Marjorie Weinman Sharmat, "one of the nation's most prolific authors of children's books, including the popular Nate the Great detective series," died March 12, the New York Times reported. She was 90. Sharmat published more than 130 books for children and young adults, many of which have been translated into multiple languages.
Her boy detective Nate "quickly emerged as something of a pop culture figure. His picture once adorned 28 million boxes of Cheerios, to promote children's literacy," the Times wrote. Some of the books from the series were adapted for TV, including the animated short Nate the Great Goes Undercover (1974), which won an award at the Los Angeles International Children's Film Festival. The New York Public Library named Nate the Great Saves the King of Sweden (1997) one of its 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing.
Sharmat's son Andrew said the idea for Nate came to her after she had children and began paying attention to their reading material: "She picked up Dick and Jane and said, 'This is awful, it has no story line.' She wanted to do something more interesting, but something a first- or second-grader could pick up."
Sharmat's husband, Mitchell, created a cousin for Nate named Olivia Sharp, also a detective, and the couple wrote a series of Olivia Sharp books. Sharmat's sister, Rosalind Weinman, was co-author of Nate the Great and the Pillowcase (1993). Another son, Craig, collaborated with her on three books, including Nate the Great and the Musical Note (1990).
Andrew Sharmat, who helped his mother write the Kids on the Bus series in the early '90s, said she had constantly taken notes on scraps of paper: "She never went anywhere without a notepad," he said, adding that once she started being published, there was no stopping her. "It was like she was launched into the stratosphere. She loved it. She didn't cook our dinner--she wrote books."