Wendelin van draanen biography

Parravano described Van Draanen's protagonist as "one tough, smart, resourceful seventh grader," and compared the heroine and structure of the lighthearted detective novel to those of popular adult mystery writers such as Sue Grafton, who are adept at "making the investigator's character and private life at least as interesting and complex as the plot.

As it opens around Halloween time, Sammy still lives with her grandmother and is eagerly outfitting herself as the Marsh Monster for the holiday. While trick-or-treating, she and her friends bravely approach the "Bush House," a scary manse with wildly overgrown shrubbery. But then Sammy is nearly knocked down by a man wearing a skeleton costume and carrying a pillowcase.

She and her friends advance and discover a fire in the house, and Sammy puts it out. They also find that a burglary has just taken place, and several valuable books are missing from the house. Sammy, naturally, finds herself drawn into the drama and wants to solve the whodunit. She learns that the Bush House is neglected because its owners, the LeBard brothers, are feuding with one another.

Once again, her cleverness helps her find a solution and also helps her keep one step ahead of Heather, who continues to cause her problems. Sammy, for instance, sneaks into Heather's Halloween party and plants a baby monitor in her room—which provides Sammy with evidence that Heather has been making prank phone calls in Sammy's name. Yet Sammy's natural talent for making friends also helps her forge an unusual bond with Chauncy LeBard, and she even gets the two warring brothers to agree to talk.

In the end, she unmasks the skeleton man and recovers the missing rarities. Martha V. Parravano, reviewing the story for Horn Book, praised it as a "highly readable mystery [that] hits the ground running.

Wendelin van draanen biography

Van Draanen's third entry in the series, Sammy Keyes and the Sisters of Mercy, was published in Still walking that fine line between intellectual brilliance and juvenile delinquency , Sammy finds herself sentenced to twenty hours of detention, which she must fulfill by helping out at the local Roman Catholic church. One day, while cleaning the windows of St.

Mary's, she sees a girl she does not know and approaches her. The girl vanishes, and Sammy is suddenly alerted to the distress of Father Mayhew, who has just discovered his valuable ivory cross missing. Sammy, of course, is the first suspect in the theft, but other possible culprits surface as well, and in order to clear her own name, she resolves to catch the thief herself.

On another day, she again sees the mysterious girl at the church's soup kitchen and eventually learns that she is homeless. Again, Van Draanen paints Sammy as a typical adolescent. There is more enmity with Heather, and she is determined to beat her foe in the local softball league championships. In the end, it is Sammy's offer to help a group of musical nuns who do missionary work out of an old school bus that helps solve the mystery of Father Mayhew's missing cross.

An assessment from Jennifer Ralston in School Library Journal praised the main plot of Sammy Keyes and the Sisters of Mercy as well as the other storylines, both recurring and new. Ralston noted the storylines provide "depth and interest to an already engrossing mystery while capturing the angst of junior high school. Van Draanen wrote another entry in the series that also appeared in , Sammy Keyes and the Runaway Elf.

Set during the Christmas season, this story occurs when Sammy is still in seventh grade and becomes involved in her community's holiday parade. She is assigned to the "Canine Calendar Float" and is charged with babysitting a famous Pomeranian, the calendar cover dog, Marique. Parade chaos ensues, however, when a trio of culprits dressed as the Three Kings throw cats onto the hound-laden float.

The prized Marique vanishes, and its owner, wealthy Mrs. Landvogt, blackmails Sammy into finding Marique in order to avoid paying the fifty thousand dollar ransom demanded. An elfin girl, Elyssa, turns out to be a runaway, and Van Draanen weaves her plight and the dognapping together and ties it up, according to critics, with another satisfying conclusion.

Once again, however, several suspects must first be eliminated and comical plot twists steered through. This time, Sammy manages to befriend the formidable Mrs. Graybill, too. Remarking on Sammy's penchant for making friends both younger and much older than herself, School Library Journal contributor Linda Bindner noted that "Van Draanen handles the relationships with style and sensitivity.

Reviewing the latter title in School Library Journal, critic Wanda Meyers-Hines Called it "clever and fast-paced, and … filled with cliff-hanger chapter endings and characters with secrets. The next book in the series, Sammy Keyes and the Search for Snake Eyes, finds Sammy being given a "surprise" by a frightened girl in the mall. Sammy understands the girl's fear when she meets the nefarious Snake Eyes.

A contributor to the TeenLit Web site commented: "The last few sentences of each chapter left me wanting more. At times, I felt I couldn't put down the book. In Sammy Keyes and the Art of Deception, Sammy is at an art gallery for a school project along with Grams and her septuagenarian friend when she sees paintings that fascinate her. Suddenly, a man armed with a squirt gun comes in and steals some paintings.

As Sammy and her grandmother try to figure out why the paintings were stolen, several subplots ensue, including Sammy's ongoing feud with Heather, and Sammy's strange feelings for Casey, Heather's brother. The book was made into a Warner Brothers feature film directed by Rob Reiner in Whiskers and the Shenanigan Sisters. Contents move to sidebar hide.

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No Comments. Runaway , a companion book to the Sammy Keyes series, is about a girl named Holly who tries to escape from her latest foster home. From to Van Draanen wrote Shredderman , a four-book series for younger readers about a fifth grade boy who assumes a secret online identity to help him win a battle against the school bully Bubba Bixby.

She also wrote the standalone teen romance Flipped in a he-said she-said style, with the two protagonists alternately presenting their perspective on a shared set of events. The two protagonists Bryce and Julianna are neighbors.