VVMBookBlog

David is nine and a year ago his mother was killed in an accident at work back when they were living in Minnesota. Now he lives with his grandmother and his dad (when he’s home on weekends) in Pennsylvania. Nothing his grandmother or anyone can do or say help him to heal the hole left by his mother’s death.

Primrose is thirteen and lives with her mom, who is a psychic and calls herself Madame Dufee, in a tiny little house with no room for Primrose. It’s so small, in fact, that she makes a room for herself our in her yard in an old junker van that local bad kids attack with eggs. She only wishes that she could have had a normal mother who would do what normal mothers do, including read to her at bedtime.

Then David and Primrose find each other, in a strange way at an Easter egg hunt, and begin to help each other heal the holes in their hearts.

I especially liked the section on collecting nightcrawlers. It reminded me of going out for a walk in the evening after a heavy rainstorm last spring. I kept seeing movement in the grass and finally realized there were nightcrawlers EVERYWHERE! I stuck my toe near them and they all whooshed back into their holes. Not sure if I would want to collect them like Primrose and David did, even for 25 cents apiece!

This was my first Sammy Keyes book in a long time, so I was again surprised by how much fun she is as a character and the major-league mysteries she becomes involved in.

Remember, Sammy, now almost done with 7th grade, is secretly living with her Grams in Grams’ senior citizen apartment while her mom is off in Hollywood trying to be an actress.  She is fearless, outspoken, and always ready to investigate something that doesn’t seem right.

This time she has a few things to deal with: 1) her teacher’s lovebird, Tango, that she kills accidentally, 2) knowledge of something her arch-enemy, Heather Acosta, has done and what to do about it, 3) the possibility of corrupt local politics involved in a move to acquire the home through eminent domain of an older lady whose dog Sammy walks, and 4) the end-of-the-year dance that’s coming up!! (Why CAN’T she just wear her hightops??)

Fun to read.  Makes you want to ready more Sammy Keyes!