Wendelin Van Draanen's funny, fast-paced girl-detective series hit the ground running with Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief, winner of the 1999 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best children's mystery. After four more Sammy stories, we've officially befriended the strong, spunky, skateboarding seventh grader who can't help but plant herself in the middle of the action. Sammy Keyes and the Curse of Moustache Mary starts innocently enough when Sammy decides to spend New Year's Eve weekend at a friend's house in the country. The next thing she knows, she's made friends with an elderly woman named Lucinda Huntley, owner of a 200-pound pet pig and heir to a Wild West story about a century-old family feud involving her great-grandmother "Moustache Mary," who came west from Missouri in 1845. When Mary's historic cabin burns to the ground, Sammy wastes no time in plunging headlong into the mystery--and into a few serious scrapes. Sammy is growing up, and with her years come the rumblings of romance, confrontations with kids who use (and manufacture) drugs, and plenty of decisions about who she should trust... including herself. Van Draanen captures Sammy's honest, funny, fresh voice in an always-engaging first-person narrative that accompanies the rapid-fire action and adventure. Sammy Keyes is a person your favorite bookworm will want to get to know, and fortunately, more adventures are on the way. (Ages 10 and older) --Karin Snelson