Publication Date: April 20, 1999 | Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up | Series: Sammy Keyes
She is supposed to be in church to get out of trouble...
Sammy is working off some junior high detention time by helping out at St. Mary's, but when Father Mayhew discovers that his ivory cross has been stolen, Sammy becomes the prime suspect. While she's looking for the real culprit, Sammy is amazed to find how much gossip and petty jealousy there is bubbling under the church's serene surface. This is just like junior high!
And school is abubble with intrigue as well. Sammy's in the middle of softball playoffs when her catcher's mitt is stolen. She's sure the hated Heather must have it, but knowing whodunit and getting the mitt back are two different things.
With a cast that includes a trio of singing nuns, a homeless girl in high tops, a former safecracker, and a red-hot shortstop, it's not so easy to tell the saints from the sinners...
Grade 5-8-The resourceful, wise-cracking seventh grader returns in another whodunit filled with nonstop action and true-to-life dialogue. Sammy's adventures begin as she is working off 20 hours of detention time by helping out at St. Mary's church after school. While cleaning windows, she notices an unfamiliar girl. Before she can introduce herself, Father Mayhew discovers that his treasured papal cross has been stolen. Circumstances point to Sammy, and the gauntlet has been thrown. When she sees the mysterious girl again at the church soup kitchen, her curiosity is aroused. Does the stranger know anything about the stolen cross? Savvy readers may pick up clues that point to the real thieves but it is Sammy who eventually pieces it all together. Van Draanen deftly intertwines other subplots, adding depth and interest to an already engrossing mystery while capturing the angst of junior high school, cliques and all. Sammy also worries about the softball playoffs and her troubles with her arch enemy and rival team member, Heather Acosta. The mystery is solved in a climax full of excitement that culminates in a chase scene. Readers who have already met this amateur sleuth will welcome her back, and others will scramble to read the earlier mysteries. Jennifer Ralston, Harford County Public Library, Belcamp, MD Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Gr. 4^-6. Junior-high sleuth Sammy, last seen in Sammy Keyes and the Skeleton Man (1998), returns for a third adventure. This time out, she's serving detention time by helping out at St. Mary's church when Father Mayhew's valuable ivory cross is stolen. Although it seems at first as if all the suspects are members of religious orders, Sammy cuts through the disguises to uncover a heist of enormous proportion. In addition, she has to deal with dirty tricks from her old nemesis, Heather, all while helping her softball team win the play-offs. As always, quirky characters are Van Draanen's strength; the singing missionaries who live and travel in a bus nicknamed the NunMobile and Father Mayhew's slobbery, carrot-chomping dog are particularly memorable. Give this one to mystery buffs and fans of this humorous series. Kay Weisman
"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 . . .
If you like mysteries, you'll love Sammy Keyes! In her 4th book, which is the longest so far, has great descriptions of the characters from meanie Heather Acosta to Sister Bernie. Read the first page and you won't be able to stop until the last line! Sammy keeps you on the edge of your seat. Every detail could be the clue to help you solve this mystery! Who could have stolen Father Mayhew's stuff? Brohter Phil? Holly, a homeless girl? The Sisters of Mercy? Or is it just Father Mayhew? Read the book to find out!
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While Sammy is working off her detention at St. Mary's (for using her middle school PA system improperly) she meets a trio of performing nuns that are raising money for the church. Everything is going along fine until valuable things start to go missing. The resident nuns detest this new group; are they trying to get back at them? And what was Brother Phil doing rifling through the drawers in the sacristy? Or could it even be Father Mayhew himself? Meanwhile Heather Ascota (Sammy's fire haired nemesis) is determined to cream Sammy's baseball team and win the title. Also on Sammy's mind is the young girl who is getting her meals at the soup kitchen; alone.
Lots of fun to read, espcially since unlike some mysterys, you might not be able to guess the culprit.
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That Sammy Keyes is such a detective. Nancy Drew better watch out there is a 7th grade crime solving detective on the case. I like this book a lot because there is a 7th grader solving mysteries. I mean she is an ordinary kid in middle school going through what real 7th graders go through and she still solves mysteries and she won't give up on them no matter how long it takes her. She goes through controversy and things like that. This book "Sammy Keyes and the Sisters of Mercy" is a very good book. I recommend all of you guys to read it. I am not a mystery type person, but still this is a book for mystery or non-mystery type people should read. This book is better than another Sammy Keyes book I read and I would have given that book almost 4 stars. I only read three books of Sammy Keyes, but I can't wait until I get my hands on another Sammy Keyes book.
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