Preview
Copywork
About This Passage
Marjorie Weinman Sharmat opens with a perfect pastiche of mid-century hard-boiled detective voice — Hammett, Chandler, the films noirs of the 1940s — given to a small child investigating a lost painting. The book is one of the most disciplined uses of voice/situation mismatch in children's literature.
My name is Nate the Great. I am a detective. I work alone. Let me tell you about my last case.
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Give a concise summary, then identify the most important moment.
Discussion Questions
- Sharmat's Nate is a child performing the voice of an adult detective. The pastiche is disciplined enough to recognize. What is being claimed by giving children the formal pleasure of adult genre fiction in miniature?
- Nate insists 'I work alone' while interviewing every character he meets. The contradiction between voice and behavior is the chapter's structural irony. Where else in literature have you seen a narrator's stated principles contradicted by their consistent actions?
+ 1 more question in the complete study guide
Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
a literary work that imitates another style as a kind of tribute
Item 2
the terse, tough style of mid-century American detective fiction
Item 3
in literature, the distinctive style of the narrator
+ 3 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide
Critical Thinking
+ 2 more questions in the complete study guide
Get the complete study guide — free
Sign up and get your first book with every chapter included. Copywork, discussion questions, vocabulary, and critical thinking.
Sign up free