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 © 1993 by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
Illustrations copyright © 1993 by Marc Simont
Extra Fun Activities copyright © 2006 by Emily Costello
Extra Fun Activities Illustrations copyright © 2006 by Laura Hart
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 1993 and reissued in paperback with Extra Fun Activities by Yearling, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books in 2006.
Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Visit us on the Web! randomhouse.com/kids
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in Publication Data is available upon request.
eBook ISBN: 978-0-385-37231-2
Trade paperback ISBN: 978-0-440-41015-7
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-385-31051-2
v3.1
First Delacorte Ebook Edition 2013
Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
For our wonderful mother and father,
Anna and Nathan Weinman
With love,
M.W.S. and R.W.
Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
First Page
Extra Fun Activities
About the Author
I, Nate the Great, am a sleepy detective.
My dog, Sludge, is a sleepy dog.
We have just finished a sleepy case.
It started a few hours ago.
It was two o’clock in the morning.
I was not busy.
I was sleeping.
Sludge was sleeping.
Suddenly the telephone rang.
It woke us up.
Who could be calling me
in the middle of the night?
“Hello,” I yawned.
It was Rosamond.
“A pillowcase is missing,” she said.
“Can you help me find it?”
“No,” I said, and I hung up.
The telephone rang again.
I answered it.
“Sleep on another pillowcase,”
I said.
“It’s not my pillowcase,”
Rosamond said.
“It belongs to Big Hex.”
“Your cat has a pillowcase?”
“Of course,” Rosamond said.
I yawned. “You want me to get up
from my sleep to look for
a cat’s pillowcase?”
“Yes. I thought that
Big Hex could sleep without it.
But he keeps pacing
up and down,
up and down,
up and down.…”
“Doesn’t he have a pillow to sleep on?”
“Of course. That’s why he
needs the pillowcase.”
Rosamond was strange in the daytime.
But she was even more strange
at night. I knew that she
would not let me sleep.
“I will take your pillowcase case,”
I said.
I put on my bathrobe and slippers.
I wrote a note to my mother.
Sludge and I went out into the night.
It was damp, dark, dreary, and shivery.
We hurried to Rosamond’s house.
Rosamond looked sleepy and strange,
but not in that order.
Her four cats were there.
Plain Hex, Little Hex, and
Super Hex were asleep.
Big Hex was pacing up and down.
I said, “What does his pillowcase
look like?”
“It’s beautiful,” Rosamond said.
“I made it myself.
I made four of them.
One for each cat.
All the same.
White with holes around the
open end, and a pretty ribbon
through the holes. See?”
Rosamond pointed to her
sleeping cats.
“Big Hex’s pillowcase looks
exactly like theirs?” I asked.
“Oh, no. Big Hex likes to
play with his case.
So now it’s slashed and shredded.
I keep washing it.
So it’s also shrunken and shriveled.
And he chewed up the ribbon.
So that’s gone.”
“Let me get this straight.
The missing pillowcase is
slashed and shredded,
shrunken and shriveled.
And it has holes around one end.
And you want it back?”
Rosamond smiled.
“Yes, Big Hex just loves it.”
“When was the last time you saw it?”
“This afternoon.
I washed all my cats’ things.
I had four laundry bags full.
One for each cat.
I even washed the bags.
Then I hung everything out to dry.”
“Did you hang four pillowcases?”
“Of course,” Rosamond said.
“One for each cat.
Then Annie came over with Fang.
I told her this was
my big laundry day for pets.
So we undressed Fang,
and I washed his sweater
and neck bandanna.
Then I hung them out to dry.”
“Then what?”
“When everything was dry,
I put it all in my laundry basket.”
“Were the four pillowcases there?”
“Yes.”
“Then what?”
“I brought the basket into the house
and dumped everything on my bed.
Then Annie and I tried
to dress Fang in his nice clean clothes.
Well, that’s the last time I’ll ever try
to dress that dog!”
“What happened?”
“Fang growled at me. He showed every
one of his teeth. I ran out of the room.
Then I yelled to Annie
to take Fang’s clothes home,
and to take Fang with them.
And that’s what she did.”
“Did you go back to your laundry
after that?”
“No. My cats were hungry,
so I fed them.
Then I read to my cats.”
“You read to your cats?”
“Fifteen minutes each day.”
“When did you get back to
your laundry?”
“Just before I went to bed.
I looked for the night things.
The pillowcases and nightshirts.
That’s when I found out
that Big Hex’s pillowcase was missing.
And one of Little Hex’s nightshirts.”
“You are missing the pillowcase and
a nightshirt?”
“No. I know where the nightshirt is.
Annie took it by mistake. I think she
just grabbed stuff in her arms
when she left.”
“Aha! Perhaps Annie took Big Hex’s
pillowcase by mistake.”
“No,” Rosamond said. “I called her
before I called you.”
“You woke her, too?”
“Well, I found out that she has
Little Hex’s nightshirt.
But she doesn’t have the pillowcase.
See what a good detective I am?”
I, Nate the Great, yawned.
“Since you are such a good detective,
“Sludge and I are going back to sleep.”
“Wait,” Rosamond said.
“I’m not a great detective.
You solve this case.”
“Perhaps your pillowcase is
still in this room,
or you lost it
between the clothesline
and this room.
Sludge and I will look.”
Sludge and I looked inside.
And outside. No luck.
I said, “Tell me,
has anyone else been in this room?”
“Only Annie and Fang and my cats.”
“Very well. I must go to
Annie’s house.
Call her and tell her
I’m coming.”
Sludge and I went out into the night.
It was colder than before.
I wrapped my bathrobe tighter around me.
I flashed my flashlight on the ground.
Perhaps Annie had taken the
pillowcase and did not know it.
Perhaps she had dropped it
between Rosamond’s house
and her own house.
But I did not see it.
Annie was waiting inside her house.
Fang was waiting, too. He was wearing
pajamas and a nightcap.
Fang had more clothes than I did.
Fang yawned. His teeth had never
looked bigger.
Annie said, “I know why you’re here.
But I don’t have the pillowcase.
Here is what happened.
Fang and I went over
to Rosamond’s house.
Fang was wearing his neck bandanna
and the sweater I got him
for his birthday.
Fang looked very snazzy.
But after Rosamond washed
and dried his clothes,
Fang didn’t want to wear them.
He growled at Rosamond.
She ran out of the room.
I stuffed Fang’s clothes
into a laundry bag,
and we left fast.”
“Aha,” I said. “You were in a hurry.”
“Yes. I even took Little Hex’s
nightshirt by mistake.
I found it when Rosamond
called me up.
I looked in Rosamond’s laundry bag.
I saw Fang’s sweater and bandanna
and Little Hex’s nightshirt.
Tomorrow I’m going to give back
the nightshirt and the laundry bag.”
“Could you also have grabbed
Big Hex’s pillowcase by mistake?”
Annie shrugged. “I don’t know.
But it’s not in the laundry bag now.”
“Did you stop anywhere
on the way home?”
“Yes, at Uncle Ned’s Day and Night Diner
to get some bones for Fang.
They save him some of their leftovers.”
“Aha! Something could have dropped
out of the laundry bag
at the diner,
or between Rosamond’s house
and the diner,
or between the diner
and your house.
What streets did you take
to and from the diner?”
“I went the shortest way.
Fang led me.
All the dogs know the shortest way.”
Sludge wagged his tail.
He liked the diner.
I thanked Annie for her help.
Then Sludge and I walked out
into the night.
It seemed colder and darker.
“To the diner,” I said to Sludge.
Sludge led the way.
I flashed my flashlight.
I did not see the pillowcase.
Sludge and I went inside.
The man behind the counter
looked down at Sludge.
He said, “Every dog in town
must have been in here today.
But lucky you,
I have a big bone left.”
Sludge was a happy dog.
I saw pancakes on the menu.
I was an unhappy detective.
I had no money.
But I spoke up.
“I am Nate the Great.
Ned knows me.
and some clues.
I will pay you tomorrow.
Right now I am looking
for a cat’s pillowcase.”
The man smiled and turned away.
He started to make the pancakes.
I saw a white cloth sticking
out of his back pocket.
Hmmm.
I peered over the counter
to take a closer look.
But the man grabbed the cloth
and wiped the counter with it.
The cloth was small and shredded, and
it had plenty of holes.
Was this the pillowcase?
Was the case solved?
The man put a plate of pancakes
in front of me.
I ate and thought.
Annie must have taken the pillowcase
by mistake and stuffed it
into the laundry bag.
When she stopped at the diner,
the pillowcase fell out.
After Annie and Fang left,
the man saw the pillowcase
and thought it was a rag.
I, Nate the Great, had to be sure.
I had to get that rag!
The man stuffed it back
into his pocket.
Then he bent ov
er.
So did I, Nate the Great.
I reached for the rag.
I pulled it out of his pocket.
I spread it out.
I tried to open it up.
It wouldn’t open.
It was not a pillowcase.
It was just a rag.
I stuffed it back
into the man’s pocket.
It was time to leave.
But Sludge had not finished
his bone.
“Do you have a doggie bag?” I asked.
The man handed me a bag.
I put the bone
in the bag.
“You can finish your bone at home,”
I said to Sludge.
Sludge and I went out into the night.
“Now we must walk the streets
between the diner and
Rosamond’s house,”
I said. “Lead the way.”
Sludge and I walked and walked.
I did not see the pillowcase.
I saw newspapers being delivered.
I heard the clinking of milk bottles.
I saw the sun coming up.
“The moon is going down
and the sun is coming up,
and I still have not
solved this case,” I said.
Sludge was sniffing the doggie bag.
Suddenly he put his teeth into it.
CRUNCH!!!
He ripped the bag and grabbed the bone.
Was Sludge hungry,
or was he trying to tell me something?
Where was the pillowcase?
We could not find it
at Rosamond’s house.
It was not in the laundry bag
that Annie took home.
We could not find it
on the streets
or in the diner.
Perhaps there was something
Rosamond and Annie had not told me.
But they had told me
the same story about
what had happened
at Rosamond’s house.
Except … for one small thing!
Suddenly I knew that
Rosamond and Annie
had both been wrong.
“Come!” I said to Sludge.
Sludge and I rushed back
to Annie’s house.
It was hard to do.
My bed slippers were wearing out.
Annie was still awake.
I was glad about that.
Fang was fast asleep.
I was glad about that, too.
“I, Nate the Great, know
where the pillowcase is,” I said.
“You have it.”
“No, I don’t,” Annie said.
“It is not in the laundry bag.”