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Nate the Great #25
Nate the Great Talks Turkey
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! A giant turkey is on the loose! Nate, the great detective, and his dog, Sludge, hear the news on the radio. But Nate doesn't want to take a case that everyone in town is on. Not even when Claude claims that he saw the turkey, then lost him in the woods. He holds up a turkey feather to prove it. Now Sludge wants the case. Claude wants Sludge, and off they go. Miles away . . . Nate's cousin Olivia Sharp--herself a detective--hears about the missing turkey on TV. Before he can say gobble, gobble, Olivia appears on Nate's doorstep; and just as quickly, she's off hunting for the feathered creature. It looks as if Nate can sit this case out . . . until he turns on his TV and a picture of the turkey flashes on. Suddenly Nate is moving just as fast! Now Nate, Olivia, Sludge, and Claude are all in pursuit of the turkey. Are two (or more) detectives better than one? From talking turkey to stalking turkey--will every detective come out a winner?
178 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2006
48 people are currently reading
209 people want to read
About the author
Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
250 books116 followersMarjorie 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).
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).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
April 9, 2024
A fun Thanksgiving read where you can count on your friends to help link you to keys to the mysteries. I stan Olivia. So smart, so sassy, and doesn’t take no for an answer when it comes to her duties and intellect. She is the girl for Nate. Not Rosamond !!!
November 3, 2010
Longer than the older Nate the Great stories, this one seems to drag on a bit. The addition of his fabulously wealthy cousin, Olivia, is interesting in an Eloise kind of way. The story occurs in the summer, but Thanksgiving is mentioned. This turkey story would be good to read during that holiday, as long as children didn't start thinking of turkeys as pets and get upset that one was about to be eaten!
February 14, 2014
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!
April 29, 2024
This book definitely captured my attention. Nate the Great is a good series. I like it. This book was definitely mysterious. They were trying to find this turkey. This book was just good.
May 16, 2018
I enjoyed this book because I like turkeys. I did not like this book because I did not like the part when Nate the Great found out that there were actually two turkeys on the loose.
February 6, 2019
Involves Nate's cousin Olivia who I don't enjoy. She is super rich in a way that I can't imagine is particularly relatable for most kids and overall I am sad how the Nate the Great series which started off with a nice urban feel with a diverse group of kids is now, based on the illustrations and stories more suburban.
The story starts with Claude, who typically looses things having found a turkey, which he was very proud of. He then lost the turkey and wants Nate to help him find it again. Nate has just heard a radio report about a turkey in a grocery parking lot. Nate doesn't want to take the case since he says everyone else is working it according to the news broadcast. However Nate thinks Sludge wants to take the case. Claude has a feather that Sludge can sniff. Nate tells Sludge that he is a great detective and he can work the case on his own. Olivia decided to stay home while her parents were vacationing in Nantucket so she could do detective work, but when no jobs come up she gets her limo driver to drive her to the family's private plane so she can join her parents (like I said above perfectly relatable that such a thing would happen to your random elementary student, right? Give me a break. Additionally once she gets on the case she often makes her limo driver assist her while he keeps calling this elementary student "Boss" and Nate the Great "Mr. Great" which OK that last one is kind of cute.) While on the plane she sees a tv report about the turkey and calls Nate to tell him she is going to come and help him solve the case. Nate doesn't want to join Olivia on the case so she demands the names of his friends which he tells her. She finds Oliver who typically follows people but Olivia instead follows Oliver who leads him to Rosamond's house. Rosamond has started a Rent-a-Pet service. Olivia also meets Annie and Fang. Olivia complements Fang, which makes Annie happy but than she sees Fang's teeth and decides not to recruit Annie for her turkey finding team so Olivia is on her own. Nate is getting tired of waiting. He is watching a news report about the turkey which flashes a picture and he knows that he needs to join the case. He talks to the people Olivia talked to try to track down his cousin. He goes to Lowell's Feed and Pet Supply store and asks about someone buying turkey food and gets the address. When he gets there he finds a big white turkey and Sludge outside the cage. Claude is not there because he got lost. They find Claude, Olivia and the limo driver all at the same time. Olivia is put out because the turkey is not the one she was looking for. Nate explains that their were actually two turkeys - he knew because of the picture on the news versus the white feather Claude showed Sludge. Olivia finds the other turkey by buying lots of food from Lowell's store.
Extras: Notes on Turkeys; and the parts of Turkey (snood, wattle, caruncles, beard, leg spur); turkey jokes; and an interview with a turkey caller who competes in turkey calling contests.
The story starts with Claude, who typically looses things having found a turkey, which he was very proud of. He then lost the turkey and wants Nate to help him find it again. Nate has just heard a radio report about a turkey in a grocery parking lot. Nate doesn't want to take the case since he says everyone else is working it according to the news broadcast. However Nate thinks Sludge wants to take the case. Claude has a feather that Sludge can sniff. Nate tells Sludge that he is a great detective and he can work the case on his own. Olivia decided to stay home while her parents were vacationing in Nantucket so she could do detective work, but when no jobs come up she gets her limo driver to drive her to the family's private plane so she can join her parents (like I said above perfectly relatable that such a thing would happen to your random elementary student, right? Give me a break. Additionally once she gets on the case she often makes her limo driver assist her while he keeps calling this elementary student "Boss" and Nate the Great "Mr. Great" which OK that last one is kind of cute.) While on the plane she sees a tv report about the turkey and calls Nate to tell him she is going to come and help him solve the case. Nate doesn't want to join Olivia on the case so she demands the names of his friends which he tells her. She finds Oliver who typically follows people but Olivia instead follows Oliver who leads him to Rosamond's house. Rosamond has started a Rent-a-Pet service. Olivia also meets Annie and Fang. Olivia complements Fang, which makes Annie happy but than she sees Fang's teeth and decides not to recruit Annie for her turkey finding team so Olivia is on her own. Nate is getting tired of waiting. He is watching a news report about the turkey which flashes a picture and he knows that he needs to join the case. He talks to the people Olivia talked to try to track down his cousin. He goes to Lowell's Feed and Pet Supply store and asks about someone buying turkey food and gets the address. When he gets there he finds a big white turkey and Sludge outside the cage. Claude is not there because he got lost. They find Claude, Olivia and the limo driver all at the same time. Olivia is put out because the turkey is not the one she was looking for. Nate explains that their were actually two turkeys - he knew because of the picture on the news versus the white feather Claude showed Sludge. Olivia finds the other turkey by buying lots of food from Lowell's store.
Extras: Notes on Turkeys; and the parts of Turkey (snood, wattle, caruncles, beard, leg spur); turkey jokes; and an interview with a turkey caller who competes in turkey calling contests.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 24, 2020
My Review: Munchkin loves the Nate the Great books so we thought this would be a fun book to read for Thanksgiving. Turns out it isn't set during the fall, but it is about turkeys. This was a bit of a different book because Nate the Great is not on the case. We also get a bit of a peek into another series about a young girl detective Olivia Sharp which might interest other readers. I like how the clues are dropped in this book, you have to pay attention to not only the words but the illustrations as well to figure it out. There are also some great extras included in the end of the book, some turkey facts, turkey jokes and an article on turkey calling. While it wasn't about Thanksgiving, this still turned out to be a great book to read over the holiday break!
November 15, 2017
This is a detective mystery book. I grew up reading mystery books, especially Nate the Great books, but I just recently read this book and loved it! It is a newer book, but it still continues to keep the great repetition, the entertainment, and humor that all the Nate the Great books offer. I think this would be a good book for students who are in grades 2-4.
November 11, 2025
Nate the great is a sweet series and this one was a fine addition. This is about a missing turkey and Nate and his cousin Olivia along with the rest of the crew trying to find it. I think this would be better if we were more entrenched in the series instead of just picking up random ones, but it was still cute.
March 14, 2017
I borrowed this book NYPL and read it on the Kindle. I love this book because I love detectives stories. The ending was better than what I expected. Also, the illustrations are very nice.
November 1, 2017
She didn't like this one as much as the ones about Nate...this was a different kiddo, and not as fun in her opinion.
December 20, 2017
Book was a good read for my kids who are 7 and 9 boys they like the book
January 5, 2019
A nice story about turkeys. Interesting.
March 25, 2019
Great series for young readers!
May 12, 2019
Cute, quirky short story about finding a turkey on the loose. Would be funny read aloud. Introduces some of the strategies and tools a detective would use to solve a case.
June 21, 2023
This was a fun detective adventure and the ending is an interesting twist.
October 27, 2023
No one asked you to be here, Olivia!
November 24, 2024
Cute, smart, funny. But due to an unfortunate illustration of 'the first Thanksgiving' as it never happened, I cannot recommend this indiscriminately.
May 29, 2008
The idea of Nate the Great is fun, but I wasn't too enthralled by this story. I have to agree with Nate... there wasn't any point in him wandering around the neighborhood looking for a turkey. I didn't get why his lame cousin spent a ton of money to come over and look for the lame turkey either. Why was this loose turkey all over the local news, much less the national news? Basically, the story left a lot to be desired.
As far as the writing goes, I didn't like how short and choppy all of the sentences were. I also didn't like how the writing was not put into paragraphs --- sometimes I had no idea who was actually speaking. I also thought it was kind of confusing how the perspective changed between Nate and Olivia all the time. I eventually got it with the pictures and the hat or boa on the chapter headings, but I was confused for a bit, and kids may or may not be as well.
As far as the writing goes, I didn't like how short and choppy all of the sentences were. I also didn't like how the writing was not put into paragraphs --- sometimes I had no idea who was actually speaking. I also thought it was kind of confusing how the perspective changed between Nate and Olivia all the time. I eventually got it with the pictures and the hat or boa on the chapter headings, but I was confused for a bit, and kids may or may not be as well.
October 30, 2011
Gua inget bangets pertama kali ngeliat seri Nate ini di Gramedia Central Park, di sana banyaaaak bangets seri Nate-nya, tapi sayangnya kaga ada satu pun yang dibuka jadi karena sama sekali nge-blank plus lagi kaga diskon pula jadilah gua kaga beli, ahahaha..
Ngga taunyaaa.. sekarang pada didiskon boo, 70% pulaa, mantaps khan tuhh, hihihi..
Bukunya lumayan sih.. pendek2 kalimatnya and kadang diulang2 pulaa.. belon lagi kadang khan ada si Olivia Sharp, sepupunya Nate, jadi makin diulang2lah kalimatnya dari sudut yang sedikit berbeda, haha..
Apakah gua pengen baca buku lainnya? Kalo masih diskon sih boleh lah dibeli tapi kalo kaga sih mikir2 dhe, buat nyoba baca2 yang lain, siapa tau ada yang lebih nyantol dibanding seri yang satu ini, wakakakakak :p
*kesimpulan macam apa pula inii!*
Ngga taunyaaa.. sekarang pada didiskon boo, 70% pulaa, mantaps khan tuhh, hihihi..
Bukunya lumayan sih.. pendek2 kalimatnya and kadang diulang2 pulaa.. belon lagi kadang khan ada si Olivia Sharp, sepupunya Nate, jadi makin diulang2lah kalimatnya dari sudut yang sedikit berbeda, haha..
Apakah gua pengen baca buku lainnya? Kalo masih diskon sih boleh lah dibeli tapi kalo kaga sih mikir2 dhe, buat nyoba baca2 yang lain, siapa tau ada yang lebih nyantol dibanding seri yang satu ini, wakakakakak :p
*kesimpulan macam apa pula inii!*
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February 23, 2008
Boy detective Nate the Great, his dog, Sludge, and his wealthy cousin Olivia Sharp are trying to find a turkey loose in the city in this latest addition to the popular series. Nate and Olivia take turns narrating the chapters, which have plenty of dialogue and enough action to keep readers’ attention. The big problem for this beginning chapter book comes in the physical layout: there are no paragraph indentations, so it occasionally becomes difficult to decipher which character in the dialogue is speaking.
September 5, 2010
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.
April 12, 2015
My special needs son and I normally really like Nate the Great books; he with his friends and his dog. But this book was horrible! Keep repeating what it just said and bouncing back and forth from Nate talking and his cousin talking. REALLY? I couldn't keep track little long a child keeping track. I got about half way through and then lost my son and lost myself so had to stop. I was very disappointed. Also one doesn't know if this was suppose to be a Thanksgiving book or a summer book the way they keep bouncing back and forth talking. One never knew. Very disappointed in this book.
November 7, 2009
I am 8 so found this an easy read. Mom really got it for my lil sis.
Would you believe I found an ERROR!! In page 73, the phone number in text does not match the one on the illustration!!
I used to say that a possible career for me could be as an editor. I love reading but not so much the writing.
Would you believe I found an ERROR!! In page 73, the phone number in text does not match the one on the illustration!!
I used to say that a possible career for me could be as an editor. I love reading but not so much the writing.
April 6, 2012
My son's first grade class read a Nate the Great book and then went to see the play on a field trip. My boy is now crazy for Nate the Great! Cute chapter book for a first grader. Simple, pictures on every page, able to be read in one sitting, and the characters get to do fun things. My son is asking for me to get him another one and I happily will get it at the library for him.
November 23, 2015
I liked a couple things about it, like the fact that Nate let his friend "solve" the mystery with Sludge. Overall, I feel the original series was better than the ones written by the author's children.
June 7, 2016
A bit of a longer Nate the Great book, it was still overall enjoyable. Nate the Great is joined by his cousin, Olivia, as everyone in town is looking for a turkey that had sat on a car in the supermarket parking lot.
March 2, 2008
I learned that two things can be going on at the same time and that you don't even know!
May 23, 2008
I thought there were too many words crammed into the pages. It was confusing that the "I" kept changing from Nate the Great to Olivia. Maybe I just chose a bad book from the series.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews