Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up | Series: Sammy Keyes
And this new adventure is Wendelin Van Draanen's most complex and compelling yet! It's Christmastime in Sammy's hometown of Santa Martina, but some people are being very, very naughty. Pranksters dressed as wise men sabotage the Christmas Parade. In the ensuing chaos, some thugs dognap a prize Pomeranian. Then the Pom's owner blackmails Sammy into finding the dog so she won't have to pay the ransom. Sammy doesn't have to check her list twice to know that these people belong in the naughty column!
But in the course of her search for the doggone dog, Sammy also comes across some characters who are harder to figure: a runaway elf, an embittered old biddy, a puffed-up policeman, and a sneaky Secret Santa. Still, someone's got that dog and whoever it is had better watch out--'cause Sammy Keyes is nosing around...and she's willing to be pretty naughty herself to make sure the bad guys pay.
Encyclopedia Brown's detective work might be enough to keep small-timers like Bugs Meany and Wilford Wiggins in line, but his hometown of Idaville may as well be Snoozeville compared to strange and surreal Santa Martina, where seventh-grade sharp-witted super-sleuth Sammy Keyes hangs her hat. Sammy doesn't go looking for cases to solve in this town: she's too busy pulling her rear end out of the fire, finding herself in one predicament after another.
In Sammy Keyes and the Runaway Elf (her fourth adventure, following Sammy Keyes and the Sisters of Mercy), Sammy gets snookered into dog-sitting Marique, a furry, orange, hoop-jumping Pomeranian, one of the 12 dogs-of-the-month riding atop the Canine Calendar Christmas float. But at the height of the parade, Marique disappears just as three people dressed as the Three Kings throw panicked cats onto the dog-laden float. Chaos ensues, and before the fake snow even settles, Sammy finds herself in the center of a dog-napping scheme, blackmailed by Marique's mean-old-lady owner into tracking the little Pom down before she has to pay $50,000... or else.
It's just another week in Santa Martina, and just another case for Sammy. More clever clues and characterizations from the capable Wendelin Van Draanen, who spins another complex, satisfying, often laugh-out-loud installment in this quirky youth mystery series. Encyclopedia Brown's got it easy. (Ages 9 to 12) --Paul Hughes--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8-Sammy Keyes, that savvy seventh-grade sleuth, is back in another whodunit adventure. It may be Christmas, but that doesn't mean everybody in Santa Martina plans to be nice. The minute Sammy gets roped into working on the Canine Calendar float in the holiday parade, trouble erupts. The famous calendar cover dog, Marique, is dognapped, and the animal's owner holds the amateur detective responsible for finding her pet before the $50,000 ransom comes due. However, the teen can't find the creature or many clues. The only thing that turns up is a young elflike girl named Elyssa, who has big problems of her own. Possible suspects and evil motivations abound as the story moves into overdrive. Sammy carefully closes in on the dognappers while at the same time strengthening her newly formed friendships with Elyssa and her grandmother's cranky neighbor. It's not often that 13-year-olds hang around with younger children or visit with senior citizens, and Van Draanen handles the relationships with style and sensitivity. A refreshing, well-rounded character in every sense of the word, Sammy is great fun to spend time with, and her newest adventure is a roller-coaster ride full of twists aplenty. Linda Bindner, formerly at Athens Clarke County Library, GA Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"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 Keyes is a great book. I read it in less than 24 hours because I didn't want to stop reading. This is the fourth book in a series. I have read all four. I think that each book is better than the last one. This one had a lot of information about Sammy. This book should be on the list for all children who like mysteries. My mom liked it too.
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I buy these books for my daughter as soon as they come out in paperback, and I have to say this is truly the best one we've read yet. In this adventure, Sammy investigates dognappers, and the story is very fresh and funny. A real contribution to quality mysteries for girls.
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