Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things

By Wendelin Van Draanen

Rating: 4 stars

Reviewed by Noelle

This is part of the Sammy Keyes mystery series. It is summer vacation for our almost 8th grade sleuth, and Sammy is bored. Her friends are all away, and she just happens to run into a classmate named Cricket at the sporting goods store. Cricket enthusiastically invites Sammy to come backpacking with a few friends up to Vista Ridge, where her Scout groups helps to monitor the endangered condor population. Sammy imagines nice views and the possibility of running into Casey, the boy she kind of likes, who is also going backpacking somewhere. But backpacking quickly becomes a nightmare, especially for someone who has never done any hiking before. But Sammy's blisters are the least of their problems. When the group reaches the Lookout, they find there has been a break in and some of the equipment to monitor the condors has gone missing. And pretty quickly, Sammy and her friends discover it is no simple break in--someone has gone looking for those rare condors. Maybe to capture, maybe even to kill one. But who? And why? Can Sammy, Cricket, Casey and Billy puzzle out the clues in time to rescue the condors? Sammy is getting older, so there is a tiny bit more on the romance side of the plot. However, Sammy has always been more of a tomboy, so to be interested in a boy is something more for her to be panicked about than romantic. Regardless of romance, this is still an interesting and involving mystery, with a spunky and funny heroine. Readers new to the series will want to go back and read the rest of the books. More Sammy Keyes, please!