Wendelin Van Draanen

In this historical tale of friendship, family, and the power of sisterhood, three very different girls from varying social stratums find common ground as they each make a promise not just to accept things as they are anymore.

Lincoln Jones is always working on the latest story he's got going in his notebook. Those stories are his refuge. A place where the hero always prevails and the bad guy goes to jail. Real life is messy and complicated, so Lincoln sticks to fiction and keeps to himself. Which works fine until a nosy girl at his new school starts prying into his private business. She wants to know what he's writing, where he disappears to after school, and why he never...

When Justice Jack, a self-appointed superhero, begins trying to track down the missing Mrs. Wedgewod and some stolen cash, the older folks in Santa Martina are delighted but Sammy knows it will be up to her to really solve the mystery.

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.
Dave Sanchez is an average boy with an after-school job and a pet gecko named Sticky. All very normal—until the day Sticky talks!
Sticky tells Dave a wild tale of a former life of crime, searching for Aztec gold with a treasure hunter named...

Nolan Byrd single-handedly saved his school from the bullydom of Alvin “Bubba” Bixby. He posted proof of Bubba’s exploits on the Web at Shredderman.com. Now Shredderman is the school hero! But since Shredderman’s identity is a secret, everyone still treats Nolan like . . . a nerd.
But inside this nerd beats a superhero’s heart—one dedicated to truth and justice. So when a vandal spray-paints graffiti around...

Alvin Bixby: Hulking, knuckles of steel, hideous breath, foul temper. Kids call him: Bubba.
Nolan Byrd: Puny, power walker, math genius, can’t keep shoes tied. Kids call him: Nerd.
Bubba has been the bane of Nolan’s existence for five long years. So when Mr. Green asks the class to become reporters, Nolan decides he’ll write an exposé—on Bubba. He doesn’t want to sign his name to it (that’d be suicidal),...

Fourteen-year-old chess whiz Ruby Vossen tries to keep to herself. She refuses to be a pawn in her wealthy family's web of deception. But ever since Ruby's mother and aunt died in a car wreck, the battle lines drawn within the Vossen clan have ruled her life. Ruby's father and uncle became irreparably estranged, and within months, Ruby's cousin/BFF was banished from her life, her father remarried, and she wound up with a gold-digging stepmom who has...

Awards:

Edgar Allan Poe Award

Reviews:

"Listeners are immediately swept into the story when Sammy relates that she's observed a crime while looking at the Heavenly Hotel through her grandmother's binoculars...Young listeners are sure to embrace this solid entry in the Live Oak Mysteries series." - starred review, Publishers Weekly

Audio Recommended By:

AudioFile, Booklist, Publishers Weekly*, School

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In her latest mystery, Sammy Keyes feels responsible for the death of an old man who she discovers on the fire escape and who, with his dying breath, begs her to take his wads of cash and throw them away! While she debates what to do about the money, which she could definitely find good use for, she attempts to uncover the motives of the strange man asking questions about the old guy. The cold hard cash she's found seems to be burning more than

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