo shows the cookbook open

  to a tuna fish pie recipe. But the open

  pages have no bits of tuna fish on them.”

  “I already knew that,” Rosamond said.

  “I, Nate the Great, say that someone

  reached for those tuna fish bits

  and was scratching and tearing

  to get every last bite.”

  “Who?” Rosamond asked.

  “Little Hex,” I said. “He can leap high.

  Also, he can hide in small spaces.

  He is so small that he could have

  gone into the kitchen and come back

  without your seeing him.”

  Rosamond clapped her hands.

  “Little Hex is growing up!

  My darling little Page Monster.”

  “I, Nate the Great, say that

  the ripped-page case is solved.

  And you should try to keep your

  kitchen neater.

  Clean clues are better.”

  I took two bones from my pocket

  and gave one to Fang and one to Sludge.

  Rosamond kept clapping.

  “Little Hex must have taken the

  Harvard Hedgehog page too.

  What a talent he has!”

  “Not so fast,” I said.

  “You are trying to reuse a clue.

  Little Hex might not have taken

  the page.

  Tell me everything about

  your Harvard Hedgehog book.”

  “Well, yesterday Annie and I went to the

  book sale at the school around the corner.

  I bought the book there.

  I read it before I bought it.

  There weren’t any missing pages.

  After I bought the book,

  I kept it with me.

  In my hands. On my head.

  I even slept with it.”

  “Is there anything else

  I should know?” I asked.

  “No. I’m a president. I think

  of everything.”

  “Then I must leave,” I said.

  “Leave? But you just came.”

  “That’s how it is

  in the detective business,” I said.

  “We come. We go.

  We go where the clues take us.”

  I, Nate the Great, knew that

  I needed more clues.

  If the book was with Rosamond

  all the time,

  how could a page be missing?

  Chapter Ten

  Annie, Fang, Sludge, and I left

  Rosamond’s house.

  “I am looking for a new clue,”

  I said to Annie. “A missing-page clue.”

  “I don’t have any clue,” Annie said.

  “But I want you to know

  that Fang can be stretchy

  some of the time. You should have

  seen him at the school book sale.”

  “What?” I said. “He was there?”

  “I brought him along when

  I went with Rosamond,” Annie said.

  “Tell me exactly how

  Fang was stretchy there,” I said.

  “Well, we went to the Used Books table.

  A lady there told us that some books

  might have food stains,

  loose bindings, and faded pages.

  Rosamond began picking through books

  and reading them.

  If she liked a book, she put it in a pile

  on the table.

  Suddenly Fang put his paws on the table

  and started to sniff a book.

  There were stains on it

  that looked like

  chicken noodle soup.

  Fang licked the book.

  Then he pawed through

  more books and licked pages.

  Lots of books fell to the floor.

  Fang was really stretchy.

  It was his kind of table.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “I picked up the books that

  Fang had licked and I bought them.

  Rosamond’s pile had toppled over,

  but she scooped up her books

  from the table and the floor

  and bought them.

  We both went home with full bags.

  Since Fang had licked and liked the

  books, I put them all in his doghouse.”

  “Thank you for the information,” I said.

  I turned to Sludge.

  “You and I are going to school!”

  Chapter Eleven

  Sludge and I rushed to the school.

  The book sale was in the gym.

  A lady walked up to us.

  I knew she was a librarian because

  she had a badge on her shirt that said

  LIBRARIAN.

  Sometimes being a detective is easy.

  “Hello,” I said. “I am looking for

  Harvard Hedgehog.”

  “You’re in luck,” the librarian said.

  “We’ve sold two copies of Harvard,

  but we still have one left.

  And here he is on the table.”

  “Do you have pages 15 and 16?” I asked.

  “Yes. The pages are in good shape.

  Clean, and with strong binding.”

  “No chicken noodle soup?” I said.

  “What?”

  “I was just thinking.

  I’m a detective.

  I think a lot.

  I think I will buy this book.”

  I bought the book and thanked

  the librarian.

  Then Sludge and I went home.

  Chapter Twelve

  I sat down in my favorite chair.

  I opened my Harvard Hedgehog book.

  I turned to page 15.

  There was a picture of Harvard

  getting his photo taken

  in front of a big clock.

  He looked proud. And he was smiling.

  But why would anyone take that page?

  I, Nate the Great, say that

  there must be far better things

  in this world to watch

  than a hedgehog posing for his photo.

  And then I remembered something.

  What I had just seen

  in the book was not news to me.

  I had already heard about it.

  I, Nate the Great, was about

  to solve this case.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I had two clues.

  School clues.

  I was told that the pages

  in my book were in good shape.

  Clean. Strong binding.

  Annie was told that some books

  had loose bindings.

/>   Hmmm. Pages. Bindings.

  I, Nate the Great, say that a loose binding

  could cause a loose page,

  and a loose page could become

  a missing page.

  There had been three copies of the

  Harvard Hedgehog book at the

  Used Books table.

  Rosamond had picked a good copy.

  But when her pile fell down,

  she must have grabbed the copy

  that had the missing page.

  She didn’t know it.

  Annie must have bought the good copy

  that Rosamond had picked out,

  and she didn’t know it.

  And how did I, Nate the Great, know it?

  Because I now remembered where I had

  heard about Harvard Hedgehog smiling in

  front of a big clock.

  From Harry! At the book club meeting.

  But how could Harry have known

  what was on page 15, since it was missing?

  Because he had seen the book at home!

  Harry must have been looking

  at Fang’s books.

  And he saw the Harvard Hedgehog picture.

  I turned to Sludge.

  “I must give this book to Rosamond

  and tell her that the case is solved.

  I must also tell Annie to feed Fang

  plenty of chicken noodle soup.

  But there is something else

  I want to do first.”

  I, Nate the Great, picked up every book

  that Rosamond had brought over

  and carefully put them on a shelf.

  “Just where they should be,” I said.

  Then I took my Harvard Hedgehog book

  and sat down in my chair.

  “I am going to read this book

  as a reader and not

  as a detective,” I said.

  “Let’s read it together.”

  Sludge jumped up on my lap.

  And I, Nate the Great, read and read

  until I reached…

  Nate’s Notes: Hedgehogs

  Funny Pages

  Q: What happened when Sludge wrote the

  story of his life?

  A: It got on the best smellers’ list.

  Q: Why did the librarian slip and fall?

  A: She was in the non-friction section.

  Q: Why was the T. rex afraid to go to the library?

  A: Because his books were 60 million years overdue.

  Q: Why didn’t the book club like the

  phone book?

  A: It had too many characters.

  Q: What did the librarian hang over her

  baby’s crib?

  A: A book mobile.

  Q: Why does the elephant use his trunk as a

  bookmark?

  A: That way he nose where he stopped reading.

  Q: What did the mummy do at the library?

  A: Got wrapped up in a good mystery.

  Q: Why are frogs librarians’ favorite animals?

  A: Because frogs say “Rrredit, rrredit, rrredit.”

  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

  world’s 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! 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 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.

  JODY WHEELER developed a greater-than-average interest in children’s books at an early age, having been influenced and encouraged by her great-aunt Opal Wheeler, a prolific writer of books for young readers in the 1950s. Since being trained as a fine artist and educator, Jody has enjoyed working on projects ranging from picture books to educational texts and magazines, and from greeting cards to coloring books. Jody Wheeler divides her time between Manhattan and Siesta Key, Florida.