Sammy Keyes


Sammy Keyes is a series of mystery novels written by Wendelin Van Draanen for children aged 10–16. The series focuses on Sammy's adventures as an amateur sleuth. The books, which are narrated in the first-person perspective by Sammy, involve detective fiction as well as comedy. Sammy begins her adventures in the first book as a seventh-grader, and the series will end when she completes the eighth grade. Eighteen books are planned for the series. grades 6 10

Setting

The Sammy Keyes novels are based in the fictional town of Santa Martina, which is located in California. Santa Martina is closely based on the real city of Santa Maria, California, down to names of streets used throughout the series, and well known landmarks. Other fictional cities frequently mentioned are Santa Luisa, and Sisquane. The city of Pomloc is also mentioned once, a reference to the city of Lompoc. All of these places are located near to the real city of Santa Maria. Sammy is an unofficial teenage detective who solves mysteries while also dealing with her personal friend life, family life, and relationship life.

Main characters

Sammy secretly lives with her grandmother in a ‘seniors only’ apartment complex. She’s not allowed to make much noise, so she passes the time spying on her neighbors with binoculars. One morning she is looking into the windows of the hotel across the street, when she spots a thief burgling one of the rooms. Instead of calling the police, Sammy watches until the thief catches her staring. They both stare at each other until Sammy breaks the spell by waving at him.
Sammy Keyes also has lots of problems. On Sammy’s first day of school she gets confused about where to go so she ask’s a girl named Heather Acosta.When Heather replied she yelled at her and walked away like was a princess. At lunch Heather sits with Sammy and her friend Marissa and Heather asks Marissa for money and Sammy said no for Marissa and Heather stuck pin in Sammy’s butt and walked away. Once Sammy got the pin out of her but she walked over to heather and punched her nose, and it started to gush blood. Sammy got suspended for doing that.
While Sammy was walking home from school, she saw police cars and a bunch of people surrounding the hotel. Sammy was curious about what was going on. She decided to go in and she saw two police men asking a lady about a robbery when Sammy realized that the hotel room she saw was that lady’s hotel room. Sammy noticed that one of the cops had given her a ticket for jaywalking before. Sammy started to talk to the officers about what she saw but they did not believe her. The lady who got robbed did. The lady that got robbed was named Gina. Gina explained that four thousand dollars got stolen.
Later, a threatening note is slipped under their neighbor’s door. Their neighbor Mrs. Graybill, thinks that Sammy wrote the note. Mrs. Graybill threatens to call the police and that is what she did. The officers that arrived at the door were the same ones that were at the hotel last night. Even though Sammy says that she said that she did not write the note, no one believed her.

Awards

Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief won the 1999 Edgar Award for Best Children's Mystery. The series has been nominated for the award five times. The nominated books are Sammy Keyes and the Curse of Moustache Mary, Sammy Keyes and the Search for Snake-Eyes, Sammy Keyes and the Art of Deception and Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things.