Wendelin Van Draanen

In alternating chapters, two teenagers describe how their feelings about themselves, each other, and their families have changed over the years.

Flipped

When a school bus accident leaves sixteen-year-old Jessica an amputee, she returns to school with a prosthetic limb and her track team finds a wonderful way to help rekindle her dream of running again.

The running dream

Thirteen-year-old Sammy's penchant for speaking her mind gets her in trouble when she involves herself in the investigation of a robbery at the "seedy" hotel across the street from the seniors' building where she is living with her grandmother.

Sammy Keyes and the hotel thief

When her behavior escalates out of control, fourteen-year-old Wren is taken away to a wilderness therapy camp where she is forced to develop new skills, including the courage to ask for help.

Wild Bird

Sammy continues to make life with her grandmother interesting as she tries to discover who is stealing from St. Mary's Church, befriends a homeless girl, and plays in a softball tournament against a bitter rival.

Sammy Keyes and the Sisters of Mercy

After running away from her fifth foster home, Holly, a twelve-year-old orphan, travels across the country, keeping a journal of her experiences and struggle to survive.

Runaway

From the author of The Running Dream comes a heart-swelling historical tale of friendship, family, and the power of sisterhood to help heal the wounds of the past and step boldly into the future. Ginny Rose and Peggy were best friends at seven, picking peaches on hot summer days. Peggy's family owned the farm, and Ginny Rose's were pickers, escaping the Oklahoma dust storms. That didn't matter to them then, but now, ten years, hard miles, and a world war later, Ginny Rose's family is back in town and their differences feel somehow starker. Especially since Peggy's new best friend, Lisette, is a wealthy banker's daughter. Still, there's no denying what all three girls have in common: Families with great fissures that are about to break wide open. And a determination to not just accept things as they are anymore. This summer they will each make a stand. It's a season of secrets revealed. Of daring plans to heal old wounds. Of hearts won and hearts broken. A summer when everything changes because you're seventeen, and it's time to be bold. And because it's easier to be brave with a true friend by your side.

The Peach Rebellion

When thirteen-year-old Sammy finds herself with an abandoned baby on her hands, she sets out to find the young mother, who may belong to a gang, and accidentally jeopardizes her position on the softball team.

Sammy Keyes and the Search for Snake Eyes

Everyone in Santa Martina knows about the Bush House. It's big, and dark, and no one knows who or what's inside. Nobody with any sense would go there-especially at Halloween. Except for Sammy Keyes. and when Sammy goes creeping up the path, only to be knocked sideways by a skeleton carrying a bulging pillowcase, she begins to understand why... Fast-paced and funny, packed with menacing suspects and clever clues, the Sammy Keyes mysteries keep you guessing to the last riveting page.

Sammy Keyes and the Skeleton Man

After an old man begs her with his last dying breath to throw away his bundles of cash for him, Sammy Keyes ends up in a dangerous dilemma after she decides to hide the ill-gotten gain in a secret spot in order to keep it for herself.

Sammy Keyes and the Cold Hard Cash

While celebrating the New Year with a friend, Sammy encounters a mystery involving an elderly neighbor, a pioneer cabin, and a century-old family feud.

Sammy Keyes and the Curse of Moustache Mary

Seventh-grade sleuth Sammy Keyes investigates mysterious happenings at a local art gallery.

Sammy Keyes and the Art of Deception

While on her first hiking and camping trip, thirteen-year-old Sammy tries to solve a mystery involving endangered condors while avoiding scorpions, ticks, and embarrassment.

Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things

Fifth-grader Nolan Byrd, tired of being called names by the class bully, has a secret identity--Shredderman!

Secret Identity

When her history teacher begins receiving death threats and her own name is near the top of the suspect list, eighth-grader Sammy is determined to find the real perpetrator, but she is distracted by her duties as a reluctant bridesmaid. Read by Tara Sands.

Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher

When pranksters sabatoge a Christmas parade and steal a prize Pomeranian, thirteen-year-old Sammy must use her detective skills to solve the mystery.

Sammy Keyes and the Runaway Elf

From the award-winning author of The Running Dream and Flipped comes a remarkable portrait of a girl who has hit rock bottom but begins a climb back to herself at a wilderness survival camp. 3:47 a.m. That’s when they come for Wren Clemmens. She’s hustled out of her house and into a waiting car, then a plane, and then taken on a forced march into the desert. This is what happens to kids who’ve gone so far off the rails, their parents don’t know what to do with them anymore. This is wilderness therapy camp. Eight weeks of survivalist camping in the desert. Eight weeks to turn your life around. Yeah, right. The Wren who arrives in the Utah desert is angry and bitter, and blaming everyone but herself. But angry can’t put up a tent. And bitter won’t start a fire. Wren’s going to have to admit she needs help if she’s going to survive. "I read Wild Bird in one long mesmerized gulp. Wren will break your heart—and then mend it." —Nancy Werlin, National Book Award finalist for The Rules of Survival "Van Draanen’s Wren is real and relatable, and readers will root for her." —VOYA, starred review

Wendelin Van Draanen

Books

Your next favorite book is out there