Wendalin Van Draanen's teenage sleuth, Sammy Keyes, is up to her crackerjack detective work again, but this time, she's taken her investigation to life-threatening levels. When another teenager frantically hands Sammy her baby at the mall and then vanishes, the young gumshoe gets a quick lesson in motherhood and takes up the challenge of finding the mother. The trouble? A menacing creep Sammy's dubbed Snake Eyes, who was trailing the girl and who has all the markings of a gangster. Along with looking at possible suspension because of Heather Acosta's softball team sabotaging, Sammy realizes that in order to save the unknown girl's life, she must travel into gang territory and go eyeball-to-eyeball with the man who could determine her own fate.
Sammy Keyes and the Search for Snake Eyes
Narrated by Tara Sands
Wendelin Van DraanenUnabridged — 6 hours, 43 minutes
Sammy Keyes and the Search for Snake Eyes
Narrated by Tara Sands
Wendelin Van DraanenUnabridged — 6 hours, 43 minutes
Overview
Editorial Reviews
In the seventh addition to the popular Sammy Keyes series, the intrepid detective lays her life on the line when she hunts down her latest suspect, a reptilian-looking fellow. Ages 10-up. (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Gr 5-8-The unconventional girl detective is back in her seventh adventure. The upcoming Junior Sluggers' Cup tournament is all Sammy's friend Marissa will talk about, so Sammy suggests they go to the arcade to take her mind off it. While there, Sammy is literally left holding the bag as a stranger, who is frantically trying to hide from a scary-looking man, asks her to watch a bundle. Inside, the junior sleuth finds a baby. After a difficult night, she turns the infant over to her friend Officer Borsch. However, she now feels that she must find out who and where the baby's mother is before she is hurt (or worse) by the man with "hatred for eyes" and "steel for a mouth." The search takes Sammy and Marissa into the gang-infested parts of Santa Martina. In addition to this problem, Sammy's nemesis, Heather Acosta, is pulling her usual nasty tricks while at home trouble is brewing in the form of Mrs. Wedgewood, Sammy's grandmother's new neighbor. Sammy's search for the baby's mother rises to a frantic pace as she and Marissa risk their lives and the tournament to solve this latest case. A must for all Sammy Keyes fans, this book also stands alone and will make readers dash back to the library to read the first six.-Yapha Nussbaum Mason, Brentwood Lower School, Los Angeles Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
The navel-ring generation's Nancy Drew gears up for another all-out dash into peril that begins at a video arcade in the mall, and almost ends in a boarded-up basement, looking down the barrel of a gun. There's not a dull moment to be found here. A new neighbor noses out Sammy's illegal residence in her grandma's seniors-only apartment, old adversary Heather Acosta gets her and her friends kicked off the softball team just before a major tournament, a frantic teenager passes her a bag with a baby hidden inside. Moreover, a chilling punk "hatred for eyes. Steel for a mouth," and a snake tattoo is relentlessly stalking her. Thanks to some sturdy friends, and a winning combination of guile and good intentions, Sammy ultimately comes out on top. But first she learns more than she ever wanted to know about baby care in one endless overnight, and then drags reluctant but doughty sidekick Marissa into gang territory for a series of scary encounters that lead to a wild, daring rescue. Readers unfamiliar with Sammy's earlier escapades may stumble over some continuing plot threads, but along with a cast of thoroughly likable, or thoroughly despicable, characters, each of whom gets exactly what he or she merits, Van Draanen offers such an explosive combination of high-stakes sleuthing, hilarity, and breathlessly paced action that it's impossible to turn the pages fast enough. (Fiction. 12-15)
Praise for the Sammy Keyes series:
“Van Draanen offers such an explosive combination of high-stakes sleuthing, hilarity, and breathlessly paced action that it’s impossible to turn the pages fast enough.” —Kirkus Reviews
“There’s no stopping Sammy.”—Publishers Weekly
“An intelligent, gutsy, flawed, and utterly likable heroine.”—Booklist
"Move over, Nancy Drew—a new sleuth is on the scene.”—Girls’ Life
"Think a combination of Carl Hiaasen’s Flush and Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books and you’ll be right on target.” —School Library Journal
“A high-quality, high-amp mystery series.” —The Horn Book
“This funny, clever series is NOT for kids only. I challenge the most seasoned mystery reader to guess ‘who done it.’” —Cozies, Capers, and Crimes
“Sammy Keyes comes armed with attitude.” —Orlando Sentinel
“Sammy doesn’t find mysteries to solve—they find her.” —Arizona Republic
“Humor, romance and adventure; this story is an absolute blast.” —Chicago Tribune
“If you haven’t met Sammy Keyes yet, now is the time.” —Children’s Literature
The Sammy Keyes series keeps getting better and better. In the seventh title in the series, a frightened teen at a video arcade asks Samantha to hold a package for her. When the girl disappears, Sammy finds that she’s now responsible for what’s in the package--a baby! Tara Sands captures the youthful energy of the young sleuth and her best friend, Marissa, as they try to find the boy’s mother while avoiding “Snake Eyes,” the sociopathic gang member who is after the mom. Despite the light tone of Van Draanen’s writing and Tara Sands’s cheerfully cherubic performance, the book deals with hard issues--gangs, teen pregnancy, domestic abuse--and handles them with honesty. Sands maintains momentum as she shifts from Sammy and her classmates to Hispanic gang members, from the ill-tempered Officer Borsch to prying Mrs. Wedgwood. Sammy Keyes is a keeper--that is, if she survives junior high. S.E.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940172253980 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Live Oak Media |
| Publication date: | 01/01/2003 |
| Series: | Sammy Keyes , #7 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Age Range: | 8 - 11 Years |
Read an Excerpt
ONE
I don't generally hang out at the mall. It's full of biting shoes, shrinking clothes, and useless knickknacks. It's also crawling with poseur kids who think it's their private stage for rehearsing public coolness. Please. I get enough of that in junior high.
But the Santa Martina mall also has a video arcade, and if you know anything about my best friend, Marissa, you know that video games are the only thing that'll make her quit talking about softball. And since we're in the middle of gearing up for the Junior Sluggers' Cup tournament, softball is all Marissa's had on her mind. For weeks. She's working up plays, she's practicing after practice, she's even talked Coach Rothhammer out of her home phone number so she can run ideas by her in the middle of the night. You have to know Ms. Rothhammer to understand the significance of this—nobody's got her number, and I mean nobody. She teaches P.E. and eighth-grade science, and she's got a reputation for being really strict and really private. Like, is she married? We don't know. Does she have kids? Dogs? Horses? Flower beds? Nobody knows. I'll bet Vice Principal Caan doesn't even know, that's how good she is at being private.
What I do know about Ms. Rothhammer is that she's the one person who wants to bring home the Junior Sluggers' Cup as much as Marissa does. Probably for different reasons—like, I know Ms. Rothhammer couldn't care less about us winning the school a party day. More likely it has to do with showing up Mr. Vince, who told her she'd never get her hands on the cup. Of course, that was last November, after our team beat his team in our school's playoffs, so maybe she's forgotten all aboutthat.
Then again, maybe not.
Anyway, the point is, Marissa McKenze has been the Softball Czar for weeks, and the past few days it's been driving me batty. And maybe I should've just said, "Marissa, enough! There's life beyond softball!" but I do live in Santa Martina, a town where everyone from Heather Acosta, Princess Prevaricator, to Mayor Hibbs, Sultan of City Hall, is into the game. So much so that people play year-round. Rain or shine, mud or flood, people play.
So instead of telling Marissa something she'd never buy into anyhow, what I said was "Hey, you want to go to the mall and play some video games?" And since I'm never the one to suggest it, she said, "Are you kidding?" and off we went.
Now, I'm not big on playing myself. I don't have the quarters to spare. So while Marissa's seriously invested in the skill of electro-badguy annihilation, I'm more an observer than anything else. Sure, I'll play a few games just to keep her happy, but pretty much I'm a peanut gallery of one.
Good as she is, though, I get bored and wind up looking around at other stuff. People, mostly. And let me tell you, there are some pretty strange people in the arcade. I'm not talking about the kids, either. They just strut around, cussing and stuff, acting like they'll take you down if you look at them wrong. Like they could actually catch you with the way they wear their pants halfway down their butts.
No, the adults are strange. It's men, mostly, and mostly they look the same—scraggly hair, faded band T-shirts, dirty jeans, and work boots. They come in alone, park themselves at the gun games, and shoot. They don't look at anyone or anything else, they just shoot. And good luck cutting in if you want a turn. I've seen kids try it, and let me tell you, it's dangerous.
Anyway, there I was, at four in the afternoon, surrounded by the noise of electro-fire, checking out the arcade clientele, when this girl with a big red-and-white Sears bag backs right into me. Hard.
Does she say, Sorry? Or, Excuse me? Or even turn around and look at me?
No.
She whimpers, "Jesus! Oh, Jesus!" and drags that bag in close, between her feet. Her eyes are glued to the arcade entrance, and she's shaking. First it's just sort of a shiver, then a rumble; then she starts having her very own internal earthquake.
"What's the matter?" I ask her, but she still doesn't turn around to look at me. She just paws through her Sears bag and rearranges a yellow towel that's on top, then weaves the bag's cord handles together, shaking the whole time.
I look between the two video games we're standing in front of so I can get a clear shot of the entrance, but all I see is a bunch of people milling around outside.
This girl is melting down about something, though, so I say to her, "Are you all right?"
"No! Oh Jesus, no!" She turns to me, her eyes full of terror. "What am I going to do? He'll kill me! He'll kill us both!"
"Who?" And I'm thinking, Whoa, now! Why would he want to kill me?
She doesn't answer. She just stays behind cover while she checks out the entrance.
"Do you want me to call the police?"
"No!" She turns back to me, looking even more scared than she had before. "No!"
"But—"
"Whatever you do..." Her shaking goes up a notch. "Oh Jesus, there he is!"
"Where?"
"Right over there!" she says, looking out into the halls of the mall. Only there are about thirty people roaming around out there. "Oh Jesus, what am I going to do? What am I going to do?"
"If you're that scared, why don't you let me call the police?"
She whirls around and says, "No! You hear me! They mess everything up. They put him away and now he's out! He's gonna kill me!"
"But if he's going to kill you..."
"Oh Jesus, here he comes." She looks around frantically. "Is there a back door to this place?"
I shake my head.
"How am I going to get out of here?" She goes back to looking outside, practically shaking herself to death.
Then I see him. I can just tell. It's the way he's walking. Slow, but, I don't know...tight. Like every step is for a reason and nothing better get in his way.
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