And licked me all over.
“Sludge, you are a
great detective,” I said.
“You knew I had a case to solve.
You knew I always eat pancakes
to help solve a case.
So you sniffed out
this pancake place
and you sat and waited.
You knew you could sniff me from your
hiding place when I showed up.
And that’s what you did.”
Sludge looked proud.
This had been his biggest case too.
I looked at the trail
of flour pawprints.
Did Sludge leave it on purpose?
Or did it just happen to happen?
I would never know.
But I didn’t care.
I only cared that
I had found Sludge.
Or he had found me.
Whatever.
I said, “We both deserve
a treat. Wait here.”
I went back to the cafeteria.
“Five pancakes to go,” I said.
“And a bone.”
I, Nate the Great,
and Sludge
sat on the torn sack of flour
and ate the best meal
we had ever had.
What’s Inside
Nate’s Notes: Shopping for Your Dog
Nate’s Notes: Lost and Found Files
How to Make a Dog Bowl and Place Mat
Funny Pages
How to Keep Your Pet Safe
More Funny Pages
How to Make a Dog Bowl and Place Mat
Don’t waste time shopping for your dog. Make him a bowl yourself. Cats like bowls, too. If you have an extra-special pet (or a messy eater), make him or her a place mat as well.
Ask an adult for help.
Start with the bowl.
GET TOGETHER:
• a new plastic dog bowl
• nontoxic paint markers like
Painters Paint Markers
DECORATE YOUR BOWL:
1. Use the markers to write your pet’s name on the bowl.
2. Add some decorations like your name, hearts, paw prints, or curlicues. If you have room, include your pet’s breed, birthday, or adoption date.
3. Let the paint dry. Look at the markers’ package to see how long that will take.
Now make the place mat.
GET TOGETHER:
• a large piece of colored construction paper, about 12" × 18"
• photos of you and your pet
• scissors
• double-stick tape
• cookie cutters in fun shapes like bones (for dogs) or fish (for cats)
• markers
• clear contact paper
MAKE YOUR PLACE MAT:
1. If you are using photos, arrange them on the construction paper. Remember that you can trim the photos for neat effects.
2. Use small pieces of double-stick tape to hold the photos in place.
3. Decorate the rest of the place mat. Use the markers to trace the cookie cutters. Draw pictures or write words.
4. Enclose the decorated construction paper between two pieces of clear contact paper with the sticky sides facing each other.
5. Trim the contact paper close to the construction paper, leaving a little extra on the sides to “glue” the two pieces together.
6. Put the place mat on the floor. Fill the bowl with your pet’s favorite food. Put the bowl on the place mat. Watch your pet gobble his food in style!
Funny Pages
Q: What do you call a flamingo at the North Pole?
A: Lost!
Q: What shivers, looks for clues, and can be found at the North Pole?
A: A lost detective.
Q: What did the peanut say to the almond when he lost his iPod?
A: Ah, nuts!
Q: Did you hear about the detective who lost his whole left side?
A: He’s all right now!
How to Keep Your Pet Safe
Millions of pets are lost every year. Don’t let your pet be one of them!
Stephanie Shain works at the Humane Society of the United States. “The society works to protect all kinds of animals,” Stephanie says. Part of her job is teaching kids how to keep their pets safe. Stephanie shared these tips:
• Make sure your pet has a collar and an identification tag. An ID tag is a lost pet’s ticket home. Every dog or cat should have an ID tag. Even cats that don’t go outside can sometimes escape and get lost.
• Microchips (small computer chips placed under a pet’s fur) are a good backup. They contain a code (a string of letters and numbers) that identifies your pet. A vet can read the code with a scanner. Entering the code into a computer tells the vet who owns the animal.
• Never leave your pet alone in a car or yard or outside a store.
• When you take your pet outside, use a leash or a pet carrier. Even calm pets can get frightened outside. This goes for small pets like guinea pigs and hamsters, too.
• Keep a current photo of your pet. It will make finding him easier if he does get lost.
Stephanie lost her cat Miss Boo when she was a girl. “I still think about her sometimes,” Stephanie says. “We were very, very sad when we lost her.” If you follow Stephanie’s tips, that won’t happen to you!
More Funny Pages
Q: What always falls without getting hurt?
A: Rain!
Q: Rain falls. Does it ever get up again?
A: Yes, in dew time!
Q: What goes up when the rain comes down?
A: An umbrella!
Q: A man went outside in the rain. He wasn’t wearing a hat or carrying an umbrella. When he came inside, not a hair on his head was wet. How is this possible?
A: He was bald!
Q: What’s big and gray and protects you from the rain?
A: An umbrellaphant!
Q: What animal carries an umbrella?
A: A rain deer!
Q: What did the rain cloud wear under his raincoat?
A: Thunder wear!
Kid: Good news! The teacher says we’re going to have a test rain or shine.
Friend: What’s so great about that?
Kid: It’s snowing!
Q: What monster flies his kite in a rainstorm?
A: Benjamin Frankenstein!
Q: Can bees fly in the rain?
A: Not without their yellow jackets!
Q: What kind of bears like to go out in the rain?
A: Drizzly bears!
Q: What kind of bow is hardest to tie?
A: A rainbow!
A word about learning with
The Nate the Great series is good fun and has been entertaining children for over forty years. These books are also valuable learning tools in and out of the classroom.
Nate’s world—his home, his friends, his neighborhood—is one that every young person recognizes. Nate introduces beginning readers and those who have graduated to early chapter books to the detective mystery genre, and they respond to Nate’s commitment to solving the case and helping his friends.
What’s more, as Nate the Great solves his cases, readers learn with him. Nate unravels mysteries by using evidence collection, cogent reasoning, problem-solving, analytical skills, and logic in a way that teaches readers to develop critical-thinking abilities. The stories help children start discussions about how to approach difficult situations and give them tools to resolve them.
When you read a Nate the Great book with a child, or when a child reads a Nate the Great mystery on his or her own, the child is guaranteed a satisfying ending that will have taught him or her important classroom and life skills. We know that you and your children will enjoy reading and learning from Nate the Great’s wonderful stories as much as we do.
Find out more at NateTheGreatBooks.com.
Happy reading and learning with Nate!
Solve all the mys
teries with
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
Nate the Great, Where Are You?
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 twenty-four languages. The award-winning Nate the Great series, hailed in Booklist as “groundbreaking,” was inspired by her father, Nathan Weinman. As a child in Portland, Maine, her first job was counting boxes at the real-life Weinman Brothers, a wholesale and manufacturing business owned by her father and uncle.
MITCHELL SHARMAT, a graduate of Harvard University, has written numerous picture books, easy readers, and novels, and is a contributor to many textbook reading programs. He is best known for the classic Gregory, the Terrible Eater, a Reading Rainbow Feature Selection and a New York Times Critics’ Pick. He has also coauthored many books with his wife, including the Olivia Sharp series. In Mitchell Sharmat’s honor, The Sharmat Collection, displaying the books he’s written, was established at the Harvard Graduate School of Education by the Munroe C. Gutman Library.
MARTHA WESTON illustrated How Will the Easter Bunny Know? by Kay Winters (Yearling), as well as more than forty books for children, including six she also wrote.
Nate the Great and the Big Sniff Page 2
