Van Draanen, Wendelin

Someone is spray-painting graffiti all over Cedar Valley and it is up to fifth-grader Nolan Byrd, also known as Shredderman, to expose the vandal.

Sammy hops a bus to Hollywood and finds her mother in deeper trouble than she ever imagined. When one of Lana's competitors for the big role is found dead in the room next door, Sammy can't help wonder if her mother is the next likely victim or the prime suspect.

Sammy Keyes has put away dozens of criminals of all kinds in her short tenure as a sleuth and mystery-solver, but this time one seems to have caught up with her. Sammy is pushed out a third-story window, rendering her unconscious, leaving her friends and those whom her work has helped to pick up the pieces and find out who attacked Sammy.

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

Nolan Byrd, alias Shredderman, sets out to help the young star of his favorite television show expose a slanderous reporter.

"Lincoln Jones is always working on the latest story he's got going in his notebook. Those stories are his refuge. A place where the hero always prevails and the bad guy goes to jail. Real life is messy and complicated, so Lincoln sticks to fiction and keeps to himself. Which works fine until a nosy girl at his new school starts prying into his private business. She wants to know what he's writing, where he disappears to after school, and why he never talks to anybody"--OCLC.

Sammy Keyes isn't looking for trouble when she trainsher binoculars on the Heavenly Hotel across the street. So when she spies a man with gloves pawing through a purse, and he sees her, there's only one thing todo-wave. And then maybe tell the police.