Nate the Great and the Mushy Valentine
Page 1
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
AND CONTINUE THE DETECTIVE FUN WITH
Olivia Sharp
by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and Mitchell Sharmat
illustrated by Denke Brunkus
OLIVIA SHARP: THE PIZZA MONSTER
OLIVIA SHARP: THE PRINCESS OF THE FILLMORE STREET SCHOOL
OLIVIA SHARP: THE SLY SPY
OLIVIA SHARP: THE GREEN TOENAILS GANG
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 1994 by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
Illustrations copyright © 1994 by Marc Simont
Extra Fun Activities copyright © 2004 by Emily Costello
Extra Fun Activities Illustrations copyright © 2004 by Jody Wheeler
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Originally published in hardcover by Delacorte Press in 1994 and reissued in paperback with Extra Fun Activities by Yearling, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books in 2004.
Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Visit us on the Web! randomhouse.com/kids
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in Publication Data is available upon request.
eBook ISBN: 978-0-385-37298-5
Trade paperback ISBN: 978-0-440-41013-3
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-385-31166-3
v3.1
First Delacorte eBook Edition 2013
Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
For my two Nates:
For you, my grandson,
Nathan Sharmat,
born December 12, 1992
And in memory of your
great-grandfather,
Nathan Weinman,
born one hundred years earlier
on July 12, 1892
Always remember, Nate is great!
Contents
Cover
Other Books By This Authors
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
First Page
About the Authors
My name is Nate the Great.
I am a detective.
I have a dog, Sludge.
He is a detective too.
He helps me with my cases.
But one day I had to help
Sludge with his case.
It was Valentine’s Day.
Sludge was napping
in his doghouse.
I tiptoed up to it.
I saw a big red paper heart
taped to the outside of the house.
Something was printed on the heart.
I LOVE YOU SLUDGE
MORE THAN FUDGE
Someone had given Sludge
a valentine!
I was glad that no one had given me
a valentine.
I, Nate the Great, do not like
mushy words.
Or slushy words.
I, Nate the Great, do not want to be
anyone’s valentine.
Sludge came out of his doghouse.
I showed him his valentine.
It was signed with initials.
ABH.
“Who is ABH?” I asked Sludge.
Sludge sniffed the valentine.
And sniffed it.
He did not know who it was from either.
He looked at me.
“You want me to help you
find out who sent you
this valentine?” I asked.
“This is not my kind of case.”
But Sludge is my kind of dog.
I wrote a note to my mother.
Sludge and I looked for
footprints around his doghouse.
Sludge carried his valentine
in his mouth
while he looked.
He liked it.
We did not see any footprints.
I was thinking,
What clues do I have?
The printing on the valentine
was made with stencils.
Anybody could have done it.
And anybody could have
stuck the valentine
on the doghouse.
Who do Sludge and I know?
We know Rosamond, Oliver, Claude,
Annie, Annie’s little brother Harry,
Esmeralda, Pip, and Finley.
None of them have the initials ABH.
I saw Annie and her dog, Fang,
coming toward us.
Fang will never be anybody’s
valentine.
“I have a case for you,” Annie said.
“I can’t find a valentine that I made.
Please look for it.”
“I already have a valentine case,”
I said. “Somebody gave Sludge
a valentine, but we don’t know who.
I, Nate the Great,
take only one case at a time.”
“I must find my valentine,”
Annie said. “Please.”
I wrote another note to my mother.
“Tell me about your missing
valentine,” I said to Annie.
“This morning Rosamond and I each
made a valentine at my house,”
Annie said. “Rosamond called them
valentwins.”
“Valentwins?”
“Yes, because her valentine and my
valentine looked exactly alike.
We each cut out a big red paper heart.
We each printed I LOVE YOU
on our hearts.”
“Then what happened?” I asked.
“Rosamond went home with
her valentine,”
Annie said. “I began to sign my name
on mine. I was going to give it
to my little brother Harry.
But Fang came into my room.
He looked hungry.”
I, Nate the Great,
knew that look very well.
“Fang
and I went to the kitchen,”
Annie said. “I gave him some kibbles.
When I got back to my room,
my valentine was gone.”
“Did Rosamond tell you who she
was making her valentine for?”
I asked.
“No,” Annie said. “What does that
have to do with my case?”
“Nothing,” I said. “But I am on two
cases at the same time. Remember?”
I pointed to Sludge. “Please look at
the valentine Sludge is carrying.
Does that look like the ones that
you and Rosamond made?”
“Yes,” Annie said. “Except that
there’s more printed on this one.
And this one also has initials.
Rosamond’s valentine and my valentine
just said I LOVE YOU.”
“But then you started to sign yours,”
I said.
“Yes, but I didn’t get very far,”
Annie said.
“You may not have gotten very far,”
I said, “but Rosamond could have
printed much more on her valentine
when she got home. I, Nate the Great,
say that Rosamond made her
valentine for Sludge.”
“Why would she do that?”
Annie asked.
“Only Rosamond knows,” I said.
“Last year she made a valentine
for the man in the moon.”
“So you have solved your case,”
Annie said.
“Not quite,” I said.
“Sludge’s valentine
was signed with the initials ABH.
Those are not Rosamond’s initials.
Why would she print them on her
valentine? Before I solve a case, all the
pieces have to fit.”
“Do you have any clues in my case?”
Annie asked.
“I don’t know. Show me where your
valentine was the last time you saw it.”
We all walked to Annie’s house.
We went to her room.
She pointed to her desk.
“The valentine was right here,”
she said.
I looked at Annie’s desk.
There were pencils
and stencils and paste
and red paper on it.
No valentine.
Sludge was sniffing the desk.
“There are no clues
on this desk,”
I said to him.
But Sludge kept sniffing.
I peered over and under,
in back of, in front of,
and inside of things.
I could not find Annie’s valentine.
“Your valentine is not in this room,”
I said. “Tell me, was anybody
in your house besides you and Fang
when your valentine disappeared?”
“Yes,” Annie said. “Harry was
in his room.”
“Hmm. He could have gone to your
room while you were in the kitchen.”
“I suppose,” Annie said. “But he
wouldn’t have taken the valentine.
He knew I was going to give it to him
right after I finished signing
my name to it.”
“Perhaps he was in a hurry to
have it,” I said.
“No,” Annie said. “Harry doesn’t like
valentines.”
“Then why did you make one for him?”
I asked.
Annie smiled. “I like to give
valentines.”
“So you like to give but Harry doesn’t
like to get,” I said. “That could be
important. Then again, it might not
be important. I must talk to Harry.
Where is he?”
Annie shrugged. “He disappeared
when the valentine disappeared.”
“Aha!” I said. “That could be
a big clue. Where does Harry
like to go?”
“He likes to go to Rosamond’s house
to play with her Hexes,” Annie said.
“Her Hexes?”
“You know, Rosamond’s cats.
She has a Super Hex, a Big Hex,
a Plain Hex, and a Little Hex.”
“Yes,” I said. “Rosamond has a Hex
for all occasions.”
Suddenly I, Nate the Great, thought
of something.
“I have just solved the case,” I said.
“Oh, great,” Annie said. “Where is
my valentine?”
“No, not your case. Sludge’s case.
I have not been thinking strange enough.
If I had, I would have known that
the pieces fit. I must speak to
Rosamond.”
“And look for Harry,” Annie said.
I, Nate the Great, do not like
to go to Rosamond’s house.
But now I had two reasons to go there.
Annie, Sludge, Fang, and I rushed
to Rosamond’s house.
Rosamond was sitting on her floor,
making a strange, squishy brown
valentine. Her four cats were crawling
all over her.
“I am on two cases,” I said. “I need
Harry for one and you for the other.”
“Harry was here playing with my
cats,” Rosamond said. “But he left.
I don’t know where he went.
But I’m here. Why do you need me?”
I took Sludge’s valentine
from his mouth.
I handed it to Rosamond.
“I, Nate the Great, say that you
made this valentine for Sludge
and signed it ABH. Those are
the initials for A Big Hex.
This valentine was from Big Hex
to Sludge, right?”
“Wrong,” Rosamond said. “This
valentine looks like the one I made,
except for the Sludge part and the
initials.”
“You didn’t add words or initials
to yours?” I asked.
“I added words,” Rosamond said.
“But these are not the words.
Besides, I would never
do a strange thing
like make a valentine
for a cat to give to a dog.”
Rosamond would do even stranger
things, but I did not want to
go into that.
“I made my valentine for a
person,” Rosamond said, “but
it’s a secret who. Right now
I am making a valentine out of liver
for my cats. They haven’t
been eating their liver lately.
It’s too good to throw away,
so I am changing it into
something different.
Want to watch my cats
eat their valentine?”
It was time to leave.
I said to Annie, “Go to your house
and wait there,
in case Harry comes back.”
Sludge and I went home.
“I have to eat pancakes,”
I said to Sludge. “I have to think.
I have to think twice as hard
as I would if I had only
one case to solve.”
I made some pancakes.
I gave Sludge a bone.
I thought about Sludge’s case.
Sludge is a great dog.
Everybody loves him.
Anybody could have given him
the valentine.
That was no help to me.
I thought about Annie’s case.<
br />
The only person who
could have taken the valentine
meant for Harry
was Harry.
But Annie said that Harry
doesn’t like valentines.
I made more pancakes.
What had I learned at
Rosamond’s house?
I learned what she did with liver
that her cats didn’t want.
If that was a clue, it was a strange one.
What had I learned at Annie’s house?
Sludge had kept sniffing
at Annie’s desk.
Where her valentine had been.
Was that a clue?
Perhaps.
But what case was it a clue for?
Sludge’s case?
Or Annie’s case?
Or both?
Did it matter?
Perhaps I could use a clue from
one case to help solve another case!
I picked up Sludge’s valentine
where he had dropped it
while he chewed his bone.
There had to be a reason
why Sludge’s valentine looked
like Annie’s and Rosamond’s.
But Rosamond said she had made hers
for a secret person.
And Annie said she had made hers
for her brother Harry.
I stared at the initials ABH.
I now knew they didn’t mean
A Big Hex.
But they had to be somebody’s initials.
Who would sign ABH?
Suddenly I, Nate the Great, had a lot
of pieces that fit.
“We must go back to Annie’s house,”
I said.
Sludge dropped his bone and
picked up his valentine.
We went to Annie’s house.
Sludge sniffed Annie’s desk again.
“I have solved your case,”
I said to Annie. “See how
Sludge is sniffing your desk.
That’s because his valentine
was once on your desk.
His valentine was your
valentine.”
“What?” Annie said.
“How much of your name did you
print on your valentine before
you had to stop?” I asked.
“Just A,” Annie said. “I was going
to finish with NNIE.”
“I, Nate the Great, say that your
brother Harry saw the valentine
you made for him. He didn’t want
it. So he added the words