Customer Reviews

Nate the Great and the Monster Mess

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For over twenty adventures now, Nate the Great, the young detective, has searched for his friends' missing things. He's searched for missing stamps, weeds, boring beach bags, missing pets, musical notes, stolen bases, and even saved the King of Sweden (kinda!). In all of this, his mom has been quietly supportive. He leaves a note on the refrigerator to tell her what case he's working on, that he will be back, and that he loves her. But in NATE THE GREAT AND THE MONSTER MESS, Nate investigates the disappearance of something his mother has lost: a special cookie recipe. If Nate and his dog Sludge cannot find the list, Nate will never again enjoy Strawberry Draculas, Chocolate Frankensteins, and Cinnamon Werewolves (his favorite cookie!). Nate is on the search, and he's reluctantly rounding up the usual suspects.

Marjorie Weinman Sharmat is the author of over twenty Nate the Great adventures, including NATE THE GREAT STALKS STUPIDWEED, NATE THE GREAT AND THE BORING BEACH BAG, NATE THE GREAT AND THE HALLOWEEN HUNT, and NATE THE GREAT AND THE MUSHY VALENTINE. She has written dozens of books for young readers. She named Nate the Great after her father. Her books have been named as Children's Choice books and Junior Literary Guild selections, and been picked as Books of the Year by the Library of Congress.

Although most of the Nate the Great series have been written as long stories, this book is one of the series' more recent additions to be broken into chapters. The short, punchy chapters make great stopping places for reading out loud when traveling, or to dole out as rewards-or for those nights when little listeners don't want to go to bed right away and can ask for "just one more chapter." Reading Nate the Great books out loud is always a treat, especially for the reader willing to do character voices and make the most of the terse, first-person narrative. In this book, Nate encounters Annie and her dog Fang, Rosamond and her cats, and Oliver who follows everybody-including Nate the Great on this case. Again, Marjorie Sharmat makes perfect use of logic and clues, building an intriguing mystery that young minds will ferret out and understand.

The entire Nate the Great series is recommended to younger readers and parents who love reading to their children that might have tired of (or memorized!) all of the rhyming Dr. Seuss books. This series makes a great transition to leap from to Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys later.

This is a great book. My son is 6 and loves reading this book and feeling like a detective and he even dresses up and goes on hunts for clues like he is Nate the Great. It is also full of basic sight words, to get kids into reading chapter books. The words are easy, but the pages are longer so kids feel that they are reading harder material.