Classic Monday: Nate the Great

"I, Nate the Great,

am a detective.

This morning I was a cold detective.

I was standing in the snow

with my dog, Sludge,

building a snow dog

and a snow detective.

They looked like Sludge and me.

They were cold and white and wet.

And so were we."

Nate the Great and the Snowy Trail

You gotta love Nate the Great: his hard-boiled monologue, his love of pancakes, his determination to solve the case. He's been around for nearly 40 years and still stands as a classic chapter book for readers beginning to read independently.


Kids today aren't going to get the Joe Friday tone to Nate's speech, the short, clipped sentences, the just-the-facts-ma'am attitude, but parents who grew up on Dragnet re-runs or have caught them on cable will recognize the similarity.


Line lengths are short, but there are quite a few per page. Often an entire page is covered in text. The stories are accessible, always involving other kids and their mysteries. The stories offer the opportunity to stop and predict what might happen -- a good higher-order thinking skill. The books are usually under 50 pages.


Lots of sight words here, and lots of repeated words, mainly because of how Nate talks. The repetition is nice for early readers because they get practice with the same words. However, this repetition makes them not a good choice for reading aloud -- you, the parent, will find yourself getting either a little bored with or annoyed by the text -- wonderful practice, but a slow read for competent readers.




There are about 25 books in Marjorie Sharmat's series, though several since the 1990s have been co-written with Craig or Mitchell Sharmat, who are presumably her sons. Nate the Great remains a good choice for beginning readers.

Usborne Young Reading

After my last post, I got to thinking about good transitional books and wondering why I don't have more of them. So I dug into my stash of readers, which I have handily sorted into plastic shoebox bins and keep stored on top of a bookcase in my bedroom. In my box labeled "Level 3 Readers & Early Chapter Books" I found a couple Usborne Early Reading books.



These are much like the Stepping Stone Full Color Chapter books, in that they are true chapter books with full-length sentences, but they have brightly colored pictures on every page. They come in two levels -- Series One and Series Two, with the text length in the series two books being a little longer and more complex. There is a Series Three, but the subject matter is definitely for older kids -- not so much transitional.

Most of the titles in either series are remade classics -- books like Beauty and the Beast, and Sleeping Beauty, as well as The Adventures of King Arthur, Robin Hood, The Prince and the Pauper, The Wind in the Willows, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Phantom of the Opera and so on. There are a few original titles, some informative, like The Story of the Olympics and The Story of Castles, and some original titles like The Incredible Present and Mystery Mansion. The titles in Series One are overwhelmingly fairy tales, while Series Two seems to be mainly classical literature and informational.

Usborne is a British company which publishes a lot of great kids books, and they are particularly well know for their illustrations. These books are no exception -- not great art, but highly colorful and inviting pictures compliment the stories well. They are well suited to their target audience of 6-8 year olds. The example below really highlights what Usborne does so well: provides pictures with a lot going on in them. Kids will enjoy poring over them to pick out details. Not all the books are illustrated like this, but many are.


This is a big series -- the list of titles in the two series numbers well over 100. You can see the full list at Usborne's website, but keep in mind that this site is located in England and some books won't be available here. Amazon and Barnes and Noble have several of these books, but not nearly as many as Usborne actually publishes. I feel fortunate to have stumbled on a couple hard-bound copies at my local used book store. They are wonderful examples of their type and well worth searching out if you have a child who needs a nudge to the next level of reading.

Stepping Stones Chapter Books

I am always on the lookout for good transitional books; books that allow my kids to move beyond early chapter books like the Henry and Mudge series or the Level 2 and 3 readers. These early books often have larger print and color illustrations, and the text is usually arranged on the page in short lines, but I want my 6 year old to start moving into actual paragraphs, though still with larger print and lots of pictures.


I like the Stepping Stones series from Random House Children's Books, but haven't really considered them transitional since they are more true chapter books, with smaller print and black and white pictures. Just this weekend, though, we hit the jackpot at Half Price Books.




Stepping Stones has a few books which they call "Full Color Chapter Books." These are BRILLIANT. They're usually under 50 pages, the print is larger, but not huge, text appears in full paragraphs and the pictures are in full color and somewhat more frequent than true chapter books, about ever 3rd page or so.


I bought all they had (3 books) and went on a hunt for more online and found several more -- Monsters (not pictured), King Arthur's Courage, Unicorns, The Magic of Merlin, Mermaids, (all classified as fantasy) Gold Rush Winter (history), and Ice Wreck (true story). The books classified as 'humor" were fictional stories, the fantasy books range between fiction and a kind of fantasy non-fiction which traces mythical creatures through legend and history. History is historical fiction and True Stories relate the tales of actual people -- Ice Wreck is the story of Ernest Shackleton's disastrous voyage to the South Pole.


One of the books I bought was Dragons, and I particularly liked that it referenced a number of classical sources, including Beowulf, St. George and the Dragon, and the Norse myths. Remember Cultural Capital? Little things like this -- just a mention of Beowulf or Thor -- lay the groundwork for future learning.

You can check out the whole range of Stepping Stones books at the Random House Site. Unfortunately, they didn't provide a separate listing of just the full-color chapter books -- they're scattered among the other categories and you have to have good eyes to detect the tiny (on the web pictures) line that says "full color chapter book" versus "chapter book."

I was tickled to bits to find these and am keeping an eye peeled for further copies. I hate to pay full price for books like this because children can grow past them so quickly, so finding them used was a real bonus. They're really a wonderful bridge to the next level of reading.

Moongobble and Me

This is a chapter book series by Bruce Coville, of the Unicorn Chronicles fame. At 80 pages, it's geared toward 7-10 year olds, particularly those who are past the early chapter books like Henry and Mudge and need something with a little more length and complexity but aren't quite ready to give up pictures. The Dragon of Doom is the first in the series.

Edward, the narrator, lives with his mother in the village of Pigbone, where not much happens of any note until someone moves into the cottage at the top of the hill. That someone turns out to be Moongobble, an aspiring magician, and his talking toad. Moongobble hires Edward as his assistant, a position which provides Edward with much scope for excitement. Alas, Moongobble is a miserable magician; most of his spells end with the subject being turned into cheese and everyone in the vicinity being sprayed with green goo. The head of the Society of Magicians arrives to test Moongobble's skills and when all goes awry, sets Moongobble to a series of tasks. If he can complete them, he will earn to right to continue as a magician. The first task -- and the central event of the book -- is to rescue the Acorns of Alcoona from the Dragon of Doom.

The book has nice touches of humor, as when they are cleaning for the Master Magician's arrival and Moongobble tries to perform a spell that will send a breeze to blow away all the dust in the house and only succeeds in making the whole place smell like a fart (and that's the word the book uses, to my son's eternal delight). Then too, the Dragon of Doom turns out to be only 4 feet long, and is a figure of fun rather than fear. The pictures, which appear about every third page, are spaced just about right for kids who are moving past picture books, but still need illustrations to clarify the story and extend their interest in the text.

I bought this for my 6 year old with the idea that I would read it to him first, then as he becomes fully independent he can read it himself later. The book was a big hit. It's pure story, not trying to teach anything else (like the Magic Treehouse Books), just seeking to entertain. It works well as a read-aloud book because the action moves along at a nice clip. Fans of Coville's will find that this is in no way like the Unicorn Chronicles -- it's far less serious and complex -- but it's light and entertaining and not at all intimidating for beginning readers. Although the protagonist is a boy, it should be of equal interest for boys and girls. This is the first in a series of books that includes The Weeping Werewolf, The Evil Elves, The Mischief Monster and the soon-to-be-released Naughty Nork (coming out November 2009).