Publication Date: April 9, 2009 | Series: Sammy Keyes
The normally unflappable Sammy Keyes is reeling--not from her encounters with a corpse, an arsonist, or an irate policeman, these she can handle. No, what completely unbalances her is the teen-scene at a New Year's Eve party. Caught up in this adolescent ambush, Sammy begins to doubt herself. And if she can't trust her own instincts, how can she possibly figure out who burned down a pioneer-era cabin, how a 200-pound pig has disappeared , or why Casey might want to hold her hand?
In this fifth Sammy Keyes mystery, Wendelin Van Draanen gives us her most ambitious work to date. While her prose is as comic as ever, there's a very serious undercurrent here--Sammy is tossed and torn, both literally and figuratively, as she shoots the rapids of this plot. But in puzzling out whodunit and how and why, she manages not only to turn the culprits over to the police, but also to reclaim a belief in her own strength.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Wendelin Van Draanen's funny, fast-paced girl-detective series hit the ground running with Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief, winner of the 1999 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best children's mystery. After four more Sammy stories, we've officially befriended the strong, spunky, skateboarding seventh grader who can't help but plant herself in the middle of the action. Sammy Keyes and the Curse of Moustache Mary starts innocently enough when Sammy decides to spend New Year's Eve weekend at a friend's house in the country. The next thing she knows, she's made friends with an elderly woman named Lucinda Huntley, owner of a 200-pound pet pig and heir to a Wild West story about a century-old family feud involving her great-grandmother "Moustache Mary," who came west from Missouri in 1845. When Mary's historic cabin burns to the ground, Sammy wastes no time in plunging headlong into the mystery--and into a few serious scrapes.
Sammy is growing up, and with her years come the rumblings of romance, confrontations with kids who use (and manufacture) drugs, and plenty of decisions about who she should trust... including herself. Van Draanen captures Sammy's honest, funny, fresh voice in an always-engaging first-person narrative that accompanies the rapid-fire action and adventure. Sammy Keyes is a person your favorite bookworm will want to get to know, and fortunately, more adventures are on the way. (Ages 10 and older) --Karin Snelson--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Grade 6-8-Another whirlwind adventure for the amateur sleuth. While biking out to Dot's house for New Year's weekend, Sammy and her friends literally run into a boy on a skateboard that looks suspiciously like the one that was stolen from Sammy. Taylor lures the girls to a party with the promise of getting the skateboard back, but he is really interested in seeing Marissa. Before they can leave, however, Sammy shares a few exciting and confusing moments with Casey, a boy who holds her hand and promises to help her retrieve her board. Meanwhile, a fire has destroyed the cabin of Moustache Mary, a pioneer woman who was one of the area's original settlers. Her descendant Lucinda Huntley is convinced that it was set by the neighbors with whom her family has feuded for generations. Sammy puts the clues together and finds the real culprit. Van Draanen deals with some serious issues here. The New Year's party is unchaperoned and there are several young people drinking and smoking marijuana. The girls eventually learn that one of Lucinda's hired hands is operating an underground meth lab. The writing is realistic and effective with these scenarios- Sammy is afraid and confused in situations involving drugs and alcohol. This is an exciting story with some quick-witted comebacks and a great friendship shared by the girls. It will be appreciated most by readers who are already familiar with the earlier titles. Karen Hoth, Marathon Middle/High School, FL Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
"Through writing, I open up my heart and soul in ways I never could in everyday life. The joy, the pain, the wonder and loneliness I felt in growing up, meld into stories which I hope will help kids believe in themselves and have compassion for those around them."--Wendelin Van Draanen
Wendelin Van Draanen is the winner of the 1999 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Children's Mystery Book for Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief. Sammy Keyes and the Search for Snake Eyes is a 2003 Edgar Award nominee.
Visit Wendelin Van Draanen's Web site at www.wendelinvandraanen.com for the lastest on The Gecko and Sticky, Sammy Keyes, Shredderman, and more!
How in the world did I wind up writing a book about a kleptomaniacal, talking gecko lizard? I'm the first to admit-talking animals are not my thing. First person, realistic fiction-that's what I like. And yet, after Sticky appeared as a sidekick television character in my Shredderman series and uttered his first "Holy guaco-tacarole!" I was hooked. He's so funny. And so full of mischief. I always develop a backstory for my characters to get to know them. Even if they're secondary characters, I have to understand their background and motivations before I let them into the story. The premise of the third Shredderman book (Meet the Gecko) is that a television crew comes to town to shoot an episode, and Shredderman helps out the star of the show. Not wanting to deal with the legal complications of using a real television show, I made up my own: The Gecko and Sticky. In the process, I came up with the hero (Dave Sanchez-a boy who has the "superpower" of being able to walk up walls, and is known as the Gecko), the sidekick (Sticky who is, as you already know, a talking gecko with . . . h'hem, sticky fingers), the villain (the deadly, diabolical, and definitely demented Damien Black), and Damien's sidekicks (the Bandito Brothers, who are, in fact, not brothers, but a thieving mariachi band). It was definitely wilder than anything I'd come up with before, but hey-it was just a made-up TV show, right? Ah, how diabolically infectious made-up TV shows can be! Sticky, you see, got under my skin. His "Ay-ay-ay"s and his "What the jalapeno was that?" and his "You cut me to the quick, senor" enchanted me, and I was sorry when his role in the Shredderman books was over. After the Shredderman quartet was complete, I began getting lots of fan mail from kids (and teachers) asking me to please write more Shredderman books. It was tempting, because I love Nolan and the gang. But I'd completed my mission with the quartet; so instead, I started writing The Gecko and Sticky. My first attempt resulted in an over 200-page manuscript. That was closer to a Sammy Keyes novel than a Shredderman book. So I hacked it up, threw it out, and started all over. My next try had me at 150 pages-still too long, and something about it wasn't quite right. So I chucked it and asked myself what in the world I was thinking, writing in the voice of a lizard. But then on a flight from New York to California, I started hearing a voice. It wasn't my voice. Or the guy snoring in the seat beside me. It was, you know, a voice. One in my head. Yeah, we writers hear them, and although we will almost certainly deny it if you press us about it, we also listen. It's how I wrote Swear to Howdy; how Bryce appeared in Flipped; where Holly's poems came from in Runaway . . . and it's how the narrator took over the storytelling for The Gecko and Sticky. It's a man's voice in my head. (Okay, I concede that I might need some help.) But he's funny as all get-out, and I like to listen to him. He's the voice of someone who loves the art of storytelling; of someone who will hold a child's wide-eyed attention as he shares the wild antics of a boy and his mischievous gecko; of someone I'd plead, "Just one more chapter, please?" So I hope that explains it, because I really must go. He's talking to me again and I've got to get back to Dave and Sticky. They are, after all, in the midst of some deep, diabolical doo-doo . . .
Sammy and her friends Holly, and Marissa go to visit theirfriend Dot's new house in the country. They meet a woman whose name isLucinda, and Lucinda has a 200-pound pig. She tells Sammy the story of her ancestor, "Moustache Mary," and her cabin still stands in her family's grounds. Then, one night, Mary's cabin burns down! Sammy and her friends of COURSE go investigate. They find an oil container, which proves that somebody set the cabin on fire. But who?
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Sammy is spending New Year's at her friend Dot's house and it ends up becoming much more interesting than she first thought. First Sammy finds that her stolen skateboard belongs to a friend of a friend's and she decides that she is going to get that skateboard back no matter what. When she finally gets to Dot's house she meets Lucinda Huntley, who tells her a story about her ancestor the Moustache Mary and the argument between two families that has been going on for a hundred years. Sammy then finds out that she has a chance to get her skateboard, and when she goes to a party to look for it, she finds out that some people she knows aren't who they think they are. Sammy starts to doubt her own judgement, and it doesn't help when Moustache Mary's cabin burns down, starting another dilemma for her.
This book is different from the other Sammy Keyes mysteries but it is still great; Sammy is still a strong, definite character who's not going to put up with anything. I would reccomend this book to anyone (and this means adults too) over eleven years old because anyone under eleven might be overwhelmed by situations Sammy runs into, but anyone can read it and enjoy it.
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I thought that the review amazon.com gave this book was a bit misleading. They made it sound like the whole book was about Sammy Keys growing up, doing drugs, and getting a boyfriend. And since I'm a boy, that didn't sound too appealing. But when I read the book, I really changed my mind. The drug part REALLY tied into the story and it WASN'T all about her growing up. The mystery was really clever and humerous. I'd give it ten stars if I could!
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