The writing style is right up my ally, I guess I'm a sucker for emphatic syntax. Especially after the eye-rolly romance of The Winners Curse, it was nice to find a (a, as in only one) down-played and undramatized love interest. Almost cried a few times. I enjoyed some of the ideas this book put f...
Very inventive plot and characters help you really get into this book. The main character is a teen girl who lives secretly with her grandmother in an apartment building for the elderly. She sneaks in and out and one time, in doing so, finds a man dying who hands her three wads of cash. He tells ...
I really like this series. Teen mysteries have always been around, but often with mysteries which are just too difficult to believe. These are not about spies or elaborate murder mysteries, just simple, low-key crimes that a teen might stumble across. Well, maybe not so simple in this case, with ...
I love Sammy Keyes, and this was a great one! All of the usual crew are involved, and this time Officer Borsch is getting married! When Sammy's mother, Lady Lana, shows up, will it help Sammy or make the situation worse? If you love Sammy Keyes and her crazy adventures, this is a must read. You d...
LYDIA I KNOW YOU WILL PROBABLY CLICK ON THIS EVEN THOUGH IT SAYS THERE ARE SPOILERS, BUT REALLY - DO. NOT. KEEP. READING. 6 trillion billion million stars: Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod!!! Finally, after 15 books, I found out who Sammy's dad was. I don't even know how to react to this news! AAAAHHH...
Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen was a great book because this book has a lot of twists and turns in this story which you would not expect at all, and the characters were described very well, their appearance and their actions. " A super-sized batty-eyed Barbie... She's middle aged, with su...
My favorite Sammy Keyes book yet. While Sammy cannot be described as a truly "dynamic" character in the strictest sense--she needs to remain largely consistent through the series, after all--she does go through her moments of reflection and growth as she moves through each book. Book number 4, '...
5 STARS It's been a while since I read a mystery series.I am surprised I actually enjoyed this book. I read another series by this author and I loved her writing style and her books. My older sister told me to read this series because it's soooo good. I declined. I refuse to read anything that my...
I really like the Sammy Keyes books. They are fun reading, and Sammy always is able to solve the mystery before anyone else, even though she's only 12 years old.Sammy doesn't know who her dad is and her mom decided she wanted to be a famous actress and abandoned Sammy. Sammy lives with her gran...
I remembered reading these books when I was little and after days of exam studying stumbled across one that I hadn't read in the library. I picked it up figuring that it would be good for my exam fried brain to read something a little lighter then usual.Well, first of all I'd just like to say tha...
I like this book because it talks about confession of themselves and teaches us a lesson of lying. For example Sammy lies about killing the bird Tango and was hiding in the closet. Another example of lying is when she got images of birds telling her she did a wrong thing(p.93).You would like this...
"The most winning junior detective ever in teen lit. (Take that, Nancy Drew!)" —Midwest Children's Book Review This is not the summer camping trip of Sammy's dreams. She imagined shady glades, meandering streams, a deer or two. What she gets are scrubby shrubs, blazing sun, rattlesnakes, ticks, ...
A thrilling book about mystery. Kept me at the edge of my seat and never stop reading. Sammy and her friends are talking when a lady passes by and tells them a story about Moustache Mary. Her name is Lucinda Hartley. She is the great granddaughter of Mary. Lucinda asks help for the riddle that Ma...
Sammy Keyes is a 7th grader. She lives illegally in her Gram's (grandma's) apartment at the highrise rest home. She has two friends: Dot and Marissa.She always has to put up with a snobby, red-headed (no offense I'm one myself), popular, girl named Heather Acosta. Hurtful Heather decides to pu...
The Gecko & Sticky are two of the most hilarious characters I have ever come across in literature. Sticky is the actual gecko and the “Gecko” is the superhero moniker of Sticky’s 13-year-old friend, Dave Sanchez. Confused? It makes sense when you read the book, whose tongue-in-cheek narrative s...
Alvin Bixby: Hulking, knuckles of steel, hideous breath, foul temper. Kids call him: Bubba. Nolan Byrd: Puny, power walker, math genius, can’t keep shoes tied. Kids call him: Nerd.Bubba has been the bane of Nolan’s existence for five long years. So when Mr. Green asks the class to become reporter...
Dear Mr.Hudson I'm reading a book called Shredderman Meet the Gecko by Wendelin Van Draanen.So far the story is about Nolan he is going to see the gecko one of his favorite character in his favorite TV show and its for his birthday. At school at the playground he over heard that Bubba Bixby was t...
There is a boy called Nolan Byrd that has a secret website called Sredderman.com. He created the page and in his school its really popular but no one knows he created it. Its popular because its about a superhero called Shredderman who spies on bullies and shows on his site the bad things they do...
The fourth and final book in the Shredderman series. I was disappointed to learn it would be the last, but after reading it, I understand why. In the series, he starts by “shredding” on a bully in his classroom, In book 2, he deals with some issues that are at the school & city level. Book 3: nat...
Wendelin Van Draanen has really done it this time in Sammy Keyes and the Hollywood Mummy. This realistic fiction book is about two girls, Sammy and Marissa, who travel to Hollywood to find and meet Sammy's mother. When they arrive, and finally meet her, they don't get what they expect. Originally...
I think this one is my least favorite in the series. I felt Sammy was reckless and not a good role model for kids who follow Sammy Keyes books. It was actually very dangerous what Sammy did. I know I wouldn't have done it even as an adult. It also made me really angry that I wanted to throw ...
EVANGELINE LOGAN WANTS a kiss. A spectacular, heart-stopping, life changing kiss. Somehow The Crimson Kiss (a romance novel she’s become obsessed with) and Four Steps to Living Your Fantasy (a self-help book she’s reading) have fused in Evangeline’s mind and sent her on a quest for a kiss. But th...
I'd never looked at our house, or even our side of the street, and said, Oh! I wish we lived in the new development—those houses are so much newer, so much better! This is where I'd grown up. This was my home. I was aware of the yard, sure. My mother had grumbled about it ...
(He would really, really, really have liked to have had it, but it was in Damien Black’s possession, stashed with other treasures in a cave deep beneath his mansion, guarded day and night by a cantankerous, carnivorous Komodo dragon.) So! When I say “off they flew to Raven Ridge,” I do not mean t...
And since the investigating cop was Officer Borsch, my brain didn’t have much trouble connecting those dots. “That was Officer Borsch?” I asked as we followed Billy across the grass. “He said sergeant, but yeah.” “What’s he want?” “He said for us to meet in the northwest corner of the south parki...
Correction. One lizard. “Ay caramba!” Sticky said when all was quiet and he’d emerged from Dave’s sweatshirt to a sea of sleeping people. Ay caramba, indeed. Despite some behaviors that might lead one to conclude the contrary, Sticky is a good gecko. So the first thing he did was run, lickety-spl...
I did a lot of gawking because it was all new to me, but the only thing Marissa seemed to be impressed by was Darren. “Knock it off!” I finally told her, because she was watching his every move. And she did knock it off for a whole minute, but then went back to staring. “Marissa,” I said through ...
It’s late. I’m trapped in here, trying to sleep under this sorry excuse for a blanket, and I’ve just got to tell you—you don’t know squat. You think you know what I’m going through, you think you know how I can “cope,” but you’re just like everybody else: clueless. Writing. Poetry. Learning to ex...
Instead, he fell asleep in his chair. It was a log-sawing slumber, too. One that could easily be heard in the darkened room across the hallway. One that conveyed a clear and exasperating signal. Room 411 would be inaccessible for quite some time. Now, I wish I could tell you that Sergeant Borsch ...
But looking back on it, it seems we were similar in ways that didn't matter, and different in ways that did. Not different like Joey having a baby sister while I didn't. Different deeper down than that. Though Joey's little sister was something else. Joey said Rhonda was like a booger that you co...
They had empty pillowcases clamped between their teeth, and came to a stop outside our window and started trying to break in with a screwdriver and credit card. Then all of a sudden Justice Jack appears inside the apartment and tells me to hide. So I squeeze under the couch, where I’m all hot and...
In one corner: Stay in school until the end of the day. In the other: Ditch. If he left school early, he could ride up to Damien Black’s mansion, sneak inside, rescue Ms. Krockle, and get out of there before Damien had had the chance to peel off his latex face. JAB, SMACK, BAM. With quick moves a...