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Summary: Father-Daughter Fun!
Review: I've read the first four Sammy Keyes mysteries with my seven-year old daughter--chapter length is perfect for bedtime reading--and we've both thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The books are "grown up" enough to keep me interested and, because they deal with issues of childhood and adolescence in the voice of a seventh grade girl, they're fascinating for my daughter as well. Sammy gets into all kinds of "situations"--she's definitely no angel--but so far in her jaunts around the neighborhood she hasn't stumbled across sex, drugs, or rock and roll (and you really don't miss them). Sammy's friends, young and old, are well drawn, the kind of people you'd like to have in your own daughter's life, and even the not-so-nice people are, I've felt, simply "misguided" to one degree or another. Sammy learns something in each book about being a better human being and there's really no greater reason to read than that. If you aren't able to read the Sammy Keyes mysteries with your daughter, at least buy one for her. I'll bet she'll want another..and another...and another!
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Summary: I'm sitting two feet away from the author as I type this
Review: in her classroom, but it isn't the bias of knowing her personally that made me fall in love with her heroine, Sammy Keyes. Here's an excerpt from the review I wrote for the school newspaper:Who's Wendelin Van Draanen? She's [the computer teacher], of course, and her second book has finally arrived. It's the first in the mystery series that made her so ecstatic when she was told it would be published that she jumped on top of a desk in the middle of 7th period and shrieked "Yaba daba doo!" And she's not the only one flipping out over Sammy Keyes: a producer already called about TV film rights, bestselling mystery author Sue Grafton wrote the laudatory back-cover blurb, and once you read the book, you just might flip out too. Sammy's a seventh grade girl camping out in senior housing with her Grams, and she basically rocks. She's blue*. She's a quick thinker and a fast talker. And she can beat you up. Needless to say, it's pretty entertaining to watch a girl like that get out of a mess like this: she sees a hotel robbery through her binoculars, but instead of calling 911, she WAVES at the thief. Oops. Before the mystery is solved, you'll meet some wacko characters you can't help liking (look for boar-hair-booted Hudson and Madame Nashira, the over-hairsprayed fortune teller) plus a few you'll have to hate as much as Sammy does (but you can cheer when she gets her sweet revenge). In addition, you get our city, with Sammy running down the escalator at our mall, names pulled from our high school's classes of '95, '94, and '93, and local priest Father Mayhew strolling past our St. Mary's church, plus a fast paced, page-turning plot mixed with quirky, readable writing that is never boring. "Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief" is an awesome read, anyway, living in Sammy's home city and knowing the author just makes it better. *See at on actual book cover.
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Summary: Sammy Keyes and her book review
Review: Personally I would give Sammy Keyes and the hotel thief a 4 out of 5 stars because I think the characters were great and everything had its parts but the story wasn't enough to keep someone reading. If the author put maybe more action and made the story a little more suspenseful it would attract readers and keep them hooked and asking what's going to happen next.
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Summary: Very good
Review: Read this book. I don't think you'll be disappointed. A good read for any age.
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Summary: Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief My Way
Review: Sammy is a young girl that lives with her grandma in an apartment. Sammy sometimes likes to take her grandma's binoculars and investigate what is going on around town through the window. One day, she was investigating while finding something very weird. She saw a man stealing money out of someone's hotel room in the Heavenly Hotel. She was really scared so she put the binoculars away. When she started school, it wasn't too soon when she got suspended for punching another girl in the nose. When she was walking home that day, she found that there were police surrounding the Heavenly Hotel and casually entered to find out what the commotion was all about. Sammy found out that it was just what she thought. When she was asked what she was doing at such a fancy hotel, she spilled everything she knew. With all the research Sammy did on her day off and a couple weeks into the school year, she had found out that Oscar, the blind man, had stolen the money and was off to do it again. Oscar was not a blind man, however for he faked it. He would change his disguise every day so no one would notice. Sammy became the savior of Madam Nashira.
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Summary: Great Mystery
Review: Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief is a fabulous book that any child would love. The novel is about Sammy Keyes and the case of the hotel thief. While peeking with her binoculars at the hotel next door from her apartment building, she sees a thief in action. But the thief then sees her. So begins the case of the hotel thief. She knew she shouldn't have been spying; so it was her fault that the robber saw her. I won't give away any more information except that this novel is a must read and will be loved by all. Buy and enjoy this novel by Wendelin Van Draanen and be sure to try some other Sammy Keyes novels too. HAPPY READING!
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Summary: Another Great book form Sammy Keyes
Review: Sammy keyes and the Hotel thief is a great book. I would have to rate this a 100,000,000 in stars. It keeps you at the edge of you seat! If you wanna know more about thins book read it!!
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Summary: Sammy Keyes
Review: Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief is one of the best books i have ever read.This book is about a girl ( Sammy Keyes ) who was looking out of her window one day and saw a man in a hotel stealing out of a ladys purse.She has to figure out who was that person and how to catch him.I like this book because I think this is much better than other mysteries because these are better for kids.I have read three other Sammy Keyes mysteries and I like this one the best because it is much funner then the other ones.But I think this one is the hardest to figure out the mysteries.
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Summary: 1999 Edgar Winner!
Review: Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief was named the winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best children's mystery in a ceremony in New York on April 29, 1999.
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Summary: Publishers Weekly review:
Review: Sammy Keyes has no keys, nor does she need them. Living illegally with her grandmother in a senior citizens' residence, she enters and exits through a jiggered fire door and finds her way into a number of other restricted areas with equal ease. Although she's a girl detective starring in a new series (her second adventure, Sammy Keyes and the Skeleton Man, is planned for a fall release), Sammy is no Nancy Drew. She's smart-mouthed and hard-hitting, unpopular at school and on the outs with the law. Readers follow the sleuth through her saucy first-person narrative as she tries to find a burgaler who's made a number of hits in her neighborhood-one of which she witnessed while spying on her neighbors with binoculars. The solution will likely come as a surprise, and the sleuth delights from start to finish. Van Draanen's novel exhibits all the zesty charm of her previous How I Survived Being a Girl. For example, Sammy's vice principal "looks like he could be a professional wrestler if he'd let his hair grow out and get a suntan." Although this young gumshoe is not yet a professional herself, she's well on her way-and certainly worth watching. Keep your binoculars trained on Sammy Keyes.
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