Sammy Keyes

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Sammy Keyes is a series of mystery novels written by Wendelin Van Draanen for children aged 9-15. 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. Twenty books are planned for the series.^{[citation needed]}

1 Published books
2 Awards
3 Setting
4 Main characters
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Published books

The currently published books in the Sammy Keyes series are (in chronological order):

Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief (1998)
Sammy Keyes and the Skeleton Man (1998)
Sammy Keyes and the Sisters of Mercy (1999)
Sammy Keyes and the Runaway Elf (2000)
Sammy Keyes and the Curse of Moustache Mary (2001)
Sammy Keyes and the Hollywood Mummy (2002)
Sammy Keyes and the Search for Snake Eyes (2002)
Sammy Keyes and the Art of Deception (2003)
Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen (2004)
Sammy Keyes and the Dead Giveaway (2005)
Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things (2007)
Sammy Keyes and the Cold Hard Cash (planned to be released in December 2008)

[edit] Awards

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (March 2008)

Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief won the 1998 Edgar Award for Best Children's Mystery. The series has been nominated for the award four times.^[1]

[edit] 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 (San Luis Obispo), and Sisquane (Sisquoc). 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.

[edit] Main characters

Sammy Keyes, 13-year-old girl who is illegally sent to live with her grandmother while her mother decides to achieve her dreams as an actress in Hollywood. She, along with her friends, Holly, Marissa, and Dot, plays on the school softball team. The series starts at the beginning of Sammy's first year in William Rose Junior High as a seventh-grader.
Grams, full name Rita Keyes, is Sammy's grandmother and guardian. She never ceases to worry about Sammy when Sammy gets involved in her adventures. However, the two of them are very close, much closer than Sammy is to her mother. No children are allowed to live in the Senior Highrise, so Sammy is frequently forced to lie about her home address and living situation. Sammy was constantly avoiding their nosy neighbor Mrs. Graybill (keeping the small family from being evicted), but in the fourth book Sammy Keyes and the Runaway Elf that all changes.
Lana Keyes is Sammy's irresponsible mother. She constantly keeps secrets from her only daughter, and leaves Sammy with Grams while she becomes an actress in Hollywood. Up to the ninth book in the series, she is still unwilling to reveal Sammy's father's identity, something which constantly irritates Sammy. She has also kept her daughter's true age away from Sammy and changed her identity and age to seem younger. Sammy is not happy with her mother's decision to abandon her, and holds a grudge against her for this. She stars as Jewel, an "amnesiac aristocrat" in the soap opera The Lords of Willow Heights.
Hudson Graham is Sammy's mentor and good friend throughout the series. He is 72 years old, and is always wearing a fancy pair of boots, usually made out of reptile hide. Sammy often visits Hudson and sits on his porch to sort things out in her head. Hudson offers Sammy advice, usually focused around dealing with her archenemy, Heather, or the mystery currently playing out in that particular book. Hudson has a 13-year-old dachshund called Rommel, accused in Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen, of mauling cats. Hudson's advice usually plays a pivotal point in Sammy's unraveling of the story's mystery. In later books, Hudson and Grams develop a mutual crush on each other.
Marissa McKenze, Sammy's best friend, is extremely rich and has more independence than Sammy because of her workaholic parents. She has a younger brother named Mikey who adores junk food and sweets. When she is nervous, Marissa will do the "McKenze Dance", which involves biting of her fingernails and bobbing up and down on her toes. Marissa also has a crush on Danny Urbanski, an eighth-grader. Marissa downplays her wealth heavily, sometimes criticizing her parents for working too hard and not paying enough attention to their children.
Margaret "Dot" DeVries was introduced in the second book, Sammy Keyes and the Skeleton Man. Her nickname is derived from a beauty mark she has on her cheek. Dot first lived in a "skinny" two-story house that could barely fit her large family; by the fifth book, Sammy Keyes and the Curse of Moustache Mary, she has moved to a larger house in Sisquane.
Holly Janquell was introduced in the third book, Sammy Keyes and the Sisters of Mercy. During Sammy's volunteer time (to work off her detentions for misusing the school's public address system), she spots a girl who bears an uncanny resemblance to herself. Her curiosity aroused, Sammy tries to find out as much as she can about this girl. Eventually, Sammy finds that Holly is a homeless, orphaned girl who ran away from her foster home due to mistreatment. Holly has been living in a refrigerator box by the riverbank without a river. Sammy finds a home for Holly at the Pup Parlor, a dog grooming salon run by the mother-and-daughter duo Vera and Meg Talbrook. In return for the Talbrooks' kindness, Holly works after school in the Pup Parlor. In the beginning, Holly has a penchant for rummaging through garbage; however, later in the series she seems to have shaken off the habit. In 2006, Van Draanen later released a book called Runaway, a series of journal entries written by Holly that tells about her life on the run.^[2]
Heather Acosta is Sammy's archenemy. Their mutual dislike for each other originates at their first meeting: Heather tries to take advantage of Marissa's wealth by asking her to lend her some money, and then jabs Sammy in the behind with a pin. Enraged, Sammy punches Heather on the nose, and Heather pretends that her nose is broken. As punishment, Sammy is suspended from school for a day. Later, however, Sammy is able to uncover Heather's bid for sympathy (including a spurious charity called the "Help Heal Heather Fund") and Heather is punished. Heather has two friends who are extremely stupid and seem to exist to do her bidding. Heather and her friends have been known to smoke cigarettes and drink beer. She has a brother called Casey, and their parents are divorced; Heather lives with their mother in town, and Casey with their father in the urban area of Sisquane.
Casey Acosta was introduced to the series in the fifth book Sammy Keyes and the Curse of Moustache Mary, and seems to be the complete opposite of his sister. He is good friends with Sammy and often sticks up for her. Sammy is often unsure of her relationship with Casey, who took a liking to her before she even knew him. The two went to a school dance together in Sammy Keyes and the Dead Giveaway.
Officer Gil Borsch, the figure of the law in the series, is constantly pursuing Sammy for jaywalking and thinks that she is a criminal. However, when Sammy helps him out in a case during Sammy Keyes and the Runaway Elf, he changes his mind about her and they become friends over time. In the later books, he is promoted and Sammy doesn't see him as often.