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Zusatztext 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 Informationen zum Autor WENDELIN VAN DRAANEN was a classroom teacher for many years before becoming a full-time writer. The books in the Sammy Keyes mystery series have been embraced by critics and readers alike, with Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief receiving the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best children’s mystery. Wendelin is also the author of many award-winning novels, including Flipped, The Running Dream, Runaway, Confessions of a Serial Kisser, Swear to Howdy, The Secret Life of Lincoln Jones, and Wild Bird. You can find her online at WendelinVanDraanen.com and @WendelinVanD, and you can follow Sammy Keyes on Facebook. Klappentext "The most winning junior detective ever in teen lit. (Take that, Nancy Drew!)" -Midwest Children's Book Review Sammy's softball team is in contention for the Junior Slugger's Cup, and all she wants to do is hunker down behind the home plate and catch strikes. But Heather Acosta brings new meaning to the term "foul ball" as she schemes to get Sammy kicked off the team. Then Sammy is thrown a wild pitch by a frantic girl at the mall. The girl asks Sammy to watch her bag and dashes off before Sammy discovers that the bag she's left holding contains a baby! When the girl doesn't return, Sammy decides to go find her. A heart-pounding search ensues, and leads to some situations that are definitely not covered in the softball playbook. The Sammy Keyes mysteries are fast-paced, funny, thoroughly modern, and true whodunits. Each mystery is exciting and dramatic, but it's the drama in Sammy's personal life that keeps readers coming back to see what happens next with her love interest Casey, her soap-star mother, and her mysterious father.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 scie...