Nate the Great and the Tardy Tortoise

Nate the Great #16

by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat, Craig Sharmat

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and  someone is eating the flowers in Nate the Great's  garden. A green tortoise is slowly, slowly stepping  across the lawn, and Nate is slowly, slowly  following him. Where does Nate's green guest truly  belong? It may take all of Nate the Great's patience  and sharp eyesight to find out slowly.

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

48 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

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

[Mr. Cody · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the most engaging of the Nate the Great Series. Alas, still fun

[Sarah A · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a delightful book starring Nate the Great. He discovers a tortoise in his garden and decides to track down his home. Beautiful pictures, great easy language. Fun!

[Jane Maple · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nate wakes to find a tortoise eating the flowers in his garden. He goes to Rosamond to find out if she knows of anyone that lost a pet. She doesn't. He tries Claude, but he was just missing a sock. Nate goes to the vet since he figures all pets go to the vet. He meets Annie in the waiting room. Fang has a sore tooth. Annie says Nate is at the wrong type of vet, that he needs a reptile vet. As Nate is sitting in the waiting room, he thinks that he doesn't want to be bit by any of the reptile's in the waiting room. He realizes that the turtle left a trail of bit marks on the flowers. On the way he finds Claude's red sock, it is in bad condition. Nate follows it to find the owner, who tells Nate that the turtle is named Speedy. Nate and Sludge realize they are going to miss Speedy. Nate tells the owner he will come back to visit and creates a flag using Claude's red sock.

Extras: Notes on the difference between turtles and tortoises (basically turtles live closer to water and tortoises live on land); and definition of tortoise words - for instance a carapace is the top of the shell and the plastron is the bottom; List of seven turtles and tortoises from slow to fast (Bog turtle the slowest and leatherback sea turtle the fastest); how to make a sea turtle puppet; turtle and tortoise jokes; how to make a salad; how to make turtle candies; and talking with a zookeeper about tortoises

[Melinda Christensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nate saw a turtle in his yard that was eating his flowers. He was afraid the turtle would eat all the flowers, so he had to find out where it lived. Nate visited his friends, but no one was missing a turtle.
How would he solve this case? Finally Nate decided to follow bite marks on flowers which the turtle had eaten. Where would this trail lead him? Follow Nate the Great and the cases he solves!

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since first grade started reading book one in reader's workshop and hijacked my library mystery lesson, I've been trying to find another Nate the Great that lays out the clues and lets the reader put them together to solve the mystery. This is not the one. If anyone knows which one is, please comment below!

Nate the Great returns a pet tortoise home, by following the trail of turtle bite marks in gardens.

[Madison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book Nate the Great and the Tardy Tortoise was a great read. I picked this book because I wanted to have a Nate The Great book in my collection. I thought that this book was going to be a bit longer than it was, but it was actually considered to be a pretty short chapter book. I loved the life lessons that it taught.

[Elizabeth Meadows · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very sweet. I love tortoises! Good mystery about Nate finding the tortoise's home.
Interesting side story with finding the lost sock. I would have wondered why Nate repurposed it without returning it to the owner, unless the owner hadn't made it clear that he didn't want the sock back if it was ruined.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not like this book because I do not like tortoises. I enjoyed this book because I like mysteries. I also enjoyed this book because I liked the part when Nate the Great found the tardy tortoise's home. He found it by following the trail of bite-marks on flowers.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nate the Great discovers a turtle eating the flowers in his garden. Nate the Great knows that he doesn't own a turtle, therefore the turtle is lost giving Nate the Great a mystery to solve, and to return the turtle to whom and where it belongs.

[Anastasia Tuckness · Rating 3 out of 5]

This classic holds up--I was amused and intrigued all the way through.

[Mr.Zhou · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book for to know something about tortoise. Nate is truly clever!

[One Code 431 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is so good i have read all of the stories and i am gonna miss it a lot 😭

[Cassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Childhood Classic

[Kelly Chester · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book

[WinterBat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, at least they addressed how difficult it would be to track a tortoise.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked some of the other ones better, but it was fine.

[Michael Guillot · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this was the first appearance of adults in the Nate the Great universe.
Also, the illustration on pages 8-9 kind of gives away the whole mystery? lol? Was that intentional?

[nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Themes on bringing things back to their rightful place. Where do things belong? Where is square 1? Is it through retraced steps? Is it through patterns? Great for kids in teaching them patience.

[Villain E · Rating 3 out of 5]

A different kind of mystery. Nate discovers a tortoise in his yard. It must be a pet, so he sets put to discover the owner. The illustrations are now in full color.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Mercedes Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about Nate and his dog Sludge and a tortoise. In the beginning Nate woke up and looked outside at his flowers. He saw a tortoise eating his plants. He rushed outside to stop the tortoise from eating all his flowers. The tortoise was moving very slowly. He was taking his time eating some of all the different flowers. Nate felt the tortoise was lost. So he decided to help find the tortoise’s home. Fisrt he took him to his friend Rosamond’s house. He asked her if she knew of anyone who lost a pet. She said Claude lost something. She did not know what he lost. Next Nate went to Claude’s house. He said he did not lose a tortoise but he lost a sock. He asked Nate to find it. First Nate wanted to find the tortoise’s home. Nate decided to take a break. He went home and ate his favorite food. Pancakes. He sat and ate and thought about the tortoise. Next Nate decided to go to the vet. Maybe the vet would know who the tortoise belonged to quicker. The vet said that she did not know who the tortoise belonged to either. Nate decided to go back home and trace the tortoise’s steps. He followed the trail and found the tortoise’s home. Nate returned the tortoise’s owner who was a very nice lady. The tortoise had escaped under the fence again. He had escaped before as well. It was a funny story.

[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.

[A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This time Nate’s customer was the one who was lost. This case was a bit harder than the other ones because his customer could not talk. Nate the Great soon reached a dead end and had to look for clues without anyone's for no one in the neighbourhood recognized his customer. This time his clue was to follow the “U” trail. That was the best part of the story. I think this is one of the best stories of Nate the Great. I loved it!

[Jeana Wert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nate the Great and The Tardy Tortoise consists of a young boy named Nate that had found a tortoise in his yard eating his flowers. Nate decided to help the tortoise find his home, so he went to his friends houses, the vets, and a reptile vet to look. He could not find its home. Finally he decided to investigate the bitten flowers next to his house to follow the trail back to its home. He found the tortoise's home and decided to come and visit the next day.

[Rhiannon's Reading Corner · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Nate finds a tortoise eating his garden, he knows her needs to return the tortoise to its home. How, though, will he find where it came from? Nate must put all his detective skills to work to solve this case.

Interest Level: ages 4+
Reading Level: ages 6+

OVERALL RATING 8/10
This is a sweet story! With just the right amount of comedy and seriousness, it is quite well-balanced. The very short and simple sentences are great for new readers.

[Gaby Roman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had great illustrations. I would use this book as a small group activity. I could have the kids listen to it on a tape and have them do a flip book with different parts such as :their favorite character, the setting, the author, and problem and draw a picture of each.

[Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nate the great didn't have a case. He looked in his garden and noticed a tortoise in it.
"He looked at it for a little bit and he picked it up and started asking the people next door if the tortoise was theirs."

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nate the Great wakes up to find a tortoise eating the flowers in his yard. He takes it upon himself to find the tortoise's home, no matter how difficult the case may be. Fun story to read aloud.

[Cristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

If your looking for an easy book this is the one

[Katie Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about Nate the Great trying to find the Tortoise's home.
I would use this book in my classroom to talk about patience, persistence, and habitats.