Nate the Great and the Lost List Read online

  GET TOGETHER:

  • a square piece of construction paper

  • a new, unsharpened pencil with an eraser

  • a ruler

  • a straight pin

  • scissors

  MAKE YOUR PINWHEEL:

  1. Lay the paper on a table. Use the pencil and the ruler to draw a line diagonally from each corner to the opposite one. When you’re finished, the paper should look like this:

  2. Use the pin to punch a small hole where the two lines cross.

  3. Starting at the outer edge, cut along each line. Stop about an inch from the center hole. You can look at your ruler to see how long an inch is.

  4. You now have four flaps. Use the pin to poke a hole in the top left corner of the top flap. Turn the paper so that a new flap is on top. Again, poke a hole in the top left corner. Repeat two more times, so that each flap has a hole in it.

  5. Pick up a flap at a punched corner. Carefully curl it toward the center hole. Slide the pin through the hole in the flap. Be sure not to poke yourself! Repeat with the other three flaps.

  6. Now push the pin through the center hole. Your pinwheel should look like this one.

  7. Lay the pencil on the table. Carefully push the pin into the eraser.

  8. Hold the pinwheel by the pencil. Play with your pinwheel in the wind!

  Rosamond made pancakes for her cats to eat. Rosamond is weird. Pancakes are for people. If you really like cats, make these cat-shaped pancakes. But feed them to your friends, your family, and, of course, yourself.

  Ask an adult to help you with this recipe.

  GET TOGETHER:

  • a mixing bowl

  • 1 cup of flour

  • a pinch of salt

  • 2 tablespoons of sugar

  • 1½ teaspoons of baking powder

  • 1 egg

  • 2 tablespoons of melted butter

  • 1½ cups of milk

  • a nonstick skillet

  • cat-shaped cookie cutters

  • syrup

  MAKE YOUR CAT PANCAKES:

  1. In the bowl, mix together the flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder.

  2. Add the egg, melted butter, and milk. Stir until just mixed together. Lumps are okay.

  3. Warm the skillet over medium heat. Drop a tiny bit of water on the skillet. If the water skitters around, the skillet is hot enough.

  4. For each pancake, pour about half a cup of batter onto the skillet. Wait until your pancakes have bubbles on top. Flip them. Cook them one more minute.

  5. Put your pancakes on a plate. Use the cookie cutter to cut each pancake into one or more cat shapes.

  6. Serve your pancakes with syrup on top.

  Pancake trimmings make a good snack for a hungry dog.

  Q: What do cats eat for breakfast?

  A: Mice Krispies!

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

  A: A sourpuss!

  Q: What do Italian cats like for dinner?

  A: Spa-catti!

  Q: What happened when the cat ate the comedian?

  A: He felt funny!

  Q: What does Rosamond feed her cats on a hot day?

  A: Mice cream cones!

  Q: What is Super Hex’s favorite color?

  A: Purrple!

  A detective needs a good memory. It helps the detective keep track of clues, or find the way home. Oliver could improve his memory with these tips. That is, if he could remember to use them.

  Tip 1: Pay attention to one thing at a time.

  It’s hard to remember anything if you are thinking about two things at once. That’s why Nate usually takes only one case at a time!

  Tip 2: Get it right the first time.

  “Unlearning” wrong information is more difficult than learning new information. So slow down and get your facts straight.

  Tip 3: Create a picture in your mind.

  To connect two facts you are trying to remember, make up a mental image. Make the picture silly if you can. Silly is easy to remember.

  Say you are trying to remember that your cousin’s birthday is November 10. You could imagine your cousin sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner—and eating ten turkeys! Thanksgiving helps you remember the month. The ten helps you recall the day.

  Tip 4: Create a story.

  Let’s say you need to remember a short list, like a grocery list. Make up a story that includes all the items. Again, silliness works best. If your list includes salmon, red food coloring, and eggs, you might imagine a salmon swimming upstream to lay her eggs. But the salmon seems to be having a hard time. She pushes until she turns red in the face. Suddenly, out pops an egg! But it’s not a salmon egg. It’s a hen’s egg! Test yourself. What were the three items on your list? That’s right—salmon, red food coloring, and eggs.

  Tip 5: Use acrostics to remember how to spell words.

  Take each letter of a hard-to-spell word. Assign a word to each one. Maybe you have a hard time remembering how to spell beautiful. See if it’s easier to remember this phrase: “Beagles Eat Apples Under Tents IF U Leave.”

  Experts say cats have longer memories than dogs.

  Cats can remember things for about 16 hours.

  Dogs can only remember for about 5 minutes!

  Doctor, Doctor, I’ve lost my memory!

  When did this happen?

  When did what happen?

  Q: What did Annie’s dog say to the vet who cured his memory loss?

  A: Fangs for the memories!

  Q: Why doesn’t Oliver have a photographic memory?

  A: He doesn’t have any film!

  Q: How are maps like fish?

  A: They both have scales!

  Q: Why don’t maps ever win at cards?

  A: Because they always fold!

  Q: What game do people play at the grocery store?

  A: Price-tag!

  Q: What do bulls do when they go grocery shopping?

  A: They charge!

  Q: What color is the wind?

  A: Blew!

  Knock, knock.

  Who’s there?

  Wendy.

  Wendy who?

  Wendy wind blows, the cradle will rock.

  Q: What did the book do when a cold wind blew?

  A: Put on a book jacket!

  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.

  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.