Nate the Great and the Hungry Book Club

Nate the Great #26

by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat, Mitchell Sharmat, Jody Wheeler (Illustrator)

These chapter books introduce beginning readers to the detective mystery genre. Perfect for the Common Core, kids can problem-solve with Nate, using logical thinking to solve mysteries! 

Rosamond has started a book club called Rosamond’ s Ready Readers. But she claims there’s an evil page monster on the loose. This monster has ripped and ruined a page of the cookbook Rosamond uses to make treats for the club.

Nate the Great and his dog, Sludge, go to the next meeting of the book club . . . as undercover detectives. All the members are there. They are reading a book when one of Rosamond’s Ready Readers discovers that a page is missing. Has the evil page monster struck again?

Nate and Sludge know they have a real case. Their search for evidence takes them to Rosamond’s kitchen and to a school book sale where a librarian gives them important clues. Can the pancake-eating detective and his bonemunching partner solve their hungriest case yet?

Genres: Mystery, Childrens, Detective, Chapter Books, Kids, Juvenile, Fiction

64 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Marjorie Weinman Sharmat was an American children's writer. She wrote more than 130 books for children and teens and her books have been translated into several languages. They have won awards including Book of the Year by the Library of Congress or have become selections by the Literary Guild.
Perhaps Sharmat's most popular work features the child detective Nate the Great. He was inspired by and named after her father, who lived to see the first Nate book published. One story, Nate the Great Goes Undercover, was adapted as a made-for-TV movie that won the Los Angeles International Children's Film Festival Award. Sharmat's husband Mitchell Sharmat expanded Nate's storyline by creating Olivia Sharp, his cousin and fellow detective. Husband and wife wrote four Olivia Sharp books published 1989 to 1991. During the 1990s, their son Craig Sharmat (then in his thirties) wrote three Nate books with his mother. In the late 2010s, their other son Andrew Sharmat co-wrote the last two Nate books written while Marjorie Weinman Sharmat was alive. With Marjorie Weinman Sharmat's passing in 2019 Andrew has continued writing the series with Nate the Great and the Earth Day Robot (2021).
In the mid-1980s Sharmat wrote three books published in 1984 and 1985 under the pseudonym Wendy Andrews.
Sharmat also wrote the Sorority Sisters series, eight short novels published in 1986 and 1987. They are romantic fiction with a sense of humor. They are set in a California public high school (day school for ages 14 to 18, approximately).

Reviews

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for early readers. And of course since I'm a librarian I love that it's about books. I'll be adding this to the collection at school.

[Nielson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this episode of Nate the Great, Nate is on the hunt for the evil monster who tears, rips, and ruins books! (As a librarian, I could really sympathize with his case...I wanted him to find the evil monster that would dare treat books like that:)) But before long, he is also on the hunt for the missing page....it has turned into a double case!! Using his great skills of deduction, Nate the Great is able to figure out both mysteries! This book, along with any other Nate the Great detective story, is a great way to get kids into reading. The repetition of words and interesting plot are sure to keep their attention and build their reading skills

[babyhippoface · Rating 2 out of 5]

Am I the only one who felt like an idiot when I read this because I couldn't solve the mystery? Even after Nate solved it, it still didn't make sense to me. How ya figure, Nate?

Rosamond has started a book club for her friends and their pets, but things go awry when first her cookbook and then the book they're reading each have a page torn out. Can Nate the Great solve the mystery and save the book club? Despite what I thought of the slight story, young readers who love Nate the Great will eagerly wait for their chance to read this newest addition to the series.

[midnightfaerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book my 6 yr old loved, a little old for my preschoolers. A solid reading level 2 book, this reader has a good amount of advanced vocabulary words, but not so long that it discourages a new reader. Used it for his read out loud book, which was perfect. It took about 15 mins for him to read and had just enough new vocabulary words to make it challenging. Also, it was a fun and interesting story he could get into. He liked it so much, he asked for more by this author. Great reading book!

[Schmobes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was great! Kiddo loved it. It had more twists in the case than others we have read. It also had more chapters. Gave Kiddo a sense of accomplishment. Good level 3 to level 3.5.

[Jane Maple · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rosamond is starting a book club and she has a case for Nate. Her cookbook had a page ripped and ruined while she was making treats. The next day when Nate goes to the bookclub Rosamond reads Harvard the Hedgehog about a Hedgehog that is always late, but there is a ripped page in this book. Rosamond thinks Fang stole the page, Nate goes home and eats pancakes and thinks. He returns and proves that the kitchen table is too high for Fang to have reached. Instead Nate says that Little Hex got the cookbook page since it had tuna fish on it, but that doesn't answer the question on the Harvard Hedgehog book. Nate learns that Rosamond got the book at a book fair and that Annie was there too and Fang knocked down Rosamond's pile of books. Nate goes to the book fair and talks to a librarian "I knew she was a librarian because she had a badge on her shirt that said LIBRARIAN. Sometimes being a detective is easy." (cute) Nate buys another copy of Harvard the Hedgehog. He sees that on the missing page Harvard is posed in front of a big clock and he remembers that Harry, Annie's little brother, said that was his favorite part of this book. He realizes that when Fang knocked over Rosamond's pile of books the books must have gotten confused and Rosamond got the book missing a page while Annie got one that had all the pages (which is where Harry read the page with the big clock.)

Extra Activities: (not many) Just Information on Hedgehogs and jokes

[nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beautiful respect to books and the power of community when we have books in hand together. Less of a mystery and really just Nate going around with his friends appreciating the aesthetic of being a bookworm.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another (nearly) solvable mystery! But now I need to figure out the rest of the *Harvard Hedgehog* story. How do you think Harvard finally learns to be on time, or should he even worry about it since he's content already?

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Rosamond has started a book club but someone has eaten! a page from one of her books. She hires Nate and Sludge to investigate the crime. Logical thinking and good reasoning skills win the day! And having eaten some pancakes.

[Maximilian Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book because I like mysteries. I also liked this book because I like books.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book because I like books. I also enjoyed this book because I liked the part when Rosemund started a book club named "Rosemund's Ready Readers."

[Mr.Zhou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very smart. And Nate is really sensible!

[One Code 431 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reusing clue great idea but not for a great detective 😂

[Shannon Bradbury · Rating 5 out of 5]

My boys love these books. Their so much fun & interesting to learn how the case is solved!

[Water Viper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading this little detective book

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nate the Great is at it again. He is out there being a detective and solving mysteries. This mystery centers on Rosamond's book club. Someone at the book club seems to be tearing, ripping and ruining her books. What makes this a little more complicated is that the book club is made up of animals as well as people. Nate the great is excited to have a real case. Nate uses deductive reasoning skills to figure out what the monster is that is tearing up and ruining the pages of these books. By doing this, the author is also encouraging the reader to use their deductive reasoning sills. I really like how book shows that Nate uses a lot of evidence to support his detective work. He uses pictures of crime scenes, he questions other people. He watches how the animals and people act, etc.
I think this is a fun installment into the Nate the Great series. I believe students will like the illustrations, done by Jody Wheeler. They are bright and colorful and encourage children to look at them. I especially like Nate's detective outfit that he wears.
This would be a great book for first to third graders. The short chapters would be a great introduction to chapter books. Children will like that they are reading a chapter book, but at the same time, it is not too overwhelming for them. The pictures will also give the students more confidence as they are reading, especially since you have to look at some of the pictures because it gives you clues to the story. I think this would be a great real alone or read-along book as long as the pictures can be shown and everyone can see them.

[Mercedes Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about Nate’s friend Rosamond. One day Rosamond went to Nate’s house to drop off some books. She told him she started a book club. Rosamond left and went home. When she got home wanted to use her cookbook to make snacks for her book club. She saw that a page was missing from her cookbook. She called Nate for help. She needed him to help her find the missing page. Nate came over when her book club meeting started. They read a book called Harvard the Hedgehog. A page was missing from this book too. That is when the case began. Ater the book club meeting Nate and Rosamond decided to start at the beginning. They started the case at the book fair. They found another copy of the book at the book fair. They found out which page was missing. Thye left and went back to Rosamond’s house to investigate the missing page. One suspect in the case was Fang Annie’s dog. Nate was able to figure out that Fang did not do it. Nate keeps searching for clues and finds out who took the missing pages from the books. This book is really good.

[Kcrosland · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was ok but a lot of it didn't make sense because Rosamond book club included her animals, they can't read. When pages were missing in her book why would she call the person a page monster, who saids that. Even when Nate was trying to solve the case he went to the gym where they were having the book sale, and walked up to a lady and said I knew she was a librarian because she had a badge that said librarian "duh". And another thing what dog likes chicken noodle soup, thats what Nate was going to tell Annie to feed her dog Fang. This book was kind of weird not like the other books I've begain to read about Nate The Great.

[Mango · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nate the Great books aren't that great. I hated them when I was a kid, yet I would always read them.The endings of the books were always the same, they figured out what or who did it. And where are Nate's parents? They just let their son walk around everywhere and question people. That is very irresponsible of them. Nate the Great books always made me fall asleep and always wasted my time. I would not recommend this book to anyone, especially little kids. If kids want real mystery, they should read Sherlock Homes.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book to my niece and was reminded of the good times I had reading this series of books as a child. It is an intelligent, humorous story, with fun characters. I like how Nate the Great works to gather information and solve the mystery so the reader can try to figure out the clues at the same time. I think for full enjoyment I would have needed to be a little more familiar with the Nate the Great characters, but it is certainly a stand-alone book. It was a good book to read aloud, and well laid out into small chapters.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

When an Evil Page Monster begins ripping, tearing, and shredding page in innocent books, Nate the Great (and Sludge) take the case. But soon they have more than one case on their hands (paws) and not many clues. Will Nate be able to pull this mystery off?

It's been quite a while since I read a Nate the Great book, and I have to say this was an enjoyable read.

And it has my new favorite joke:

Why did the elephant use his trunk as a bookmark?
That way he nose where he stopped reading!

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our girls (especially our youngest) have always loved Nate the Great stories. And this one involves books, which is wonderful, except that two of them get damaged. The story is entertaining - classic Nate...the Great. We've read this one a couple of times.

[Manuel Alvarez · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a good book for my 7 year old she enjoyed guessing who might of took the missing pages. She also liked the idea of a kids book club. She made a point that it is good that all kids have different ideas of the same book. Overall I liked the book and recommend it for reading.

[Anne Beier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great je series

[Tate Rytky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm. The last two Nate the Great books were pretty good. This one was just confusing and not good. Hit or miss, this series.

[Sandra Vicars · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nate the Great is on the case of the Hungry Book Club. One page is torn, another is missing. Nate follows the clues to solve the case. A great easy read for students that love to read.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like pancakes, you'll love Nate the Great.

[Katt Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Missing pages from books??? What a dilemma! It's up to Nate to find out who is stealing pages from books before the book club is completely ruined!

[Eugene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as other stories we read, was a little hard to follow, with two cases going on at the same time and numerous people irrelevant to the story. David is the best!

[Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rosmand was having a bookclub and one of the pages were missing. (tohardy the net hog?)