“The most winning junior detective ever in teen lit. Keep your binoculars trained on Sammy Keyes.” - Publishers Weekly “The sleuth delights from start to finish. A top-notch investigator!” - New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton

Holly has run away before, but this time she actually gets away - and what at first felt like an escape soon becomes a daily struggle for survival. She is the author of the 18-book Edgar-winning Sammy Keyes series, and wrote Flipped which was named a Top 100 Children’s Novel for the 21st Century by SLJ, and became a Warner Brothers feature film with Rob Reiner directing. This diary of a runaway girl and her search for a home celebrates hope, resilience, and happy endings as only Wendelin Van Draanen, the author of Flipped and other acclaimed novels, can. “If Kinsey Millhone ever hires a junior partner, Sammy Keyes will be the first candidate on the list. Wendelin Van Draanen has written more than thirty novels for young readers and teens. Dognappers, blackmailers, and wise men be warned! and she’s a woman who knows how to get what she wants.īut Sammy’s a pretty tough cookie herself. The owner is demanding that Sammy find her doggone dog. Turns out the darn fuzzball’s been kidnapped. Dogs shoot off in all directions, and the prize Pomeranian Sammy’s supposed to be watching disappears. The Christmas parade gets furry in a hurry when three pranksters dressed as wise men toss some cats onto Sammy’s float. 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. I love listening to narrators who can really bring a story to life.“The hottest sleuth to appear in children’s books since Nancy Drew” ( The Boston Globe) is back! Don’t miss the fourth book in the series that’s been described as “a combination of Carl Hiaasen’s Flush and Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books” ( School Library Journal) and hailed as “nonstop whodunits” ( Kirkus Reviews)! WENDELIN VAN DRAANEN was a classroom teacher for many years before becoming a full-time writer. She was able to capture and portray Holly‘s emotions so well. Emma Galvin was the perfect choice to narrate this book.

I would also just like to say that the narrator was excellent. If I had known about it sooner I totally would’ve read it by now. I knew I had to listen to this book, and I don’t regret a single second of that decision. When I went on Audible and I saw this everything came back. The thought of Holly having a backstory kind of just faded in my mind until I basically forgot about my curiosity. What was Holly‘s backstory? Overtime though Holly kept showing up in the books as one of Sammy‘s best friends, and I kind of got used to her so I kind of forgot all about how she was introduced. And when I read Sammy keys and the sisters of Mercy and Holly was introduced I got really curious. When I first started reading the Sammy Keyes series I loved it.

Runaway by wendelin van draanen