Nate the Great

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Nate the Great
San Francisco Detective
By Marjorie and Mitchell Sharmat
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Mystery fans, look no further! Nate the
Great, San Francisco Detective, by Marjorie and
Mitchell Sharmat is the book for you. Nate, a
kid detective, flies to San Francisco to visit
his cousin, Olivia, who is also a sleuth. While
Olivia is out on a case, Nate takes a call from
her friend, Duncan who says its the end of the
world. Actually, he had only lost his joke book,
Joke Stew, and needed to share a joke with a
friend at 200 that day. To help Duncan, Nate
retraces his clients steps. He searches Perrys
Pancake House where Duncan had breakfast and the
bag of leftover pancakes in Duncans freezer, but
there was no Joke Stew! Thinking that someone
had returned the book to Booksies Bookstore,
Nate and Duncan arrive there to explore aisles of
books and find it in the cooking section.
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• Building Background
• Journal Response
• In the Reading section of your journal, write
  your response to the following questions
• What do you do when youve lost something?
• How do you figure out where to search?

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Building Background
How a Detective Solves a Mystery
Start
End
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Vocabulary Power
Jen Wait a minute. You wore the jeans? Jon
Yes, how else would the zipper have broken? Jen
And your mother has already
the jeans? Jon Yes. I think I might have to
hire a --you know,
someone who solves mysteries. Jen Im no
detective, but I
know what happened to your Golden Cap. Jon
You do?
Jen Whats the matter Jon? Jon I lost my
bottle cap. Jen That doesnt sound so bad. Jon
Oh, its not an ordinary bottle cap. This
bottle cap is a Golden Cap. You
can turn it in for a prize at the Big Burger
Barn. Jen Why dont you ask you mother about
it? Jon I cant. She isnt home. She went to
the mall. The zipper on my new jeans broke.
re
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(Later, at the store) Woman The manager isnt
here, but Im her
. I help the manager with her work. How
can I help you? Jen My friend Jons mother
returned his jeans a little while ago. Im sure
he left something in the pocket. In fact, Im
he did. Can you
check? Woman Of course, I can. Oh, look! Here
is a bottle cap. Jen There you are, Jon. You
had a problem that needed to be solved, and I
took your . Jon
Yes, Jen, you solved The Case of the Missing
Bottle Cap. Now lets go to the Big Burger Barn
and find out what we won!
as
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ase
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Genre
Mystery
A mystery is a story about something that is not
known, understood, or explained.

• Look for
• characters and events that are realistic.
• a problem that the main character has to solve
  that might involve a crime.

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Preview

• Take a picture walk. Examine the illustrations
  closely.
• Read the chapter titles.
• Write 2-3 sentences predicting what you think
  will happen in the story. Include who, what
  happens, where.

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During Reading Part 1

• Read Chapters 1-5 with your partner.
• Complete these parts of the story map
• Characters
• Setting
• Problem
• Beginning

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Story Map
Characters
Setting
Problem
Beginning
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During Reading Part 2

• Read Chapters 6-10 with your partner.
• Complete these parts of the story map
• Middle
• Solution
• Ending

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Story Map
Middle
Solution
Ending
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After Reading
Directions Use your story map to write a
summary. Be sure to include the title and author
of the book in your topic sentence.
Topic Sentence Example If you enjoy mysteries,
then Nate the Great, San Francisco Detective by
Marjorie and Mitchell Sharmat is the book for you.