Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that the only troubling thing here is the behavior of the kids who are the main characters. Calder strikes up a conversation with a stranger in a public park, decides not to tell his father, and later goes off alone with the man. Tommy and Petra disobey the police, and Tommy steals a wheelbarrow.
Families who read this book could discuss Alexander Calder and his amazing art. Why does it have the effect on us that it does? In what way is it art? To learn more about Calder, start with the links below, and look to see if there is any of his art near you that you can visit. Also, there are many books on how to make mobiles, and your kids may enjoy trying their hands at it.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Matt Berman
Chasing Vermeer was a tightly woven combination of math, mystery, codes, and art history that was compared to The DaVinci Code. The sequel, The Wright 3, was less tightly woven but still entertaining. But THE CALDER GAME makes it clear that the author went one book too far.
Codes are still here, but have nothing to do with the plot. Pentominoes have become little more than something for Calder to fiddle with. The mystery is bogus, and the kids, after much lurking around, don't even solve it. There's really nothing left except for the author's fascination with art, which she tries to pound into her readers at tedious length. Even the story sags; The author lamely tries to gin up some tacked-on suspense with foreboding chapter endings that lead nowhere and are about nothing -- "a sense of something hovering" (there isn't anything), watching eyes (which are never connected to anyone), strange sounds, and the like. Balliett writes well enough, but it's time for her to move on to a new idea.
From The Book
The setting is a very old town in England. It is dawn, a pale October dawn that pours through the streets like cream, erasing line and dissolving shadow. Red ivy stirs against damp stone; the houses are stone, the walls are stone, the street is stone. A lace curtain has escaped through an open window and waves unseen in the early light. Now a black cat blinks, stretches, and slowly crosses the empty square, stepping carefully around a raised sign that reads, MINOTAUR, ALEXANDER CALDER, 1959.
Someone sneezes behind closed shutters. A light goes on in a kitchen and a man in plaid pajamas fills a brass kettle. In other houses, butter sizzles and silverware clinks. The first truck of the day rattles across cobblestones and comes to a sudden stop. The driver sits for a moment looking straight ahead, his mouth open, then hops out and hurries to a nearby door. He bangs the knocker twice, sticks his head in, and shouts, "It's gone! The sculpture is gone!"
Soon enough, the town realizes that a boy is also gone.
Plot Summary:
After a class trip to see an exhibition of the works of Alexander Calder in Chicago, Calder Pillay travels to a small village in England with his father, who is attending a conference. There they discover another work of Calder in the town square, but soon after they arrive both the artwork and the boy disappear. Hearing this, Calder's friends, Tommy, Petra, and Mrs. Sharpe, arrive to help with the investigation.
Related Books:
This is the Sequel to:
Chasing Vermeer
The Wright 3
The Power of Art:
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place by E.L. Konigsburg
Framed by Frank Cottrell Boyce
The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World by E.L. Konigsburg
Related Web sites:
Author's Site
Calder Foundation
Calder Online Links
Calder Virtual Tour
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ViolenceA man is thought to have been hit on the head hard enough to put him into a coma. |
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Social BehaviorCalder strikes up a conversation with a stranger in a public park, decides not to tell his father, and later goes off alone with the man. Tommy and Petra disobey the police, and Tommy steals a wheelbarrow. |
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CommercialismBritish candy brands mentioned. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoAdults drink brandy and whiskey. |
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