About this item
The final mystery starring Sammy Keyes: "the most winning junior detective ever in teen lit. (Take that, Nancy Drew!) " - Midwest Children's Book Review Sammy doesn't go looking for trouble, but she seems to find it everywhere. She's forever sniffing out clues and chasing down bad guys - and driving her friends a little nuts. She's gone up against thieves and counterfeiters and gangsters and blackmailers and murderers, and always stayed one step ahead. Until now. Last night, one of the bad guys caught up. Last night, someone followed Sammy up the fire escape and pushed her from the third story. Now she's in the hospital, out cold. And her friends are left with the questions Sammy's always been so good at answering: Why? How? But most of all .
About the Author
"Through writing, I open up my heart and soul in ways I never could in everyday life. The joy, the pain, the wonder and loneliness I felt in growing up, meld into stories which I hope will help kids believe in themselves and have compassion for those around them." - Wendelin Van Draanen
Wendelin Van Draanen is the winner of the 1999 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Children's Mystery Book for Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief. Sammy Keyes and the Search for Snake Eyes is a 2003 Edgar Award nominee.
Visit Wendelin Van Draanen's Web site at www.wendelinvandraanen.com for the lastest on The Gecko and Sticky, Sammy Keyes, Shredderman, and more!
How in the world did I wind up writing a book about a kleptomaniacal, talking gecko lizard? I'm the first to admit-talking animals are not my thing. First person, realistic fiction-that's what I like. And yet, after Sticky appeared as a sidekick television character in my Shredderman series and uttered his first "Holy guaco-tacarole!" I was hooked. He's so funny. And so full of mischief.
I always develop a backstory for my characters to get to know them. Even if they're secondary characters, I have to understand their background and motivations before I let them into the story. The premise of the third Shredderman book (Meet the Gecko) is that a television crew comes to town to shoot an episode, and Shredderman helps out the star of the show. Not wanting to deal with the legal complications of using a real television show, I made up my own: The Gecko and Sticky. In the process, I came up with the hero (Dave Sanchez-a boy who has the "superpower" of being able to walk up walls, and is known as the Gecko) , the sidekick (Sticky who is, as you already know, a talking gecko with . . . h'hem, sticky fingers) , the villain (the deadly, diabolical, and definitely demented Damien Black) , and Damien's sidekicks (the Bandito Brothers, who are, in fact, not brothers, but a thieving mariachi band) .
It was definitely wilder than anything I'd come up with before, but hey-it was just a made-up TV show, right?
Ah, how diabolically infectious made-up TV shows can be!
Sticky, you see, got under my skin. His "Ay-ay-ay"s and his "What the jalapeno was that? " and his "You cut me to the quick, senor" enchanted me, and I was sorry when his role in the Shredderman books was over.
After the Shredderman quartet was complete, I began getting lots of fan mail from kids (and teachers) asking me to please write more Shredderman books. It was tempting, because I love Nolan and the gang. But I'd completed my mission with the quartet; so instead, I started writing The Gecko and Sticky.
My first attempt resulted in an over 200-page manuscript. That was closer to a Sammy Keyes novel than a Shredderman book. So I hacked it up, threw it out, and started all over.
