Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief

“‘Samantha Keyes, you mark my words, those things are going to get you in a big heap of trouble someday’ […] I figured it was just Grams doing some more worrying about nothing. That is, until I saw a man stealing money from a hotel room across the street—and he saw me.”

Sammy’s tone shifts from nonchalant to tense as she quickly goes from thinking that Grams is “worrying about nothing” to witnessing a crime. The author’s choice of punctuation contributes to the suspense; the dash makes the revelation that the thief saw Sammy more dramatic.

“So I’d started looking at the hotel windows and was checking out the fourth floor when I noticed this guy moving around one of the rooms kind of fast. He disappeared for a little while but when he came back by the window I could see him digging through a purse like a dog after a gopher. And not only was he pawing through a purse, he was wearing gloves. Black gloves.”

The simile that describes the thief “pawing” through the purse “like a dog after a gopher” conveys the man’s suspicious urgency and paints a vivid picture of a key plot point. The details that the author provides, such as the “[b]lack gloves,” illustrate the young sleuth’s powers of perception and develop the theme of observational skills.

“Now normally when the doorbell rings I just get up from doing whatever I’m doing, make sure none of my stuff is sitting around the living room, and head for Grams’ closet. This time, though, I jumped. I jumped and I yelped like a puppy. And all of a sudden my heart’s pounding because I know who it is. It’s the guy I saw at the Heavenly Hotel, come to shut me up for good.”

Van Draanen expresses the protagonist’s alarm through the simile “yelped like a puppy.” The author’s use of the first-person perspective increases the scene’s suspense by presenting Sammy’s inner thoughts and sensations, such as her “pounding” heart and her fear that the thief has come to “shut [her] up for good.” In addition, the fact that Sammy “head[s] for Grams’ closet” whenever someone rings the doorbell foreshadows the revelation that the apartment building is exclusively for the elderly and the girl does not have authorization to live there.

“Now I don’t mind cops. Actually, when I was in the fourth grade I wanted to be one, but that was before Lady Lana left me with Grams and I had to start worrying about someone finding out. When you’re living where you’re not supposed to be living, it doesn’t take long to figure out that you should stay away from people who ask nosy questions, and believe me, cops like to ask lots of nosy questions.”

The repetition of the phrase “nosy questions” emphasizes why Sammy avoids the police. The long, slightly rambling final sentence adds to the conversational flow of Sammy’s narration. This passage also develops the theme of the complexity of justice and crime: Sammy wants to help the woman who was robbed, but she knows that she is placing herself in jeopardy when she offers the police information due to her living situation.

“Lady Lana starts gushing about how much she loves me and misses me and how she can’t wait to see me again, but she’s so close to landing a part in a major motion picture and has to stay just a little while longer. And the whole time she’s talking I’m thinking that it’s been over a year since she dumped me with Grams and told me she’d be back ‘soon.’”

The alliterative, mocking nickname “Lady Lana” highlights the woman’s excessive self-importance and the resulting rift in her and Sammy’s parent-child relationship. The passage uses polysyndeton through the repetition of the conjunction “and” to convey Lana’s selfishness. She monopolizes the conversation just as she failed to take Sammy’s feelings into consideration when she left her behind to pursue her dream of becoming a movie star. Lana’s “gushing about how much she loves” her daughter is not a sincere outpouring of feeling, but rather an attempt to bar her daughter from the opportunity to object to her mistreatment or challenge her mother’s imaginings.

“At first Firehead just snubs us, but then she notices my shoes. And she laughs. ‘High-tops? What are you, straight from elementary school?’ I stare at her a minute and can feel my face getting really hot. How can someone who decorates her ears like a Christmas tree have the nerve to make fun of my high-tops?”

Sammy demonstrates her quick wit with a simile, observing that Heather’s many piercings make her ears look “like a Christmas tree.” The observation that Sammy’s face is “really hot” reveals her embarrassment at the bully’s remarks. Heather targets the protagonist’s old and worn high-tops for ridicule, suggesting that she believes Sammy is an easy target due to her low socioeconomic status.

“I mean sure, I’d punched her in the nose, but I wasn’t the one who’d started it. Why was I ‘reflecting’ in the Box when Heather was out roaming around? And what kind of lies was she out there telling about me? And why did they believe her and not me?”

By presenting Sammy’s thoughts as a series of questions, the author expresses the protagonist’s confusion and anger at the unfairness of her situation. This passage examines the complexity of justice by pointing out how matters such as who initiated the conflict and why some people are believed while others are not factor into the final outcome of misdeed and punishment.

“Mrs. Graybill had lipstick on, and lipstick is her idea of being dressed. She doesn’t brush her hair—it’s got a flat spot in back where she sleeps on it, and it sticks straight out everywhere else. She doesn’t put on shoes or clothes. She just puts on lipstick.”

Van Draanen provides visual imagery with the detailed descriptions of Mrs. Graybill, including her hair that “sticks straight out.” The juxtaposition of the woman’s disheveled state and her lipstick provides humor and exemplifies Sammy’s witty narrative voice and her observations about the people around her.

“Grams says, ‘Daisy, can’t you just give up the hunt? Wouldn’t it be more fun to be friends?’ I’m thinking, Friends? With Mrs. Graybill? That’s all I need!”

The repetition of the word “friends” and the fragments “Friends? With Mrs. Graybill?” express the protagonist’s disbelief at Grams’s suggestion. However, Mrs. Graybill shares the protagonist’s inquisitive nature and tenacity, suggesting that the two characters might become allies later in the series.

“Mrs. Graybill shakes that napkin in my face again. ‘This note!’ When I finally got it away from her and read it, it felt like there was a centipede crawling down my back. I knew I hadn’t written it, but I had a good idea who had.”

The simile describing how Sammy “fe[els] like there [i]s a centipede crawling down [her] back” illustrates the protagonist’s fright as she reads the note that the burglar intended for her. Van Draanen draws out the moment’s suspense by not immediately revealing what the message says.

“‘Let me talk to Marissa!’ Now you have to understand—Grams had never shouted at me before. Never. Not when I left the water running in the sink and it overflowed, not when I burned the potatoes so badly we had to throw the pan away, not when I spilled grape juice on her new couch, or broke her favorite teacup.”

Italics make Grams’s dialogue stand out from the rest of the text, underlining how atypical it is for the character to shout at her granddaughter. The fragments and the series of scenarios that Sammy lists further convey the woman’s fury. In a fourth-wall break, Sammy addresses the readers and tells them that they “have to understand.” The protagonist frequently tries to explain her actions and missteps during this portion of the narrative, and the appeal to the readers conveys her craving for understanding and absolution.

“The bowl on the top rack had been rinsed, but when I looked at it real closely I could see some oatmeal stuck to one side. I checked the glasses and there was a spot of pink on the side of one of them. Grams’ grapefruit juice.”

The “spot of pink” on the glass and the bit of oatmeal stuck to the bowl provide visual imagery and develop the theme of observational skills. Sammy attaches great importance to these seemingly everyday objects because she believes that they can help her decipher whether or not her grandmother is in trouble, demonstrating her critical thinking.

“Mrs. Graybill’s nose wasn’t in the hallway, and Grams’ binoculars were under the bed—right where I’d left them.”

The author uses synecdoche, a figure of speech in which part of something stands in for the whole thing. In this case, “Mrs. Graybill’s nose” represents the neighbor in her entirety and emphasizes the woman’s characterization as an interfering busybody. Although the observation is humorous, it also highlights Sammy’s constant need for vigilance even within the building she calls home.

“So I run across to the far side of the roof, then find Hudson’s house with just my eyeballs.

I put the binoculars up, adjust the focus, and sure enough there’s Hudson, sitting on the porch, beating the heat with a tall glass of iced tea, laughing. And sitting right next to him, beating the heat with a tall glass of iced tea, laughing, is my grandmother.”

The last two sentences in this excerpt make extensive use of repetition. By repeating the words “sitting,” “beating the heat with a tall glass of iced tea,” and “laughing,” the author emphasizes Sammy’s surprise at seeing the characters enjoy one another’s company.

“I’m sitting there, with my hands in fists, going, Yes! Yes! Yes! as loud as my brain can shout, when something brushes against my shoulder. Not Grams’ coat. Not one of her dresses. Something alive.”

The author uses the fragments “Not Grams’ coat. Not one of her dresses. Something alive” to draw out the suspense as Sammy reaches the horrifying realization that she isn’t alone in Grams’s closet. Another narrative technique that contributes to the suspense in this scene is the cliffhanger ending, which requires readers to wait until the next chapter to discover what touched Sammy’s shoulder.

“By now I’ve gotten the idea of what Grams meant by ‘seedy.’ The wallpaper’s peeling off, the paint’s pretty dirty, and looking across the room I can see the bed’s lopsided and the mirror on the far wall’s cracked in two places.”

Adjectives like “dirty,” “lopsided,” and “cracked” contribute to the visual imagery depicting Gina’s room in the Heavenly Hotel. The descriptions of the derelict space reinforce the hotel’s disreputable reputation and Grams’s reasons for telling her granddaughter not to go there. The hotel room is one of the novel’s most important settings because it’s the scene of the crime that Sammy witnessed with her binoculars.

“‘Holy smokes!’ Marissa says when I show her the napkin. All of a sudden I want out of there. I say, ‘C’mon!’ and before you know it we’re pounding down the back side of the Heavenly Hotel like our underwear’s on fire.”

The simile that describes the girls fleeing from the hotel “like [their] underwear’s on fire” provides humor to undercut the scene’s tension. At the same time, the girls’ speed conveys the fear that they feel after finding the napkin with Gina’s room number written on it.

“So up I go to unhook her pants, and I’m halfway up when the top shoelace snaps and the whole fence starts bending back. Marissa screams and her pants rip and there she is, with one leg on each side of the fence, her underwear flashing like a flag of surrender.”

Marissa’s predicament and the simile likening her underwear to “a flag of surrender” provide comic relief between suspenseful scenes. The repetition of “and” in the second sentence is an example of polysyndeton that expresses the hectic pace of the unfolding action, Marissa’s panic, and Sammy’s efforts to intervene quickly before further mishaps ensue.

“‘You rile people up and then I have to talk myself blue in the face trying to convince them there weren’t any clues then, there aren’t any clues now, and there are never gonna be any clues!’ Well, let me tell you, there’s nothing blue about Officer Borsch’s face. It’s as red as a hothouse tomato.”

Sammy uses wordplay about colors to demonstrate her cleverness when she takes Officer Borsch’s figure of speech that he has to “talk [him]self blue in the face” and produces a simile calling him “as red as a hothouse tomato.” This simile expresses Borsch’s temper, and his repeated declarations that there are not “any clues” convey his ire toward the young sleuth.

“I pull the napkins back out and sit down, right there on the floor. And the longer I stare at the napkins the colder I feel, until finally my whole body is shivering. I whisper, ‘No…it can’t be,’ but Hudson’s voice keeps echoing through my brain: ‘My dear, things are not always what they appear.’ And the more I think about it, the more I know. I know who the hotel thief is.”

The author’s diction with the words “colder” and “shivering” uses Sammy’s sudden chill to provide a physiological expression of her shocking realization. The repetition of the phrase “I know” underscores this key moment in the mystery when the sleuth determines the culprit’s identity. The reference to Hudson Graham’s words of wisdom further underlines the moment’s significance. Van Draanen sustains the novel’s suspense by waiting to reveal who the thief is until a later chapter. This delay gives the author’s young readers more time to form their own hypotheses before the big reveal.

“I know I don’t have much time before some security guard comes and hauls me off, so I push her face down toward the moving steps and say, ‘Give me Marissa’s money!’ There go those steps, thunk-kathunk-thunk-kathunk, just skinning her nose, and all of a sudden she’s very quiet.”

The onomatopoeia of the escalator’s “thunk-kathunk-thunk-kathunk” emphasizes the imminent danger that Heather is in if she doesn’t comply with Sammy’s request. The sentence juxtaposes the girl becoming “very quiet” with the loud sounds of the escalator to show Heather’s fear. In addition, the mention of Heather’s nose reminds both Heather and the readers of the time Sammy punched her in the nose, and this prior act of violence makes the present threat seem more plausible to Heather.

“And when he reaches the walkway, my heart starts beating so loud that anyone coming by right then would’ve thought it was a miracle and the statue of Mary had come to life. I whisper, ‘He’s the hotel thief—I’m almost positive!’ ‘Who?’ I point to the end of the walkway. ‘Him!’”

Sammy’s claim that her heart is “beating so loud” that a passerby would think “the statue of Mary had come to life” is an example of hyperbole. This exaggeration shows the suspense and excitement that the protagonist feels at the prospect of proving the thief’s identity.

“I jump out from behind the hedge and I’m about to hop off the planter when Oscar grabs me by an ankle. Now this is no feeble grab—it’s like a tourniquet around my leg. And any second he’s going to yank me off the planter and I’m going to go splat! on the walkway, so I smack him with the sole of my other foot, right in the forehead.”

Sammy uses a simile to compare Oscar’s grip on her ankle to “a tourniquet.” This figure of speech highlights the danger that the protagonist is in and Oscar’s menace toward her. The word “splat!” is an example of onomatopoeia that accentuates Sammy’s mental image of the thief throwing her to the ground, intensifying the novel’s climax.