by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat & Mitchell Sharmat
I’m afraid I needed a bit of a palate cleanser after reading You, so I went with Nate the Great. There are approximately 8 bajillion Nate the Great books and they are in that sweet spot of beginning chapter book so if your kid likes them, you could keep them on a steady diet of early reader mysteries for awhile. I would have loved to start you with the original, Nate the Great
Nate the Great is a boy detective who works with the help of his dog, Sludge. He has been hired to be a bodyguard for an owl who can’t fly. He joins the owl on a cross country train trip. On the train, he interviews potential suspects and then falls asleep. When he awakes the owl is gone! Nate must think fast to solve the mystery.
My copy of the book includes a non-fiction section at the end with extra notes and activities.
This is a great pick for kids who are advanced readers. Even a kindergartener or first graders who could manage the vocabulary could understand it and it wouldn’t be too scary. On the other hand, it also works for struggling third grade readers. Interspersed with pictures (in my copy, they’re even in COLOR!) it’s accessible, enjoyable and versatile.
In the book itself:
Sex, Nudity, Dating – None.
Profanity – None.
Death, Violence and Gore – The owl eats mice (not during the book or anything, we just learn that she does in order to know how to care for her).
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – None.
In the extra activities section:
Sex, Nudity, Dating – None.
Profanity – None.
Death, Violence and Gore – We learn what an owl eats (hint: small animals) and also that they spit out pellets of fur and tiny bones. We learn that owls have sharp talons to tear their food apart and that they eat as many as six mice a day. An illustration the kind of guard you see outside of Buckingham Palace shows that guard holding a rifle. Notes on Ancient Egypt tell us that people believed Egyptian kings could come back to life and that his body was valuable even after he died. It also explains that the pyramids are tombs. A joke in the Jokes and Riddles section reads: “How do you know owls are wiser than chickens?” “Have you ever heard of Kentucky Fried Owl?”
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – None.
