Most Popular Books by Willo Davis Roberts

From three-time Edgar Award–winning author Willo Davis Roberts comes the “instantly compelling” (Kirkus Reviews) classic mystery, originally published as Buddy Is a Stupid Name for a Girl, about a young girl who unravels her family’s deepest, darkest secrets. All Buddy ever wanted was a normal family. But with her mother dead, her father missing, and her brother on the road searching for him, Buddy has a hard time believing it will ever happen. Instead she’s living with relatives she hardly knows who resent her for reasons she can’t figure out. They think everything about her is strange, especially her name. Despite all this, Buddy clings to the hope that her father is out there, somewhere, and that her brother will find him so they can be a family again. Until then will Buddy find a way to accept her new life and figure out the mystery behind her relatives’ disapproving stares?

A 10-year-old girl, who has always looked different from other children, discovers that she not only has unusual powers but that there are others like her.

Fourteen-year-old Rebel has toned down her rebellious streak, but when faced with a challenge, she still feels the need to confront it head-on, despite the opinions of others.

A bestselling classic mystery about a baby-sitter who is kidnapped along with the three kids she is watching from three-time Edgar Award–winning author Willo Davis Roberts. “A solid adventure with more than a few spine-tingling moments” (Booklist). From the moment she set eyes on the three Foster kids, Darcy knew being their baby-sitter would be no picnic. But the pay was twice her usual rate, and the job was only for a few hours a day—surely an experienced baby-sitter like her could handle it. But Darcy hadn’t counted on the mysterious things that started happening at the Fosters’ home after she took the job. She did everything a good baby-sitter was supposed to do: she didn’t let the stranger claiming to be from the gas company into the house and she called the police when the burglar alarm went off in the middle of the afternoon. But that wasn’t enough to prevent a baby-sitter’s worst nightmare from coming true. Now it’s up to Darcy to rescue the Foster kids—and herself—from three ruthless kidnappers.

Overview: Fourteen-year-old Cici hopes for a romantic summer at the beach but instead finds herself trying to solve a murder which had occurred there the previous year.

This bestselling classic mystery from Willo Davis Roberts about a boy who witnesses a murder is “taut with suspense” (Booklist, starred review). Though Rob saw Mrs. Calloway fall to her death, strangled by the leather strap of her binoculars, he wants to believe that it was an accident. He wants to pretend he didn’t see the hands that pushed her out of her window. Then a flowerpot almost falls on him. And three bullets just miss him. And someone tries to poison his food. When he tries to tell his family that he thinks there has been a murder, they are too busy with his sister’s wedding to care. Will Rob be the murderer’s next victim?

Steve''s investigation of a haunted house that seems to be in use involves him with criminals who think he knows too much.

First eleven-year-old Megan is astonished when her mother insists on taking her and her younger brother up to the lake cottage a week before school is out; then they find mysterious strangers following them.

A young girl and her neighbor are kidnapped during a burglary gone awry in this hair-raising and fast-paced thriller from three-time Edgar Award–winning author Willo Davis Roberts. Sixth-grader Kaci Drummond longs for excitement and to be noticed just as her sister Jodie is for dancing, or her brother Jeff is for playing the piano. Shortly after her family moves to a new house, Kaci returns home in the middle of the school day and stumbles upon a burglary. The robbers kidnap her, and when a nosy neighbor suspects that something is wrong and tries to help, they take her as well. Kaci quickly discovers that the elderly woman not only has some good ideas, but also helps them both keep up their courage. Can the two hostages band together to escape their captors?

Fourteen-year-old Nikki has trouble accepting her new stepmother Crystal, and the problem grows worse when they visit the Northern California house where Crystal lived as a child and experienced some horrible event that she is trying to keep secret.

After the death of his little sister, Marc''s life begins to fall apart--his parents divorce, his mother comes under the influence of a pushy insurance agent, and Marc is sent to a camp for socially maladjusted youths.

After deaths of her parents, Teddi finds some stability when she moves in with Mamie, her good-hearted nextdoor neighbor--until the arrival of a woman claiming to be the pregnant wife of Mamie''s son who recently died in a plane crash.

To Share A Dream by Willo Davis Roberts released on Jun 24, 1994 is available now for purchase.

No one believes eleven-year-old Joey, who has a reputation for telling tall tales, when he claims to have witnessed the kidnapping of the class bully outside their expensive New York City private school.

This bestselling classic mystery filled with “clever sleuthing” (Publishers Weekly) by two brothers looking for information about their missing mother from three-time Edgar Awardu00ad–winning author Willo Davis Roberts is a thrilling roller coaster ride of a read. Rick and Kenny’s Pa was right all along—troubles really do happen in threes. First Pa’s truck was robbed, then Pa ran off, leaving Rick, Kenny, and Ma to fend for themselves, and now Ma has disappeared, too! Rick knows Ma would never leave them on purpose—but then, where is she? Waiting in Uncle Henry’s trailer park doesn’t seem to be getting them any closer to figuring out what happened. Instead the brothers, along with their new friends Connie and Julie, head to the abandoned Wonderland Amusement Park next door to search for answers. But what they find inside sends them on the most terrifying roller coaster ride of their lives. Could whoever took Ma be after them as well?

Mandy''s life changes forever when her ten-year-old twin sister eats a hamburger tainted with E coli and dies.

During a frightening trip spent in airplanes and airports between Seattle and San Francisco, three cousins get involved with sinister characters, identical flight bags, and an assault on an innocent old lady.

Pet-sitter Nick finds himself up to his ears in dogs, cats, and danger in this thrilling mystery from three-time Edgar Award–winning author Willo Davis Roberts. Nick is excited to earn money by pet-sitting for the residents of the Hillside Apartments. What could be easier than feeding cats and walking dogs? But he wasn’t expecting an Airedale twice his size…or a hissing, sharp-clawed cat named Eloise. And he’s definitely not prepared for the strange happenings at the apartment building: light bulbs that mysteriously burn out, gasoline stored near flammable materials, and two small fires. Can Nick figure out what’s really going on before it’s too late?

En route to stay with her uncle in Texas in the late 1860s, twelve-year-old Jo experiences a stagecoach robbery and becomes involved with a reluctant young outlaw aiming to change his ways.