Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief

Written by Wendelin Van Draanen

Narrated by Tara Sands

The debut mystery that kicked off the popular series about a live-wire girl detective, this Edgar Allan Poe Award-winning story takes place in Sammy’s neighborhood. Right across the street from her grandmother’s apartment, in fact. While looking out the window with her grandma’s binoculars, Sammy witnesses a crime across the street at the Heavenly Hotel. What’s worse, the thief saw her spying! As Sammy attempts to find the burglar who has made several other hits in the neighborhood, she finds herself trying to keep him from uncovering her – or worse, the police discovering that she’s living illegally with her grandmother in the seniors-only housing! A modern-day Nancy Drew, the saucy, smart Sammy Keyes is a sleuth whose escapades entertain and inspire teens.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Live Oak Media
• Release date: Jan 1, 2001
• ISBN: 9781595195449

Wendelin Van Draanen

Wendelin Van Draanen has written more than thirty novels for young readers and teens. She is the author of the 18-book Edgar-winning Sammy Keyes series—often called “The new Nancy Drew”—and wrote Flipped, which was named a Top 100 Children’s Novel for the 21st Century by School Library Journal and became a Warner Brothers feature film, with Rob Reiner directing. A classroom teacher for fifteen years, Wendelin resides in California where she can be spotted riding shopping carts across parking lots. She and her husband, Mark Parsons, have two sons and enjoy the three R’s: Reading, Running, and Rock’n’Roll.

Reviews for Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief

[mutantpudding · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read this series throughout middle school and high school and really enjoyed it and wanted to reread a couple of the books to see what current me thought of them. Conclusion, I still like them, although I don't think I'm going to pick back up where I stopped in 2008 and finish the series (probably. I might change my mind).

One of my big reasons for liking these books is just that I think Sammy herself is an amazing character. Part of that probably has to do with how much I felt connected to her when I was younger. She is a lot more daring and savvy than I ever was, but the traits we did share let me enjoy these books immensely. I think it was like, she did all the things teenage me wanted to do (but usually didn't). She had adventures and stood up to people who bullied her and figured out things other people couldn't. And she did these things in a way that seemed attainable to me. Sammy isn't rich or unimaginably smart or strong, she doesn't have some rare talent or beauty that sets her apart, she is just very determined and curious and doesn't know when to let something go. I felt like those were things I could do too if I needed to.

[ftbooklover · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Sammy Keyes is just about to start 7th grade in her first year of junior high. She has been living with her grandmother for over a year because he mother is in Hollywood trying to get a part in a movie or television show and doesn't really have time for Sammy. Sammy's Grams has a pair of binoculars that Sammy has been using to see what's going on in the neighborhood when she accidentally spots a robbery in progress in a hotel room across the street. She calls the police but realizes she can't tell them that she is living with her grandmother because people over 50 aren't supposed to be living in Grams' apartment building - a fact that Mrs. Graybill who lives across the hall keeps reminding her. When she tells the police that she is just visiting and really lives where her friend Marissa actually lives, Sammy's story starts to fall apart and she becomes a suspect herself. It doesn't help that she gets suspended on the first day of school for punching a girl in the nose that was harassing Marissa and stuck a pin through Sammy's clothes and into her butt.
Sammy Keyes is a funny character who is smart and not afraid to stick up for herself or her friends. She has excellent instincts which help her as she tries to figure out a way to find the hotel thief. Overall, a quick read with quirky characters and a couple of nice twists.

[dzejncrvena · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read a lot of Children's books, and I love Wendelin Draanen's novels.
Here we have the story of Sammy Keyes, our detective hero.
Woah, I didn't expect the culprit would be the least suspicious of them all.
I would have enjoyed reading this book more in my younger years.
If you like family-oriented and friendship-oriented stories, this is for you.

[wrightja2000 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A fun book
A kind of strange mix of seeming too young for slightly more mature subject matter, or implied subject matter. I'm not really sure who the audience is supposed to be. I'm going to have my 8 yo who loves mysteries read it and see what she thinks.

[themadhatters_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Sammy Keyes witnesses a man stealing from a hotel across the street from her Grandmother's apartment and, without thinking, waves to him. She then must track down the thief before he finds her and keeps her from talking. The Sammy Keyes series are all fun, quick reads geared towards tweens. A great "starter mystery" for middle school girls.

[bryndahlquis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A great mystery with a great main character! I love Sammy Keyes.

[lellis04 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The Sammy Keyes series is similar to the Nancy Drew series, in the fact that there is a teenage girl sleuth who solves a different mystery in each stand alone book in the series. Sammy Keyes is quirky, she lives secretly in her grandmother’s retirement community (because kids are not allowed), and wears Converse tennis shows. She is a feisty and modern Nancy Drew. This book is appealing to middle school girls. These books are fun and quick reads, nothing too deep, but fun mysteries none the less.In Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief, Sammy witnesses a robbery across the street and calls the police. However, the police don’t believe her, since she is just a kid, so it is up to her to solve the case.

[liga1996 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

such a fun book i love it i would diffinetly read it again. i often crave reading another but i already read the whol series and im trying to read different books

[mkschoen · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The mystery is so-so. Some pacing issues - the story jumps in in medias res, and I was confused, thought maybe I was reading the second or third in the series. For instance, she doesn't explain why Sammy is living with her grandmother, or why she has to hide from the neighbor for quite some time. That might not bother some readers, but it distracted me very much from what was going on. Beyond the mystery, she does do a good job of establishing how middle school can be a hard adjustment for kids - would be a good book for that age. Sammy stands up for herself, which is nice. A bit of the whole Nancy Drew - "better solve the mystery because the police are stupid" bit, though.Also was confused by this town she lives in - she lives across the street from an SRO hotel, and bodega, but that's also a few blocks from her friends' mansion? And a mall? Where is this taking place? Kids would probably not pick up on that, but agian, it distracted me.

[sweetiegherkin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Seventh-grader Sammy Keyes is temporarily living with her grandmother but because she’s not supposed to be living in senior housing, she has to keep out of sight most of the day. She entertains herself by looking out the windows with a pair of binoculars, and one day she sees a burglar stealing money out of a hotel room across the street. The trouble is, the burglar sees her, too. Now Sammy has to try to crack the case of the burglar’s identity before he catches up to her. The mystery in this story is suspenseful enough to keep the reader involved, and there are enough other side stories about friendship, family, school, etc. to also keep the story interesting. However, the biggest downside was that I personally did not find Sammy a sympathetic protagonist – she’s feisty and independent alright, but I also found her a bit obnoxious. It wasn’t enough to turn me off from reading this book, but it was enough that I won’t keep following the series.

[francescadefreitas · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a fast-paced mystery story, full of realistic details of school and family life.. Sammy is hiding in her Grandmother's senior's-only apartment, while trying to live as normal a life as possible. When she spots a man stealing a handbag in the hotel across the road, she has to identify the crook, before she implicates herself.Sammy and her best friend Marissa are wonderfully real, just the kind of girlfriends I'd like to hang out with. Funny, passionate, forgiving, and the opposite of prissy, these girls race through this story, with heaps of suspense and surprises on the way.I look forward to the next instalment.

[sarah5_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the best mysterys I read. This book was about a girl named Sammy who lives with her Grandma. Sammy loved using her birnoculars. On day she was looking out the window and saw in a apartment......... read to find out.

[maddi6072 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It was a book about a girl who is named Sammy Keyes who lives with her grandmother because her mother is trying to have a career in hollywood and she doesnt actually know what happened to her father. One day she is looking through her window with binoculars to the hotel across the rpoad from her. Suddnely she see's something. It was a robber looking in a purse. And what does she do? she waves.