Main Charicter Profials

Here are some profials on the main charicters. They have been produced from all the published books in the Sammy Keyes series. Also look for Supporting Charicters (in another entry). Enjoy!! 

• Samantha "Sammy" Keyes is a 13-year-old girl who is illegally sent to live with her grandmother while her mother decides to achieve her dreams as an actress in Hollywood. Spunky, sarcastic, and very curious, she solves mysteries surrounding her town and other areas she visits. Frequently she is tormented both by other kids in school and on the street by people she meets, and whose emotions are constantly tested. She, along with her friends Holly, Marissa, and Dot, plays on the school softball team as the catcher, using a softball mitt that belonged to her dad. The series starts in Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief, at the beginning of Sammy's first year in William Rose Junior High as a seventh-grader. By Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things, she has graduated from seventh grade and begun summer. She has a strong dislike for her mother for many reasons. When her "fourteenth" birthday came around, she was told it was only her thirteenth, as her mother had entered her in kindergarten when she was four, falsely assuming she was ready and forging her birth certificate to say she was five. When told Sammy would be held back, Lana refused to admit Sammy's real age to even her out of fear she'd accidentally tell a teacher. All in all, Sammy will always be just a fun, wacky and a "not so typical" 13 year old girl.

• Grams, full name Rita Keyes, is Sammy's grandmother and guardian who loves Sammy very much. She never ceases to worry about Sammy when Sammy gets involved in her adventures. However, the two of them are very close, much closer than Sammy is to her mother. No children are allowed to live in the Senior Highrise, so Sammy is frequently forced to lie about her home address and living situation. In the earlier books, Sammy was constantly avoiding their nosy neighbor Mrs. Graybill, and later in the series Mrs. Wedgewood, to keep the small family from being evicted.

• Lana Keyes is Sammy's irresponsible and careless mother. She constantly keeps secrets from her only daughter, and leaves Sammy with Grams while she becomes an actress in Hollywood. She is still unwilling to reveal Sammy's father's identity, something which constantly irritates Sammy. She has also kept her daughter's true age away from Sammy and changed her identity and age to seem younger. Sammy is not happy with her mother's decision to abandon her, and holds a grudge against her for this. She stars on a soap opera as Jewel, an "amnesiac and good friend" throughout the series. She is known as the GasAway Lady and Lady Lana, or when Sammy is on good terms with her (which is not often), Mom. In the recent books, Lana is spotted dating Casey's dad.

• Marissa McKenze, Sammy's best friend, is extremely rich and has more independence than Sammy because of her workaholic parents. She has a younger brother named Mikey, and he has an addiction for both junk food and goldfish; but later in Sammy Keyes and the Cold Hard Cash, his love for junk food goes down. When Marissa is nervous, she will do the "McKenze Dance", which involves biting of her fingernails and bobbing up and down on her toes. Marissa also has a crush on Danny Urbanski, an eighth-grader. Marissa downplays her wealth heavily, sometimes criticizing her parents for working too hard and not paying enough attention to their children. In Sammy Keyes and the Cold Hard Cash Marissa and her family have financial issues, which causes Marissa to become closer to her brother.

• Margaret "Dot" DeVries was introduced in the second book, Sammy Keyes and the Skeleton Man. Her nickname is derived from a beauty mark she has on her cheek. Dot first lived in a "skinny" two-story house that could barely fit her large family; by the fifth book, Sammy Keyes and the Curse of Moustache Mary, she has moved to a larger house in Sisquane. Her grandparents live in Holland and her mother often says "ja" instead of "yeah"; her father also has one. In Sammy Keyes and the Skeleton Man, Sammy sneaks into Heather's Halloween party by posing as Dot 's cousin, and added a fake beauty mark to make it more "convincing".

• Holly Janquell was introduced in the third book, Sammy Keyes and the Sisters of Mercy. During Sammy's volunteer time (to work off her detentions for misusing the school's public address system), she spots a girl who bears an uncanny resemblance to herself. Her curiosity aroused, Sammy tries to find out as much as she can about this girl. Eventually, Sammy finds that Holly is a homeless, orphaned girl who ran away from her foster home due to mistreatment, who had been living in a refrigerator box by a dried-up riverbank. Sammy finds a home for Holly at the Pup Parlor, a dog-grooming salon run by the mother-and-daughter duo Vera and Meg Talbrook. In return for the Talbrooks' kindness, Holly works after school in the Pup Parlor. In the beginning, Holly has a penchant for rummaging through garbage; however, later in the series she seems to have shaken off the habit. In 2006, Van Draanen later released a book called Runaway, a series of journal entries written by Holly that tells about her life on the run.

• Heather Acosta is Sammy's archenemy. Their mutual dislike for each other originates at their first meeting: Heather tries to take advantage of Marissa's wealth by asking her to lend her some money, and then jabs Sammy in the behind with a pin. Enraged, Sammy punches Heather on the nose, and Heather pretends that her nose is broken. As punishment, Sammy is suspended from school for a day. Later, however, Sammy is able to uncover Heather's bid for sympathy (including a spurious charity called the "Help Heal Heather Fund") and Heather is punished. Heather has two friends who are extremely stupid and seem to exist to do her bidding. Heather and her friends have been known to smoke cigarettes and drink beer. She has a brother called Casey, and their parents are divorced; Heather lives with their mother in town, and Casey with their father in the urban area of Sisquane. In Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen, she is found to have the same birthday as Sammy, much to their horror. Throughout the books she has tried to ruin Sammy's reputation, as well as physically attacking her at least once.

• Casey Acosta was introduced to the series in the fifth book Sammy Keyes and the Curse of Moustache Mary, and seems to be the complete opposite of his sister. He has a dislike for Heather, such as when Hudson asked if he was Heather's brother. He replied, "A fact I've been known to deny." He is good friends with Sammy and often sticks up for her. Sammy is often unsure of her relationship with Casey, who took a liking to her before she even knew him. The two went to a school dance together in Sammy Keyes and the Dead Giveaway. In Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things, Sammy began to have feelings for him and they grow closer.

• Officer Gil Borsch, the figure of the law in the series, is constantly pursuing Sammy for jaywalking and thinks that she is a criminal. However, when Sammy helps him out in a case during Sammy Keyes and the Runaway Elf, he changes his mind about her and they become friends over time. In Sammy Keyes and the Cold Hard Cash, he becomes engaged "for the third time" and even asks Sammy to be in his wedding. In the later books, he is promoted and Sammy doesn't see him as often.

• Hudson Graham is 73 years old, and is always wearing a fancy pair of boots, usually made out of reptile hide. Sammy often visits Hudson and sits on his porch to sort things out in her head. Hudson offers Sammy advice, usually focused around dealing with her archenemy, Heather, or the mystery currently playing out in that particular book. Hudson has a dachshund called Rommel, accused in Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen of mauling cats, and who unfortunately passes at the age of 13 in Sammy Keyes and the Cold Hard Cash.Hudson's advice usually plays a pivotal point in Sammy's unraveling of the story's mystery. In later books, Hudson and Grams develop a mutual crush on each other.