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Chasing Vermeer
- By Blue Balliett
- Genre: Mystery
Common Sense Media says
A mystery, fantasy, and imaginative launch pad.
Parents say
QUALITY
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that there's so much here to stimulate a child's mind: the codes embedded in both the story and the illustrations, art history, pentominoes, the works of Charles Fort, mathematical patterns, and much more. Many kids will want more information on one or more of the subjects presented and, with help from an adult, should find profitable areas for pleasurable research.
What's the story?
A famous Vermeer painting, The Lady Writing, is stolen while in transit to a Chicago museum. Petra and Calder, classmates at the University of Chicago Lab School, think they may be able to solve the mystery. Petra has found, and then lost again, a related letter, and each of them may be getting supernatural messages about the theft, Petra directly from the Lady in the painting, and Calder from a set of pentominoes.
As they track down clues, their investigations lead them in many directions: an old lady in the neighborhood, a famous bookstore, their teacher, a book of freakish phenomena, a friend's disappearance, and a series of odd coincidences. No one is what they seem to be, and Petra and Calder don't know whom they can trust.
Is it any good?
Blue Balliett's first book is a thinking child's mystery, filled not only with the traditional accoutrements of adult mysteries (clues, red herrings, multiple suspects, plot twists, concluding explanations), but also with secret codes (which the reader has to decode to read the whole story), mathematical patterns, hidden drawings, art history, and references to the real books of Charles Fort, who wrote in the beginning of the 20th century about unexplained phenomena. The fun comes not from solving the mystery, but from watching CHASING VERMEER's main characters figure it out.
This book will be a challenge even for accomplished young readers -- the author and illustrator encourage poring over it carefully and pausing to think and experiment. If one stretches out the reading too much it's easy to lose track of the myriad details, necessitating rereading. An intellectual challenge wrapped up in a mystery novel -- bright children are going to love this.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about art. What makes an object a work of art?
How do you determine its value?
Families can also talk about
coincidences. Do you believe coincidences have meaning, or are they
just a matter of chance?
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- Teens & kids
AGE
Perfect for tweens, but younger kids may not be able to follw the story line
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AGE
A Gotta-have book!
Who stole Vermeer's art work?????
This story is a mystery kind of like CLUE... There are mysteries and answers on every page!!!!!!!!!!! It's a must read for every age
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AGE
A must read book for anyone...
This book is real exciting. I really like mystery novels, so this was perfect for me.
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AGE
Not to be missed
When I first saw Chasing Vermeer in the store the same week it was released nearly three years ago, I was instantly intrigued. I read it straightaway. Since then, I've read it an additional half a dozen times and it’s become one of my favorite childhood books.
After all, what's not to like? Mature middle school readers will be delightful the two unconventional characters, tossed headfirst into an international art scandal, and left to solve it use patchy clues, intuition, and chance. Furthermore, they’ll undoubtedly be captivated by Blue Balliet’s introductions to Chicago, Johannes Vermeer, Lo!, pentominoes, etc.; so much so, as a matter of fact, that they may chose to do a bit of investigating of their own.
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AGE
a mystery????????
well to start off this book is about where these kids get these letters and they are on a mission trying to solve the vermeer painting and they cant show anyone or tell anyone about the letter. if they do they will face the consequences. try to solve the mystery!
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AGE
one of my favorites
A really interesting plot, i enjoyed this book very much. It teaches kids to expand their horizons and look and things in a new light. Petra and Calder are fairly good role models except when they lied to their parents at the end. Overall a must read
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Kid, 12 years old
February 17, 2010
AGE
Chasing Vermeer
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AGE
Chasing Vermeer
Good story; good story. I had to read this book for summer reading, so I didn't really have a choice! The first 9/10 of this book is EXTREMELY mind-numbing. I could die of boredom! But, the final few chapters are very exciting and fun to read. The book educates kids about art and some math. The main characters are good role models, and it has good messages!
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| Author: | Blue Balliett |
| Illustrator: | Brett Helquist |
| Book type: | Fiction |
| Genre: | Mystery |
| Publisher: | Scholastic Inc. |
| Publication date: | July 11, 2004 |
| Number of pages: | 354 |
| Hardcover price: | $16.95 |
| Publisher's recommended age(s): | 9 - 12 |
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