Wendelin Van Draanen

After reading her mother's secret collection of romance novels during her parent's difficult separation, seventeen-year-old Evangeline Logan begins a quest for the perfect kiss.

Thirteen-year-old Dave and his sidekick, a talking gecko named Sticky, try to retrieve an ancient Aztec powerband and its magic ingots from the evil villain, Damien Black.

3:47 a.m. That's when they come for Wren Clemmens. She's hustled out of her house and into a waiting car, then a plane, and then taken on a forced march into the desert. This is what happens to kids who've gone so far off the rails, their parents don't know what to do with them anymore. This is wilderness therapy camp. Eight weeks of survivalist camping in the desert. Eight weeks to turn your life around. Yeah, right. The Wren who arrives in the...

When Sammy and her friends meet Lucinda Huntley walking her 200-pound pig down the middle of the road, their quiet weekend in the country quickly becomes an adventure. Lucinda tells them a true tale of the Wild West, her great-grandma Moustache Mary, and a century-old family feud. But this feud is hardly ancient history. Past and present collide—and combust!—when Mary's pioneer cabin burns to the ground. Sammy thinks the cause of the fire may...

Junior high detective Sammy Keyes and her friends take a detour through a graveyard on Halloween night and find themselves in the middle of a mystery involving missing people, human skulls, and a ghoulish embalmer, while school presents its own set of tricks and treats.

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...

"Sammy Keyes has spent the last few years solving other people's mysteries; now her friends (and some foes) come together to unmask the fiend who has put Sammy in a coma"--

It's Sammy's birthday, which should be a good thing, except that Dorito, Sammy's cat, is missing, and while Sammy's searching for him, she finds three dead cats in dumpsters around town. Worse still, Miss Kitty, a psycho cat lady, blames Sammy when it turns out one of the dead cats belonged to her. As if Sammy didn't have enough on her hands investigating these furry felonies, her mother has a confession to make: she lied about Sammy's age so she...

When her history teacher begins receiving death threats and her own name is near the top of the suspect list, eighth-grader Sammy is determined to find the real perpetrator, but she is distracted by her mother's relationship problems, her almost-boyfriend inexplicably avoiding her, and her duties as a reluctant bridesmaid.

The Gecko & Sticky are a fabulous crime-fighting duo! This quartet of funny adventures will appeal to fans of superheroes both young and old, and would make terrific all-family read-alouds.
"Don't move a muscle!" shouts a strangely clad crook in the act of robbing a bank. But of course somebody does. That somebody is Dave Sanchez, and the crook is none other than the dastardly Damien Black, fresh out of prison and back to his...