Chasing Vermeer (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Brett Helquist (Illustrator) "On a warm October night in Chicago, three deliveries were made in the same neighborhood..." (more)
Key Phrases: Charles Fort, Delia Dell, Lady Writing (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the classic tradition of E.L. Konigsburg’s From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, debut author Blue Balliett introduces readers to another pair of precocious kids on an artful quest full of patterns, puzzles, and the power of blue M&Ms. Eleven year old Petra and Calder may be in the same sixth grade class, but they barely know each other. It’s only after a near collision during a museum field trip that they discover their shared worship of art, their teacher Ms. Hussey, and the blue candy that doesn’t melt in your hands. Their burgeoning friendship is strengthened when a creative thief steals a valuable Vermeer painting en route to Chicago, their home town. When the thief leaves a trail of public clues via the newspaper, Petra and Calder decide to try and recover the painting themselves. But tracking down the Vermeer isn’t easy, as Calder and Petra try to figure out what a set of pentominos (mathematical puzzle pieces), a mysterious book about unexplainable phenomena and a suddenly very nervous Ms. Hussey have to do with a centuries old artwork. When the thief ups the ante by declaring that he or she may very well destroy the painting, the two friends know they have to make the pieces of the puzzle fit before it’s too late!

Already being heralded as The DaVinci Code for kids, Chasing Vermeer will have middle grade readers scrutinizing art books as they try to solve the mystery along with Calder and Petra. In an added bonus, artist Brett Helquist has also hidden a secret pentomino message in several of the book’s illustrations for readers to decode. An auspicious and wonderfully satisfying debut that will leave no young detective clueless. --Jennifer Hubert

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Gr. 5-8. The Westing Game, The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler--how exciting to find a book that conjures up these innovative, well-loved titles. That's exactly what Balliett does in her debut novel, which mixes mystery, puzzles, possibilities, and art. The story is set in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood at the University of Chicago's Lab School, where Balliett was a teacher. There, outsiders Petra and Calder become friends as they try to find out what happened to a missing Vermeer painting. That's really all the plot one needs to know. More important are Balliett's purpose in writing and the way she has structured her story. The former seems to be to get to children to think--about relationships, connections, coincidences, and the subtle language of artwork. To accomplish this, she peppers her story with seemingly random events that eventually come together in a startling, delightful pattern. The novel isn't perfect. It glides over a few nitty-gritty details (how did the thief nab the picture), and occasionally the coincidences seem more silly than serendipitous. However, these are quibbles for a book that offers children something new upon each reading. Adults who understand the links between children's reading and their developing minds and imaginations will see this as special, too. Helquist, who has illustrated the Lemony Snickett books, outdoes himself here, providing an interactive mystery in his pictures. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Press; 1st edition (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439372941
• ISBN-13: 978-0439372947
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (149 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #194,558 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 100 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More accurate than The Da Vinci Code, June 25, 2004

By	T. Burger (Chicago) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This may not be The Da Vinci Code for kids, because it seems that the scholarship and research in Chasing Vermeer are more accurate than that in The Da Vinci Code. However, it?s a clever marketing technique, and it seems to be working.

Having read The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, The Boxcar Children, and all sorts of ?simpler? mystery novels as a child, this really was refreshing. I wish something like this had been around (or that I had known of it) when I was in 6th grade. Even for an adult, it?s an interesting, provocative work, with excellent pacing and sure handed writing. And any book that increases interest in art, thinking, or ideas has automatically hit a home run for me.

Aside from the terrific storytelling and infectious plotting, I was very intrigued by the two main characters. Both are ?hybrids? ? a far cry from the typical Caucasian heroes we see everyday. Bravo to the author for the varied ethnicity!

It?s also a pleasure to read a book written ?in? Chicago. Too many novels take place in New York, or L.A., and believe me ? Chicago is culturally rich enough to support many more stories of this nature.

The hidden clues were fun to figure out. I?ve never had much of a brain for puzzles, so even one aimed at kids between the ages of 9 and 12 challenged me. It took me a while to puzzle the clues out, and when I did, I discovered that there isn?t only one solution! There are two, equally valid solutions ? the one on the website, and the one I found. And yes, there really are two ? even though I don?t possess a proclivity for this sort of thing.

I?m already anxiously awaiting Ms. Balliett?s next book. As she is a teacher in the Hyde Park area of Chicago (which is as rich and culturally diverse as it gets here), I hope to see even more of this magnificent city!

74 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't meet expectations, August 24, 2004

By	Middle School Science Teacher (Illinois) - See all my reviews

Announcements of Blue Balliet¡Çs adolescent mystery ¡ÈChasing Vermeer¡É recently appeared in our Chicago papers. The articles that I read boasted the use of pentominoes to solve a mystery that takes place in Chicago. As a middle school science teacher, I was immediately intrigued. I am always looking for books that foster good problem solving techniques through creative and engaging methods. I dove into the book enthusiastically and was very impressed with the craft with which Ms. Balliett developed her characters; clearly she is a person who enjoys adolescents. I was also captivated by the setting, I spend a lot of time at the University of Chicago campus and Ms. Balliett envelopes the reader in the aura created by the breath-taking architecture and intellectual energy unique to the Hyde Park area. The illustrations by Brett Helquist are wonderful, they add warmth and a sense of mystery as the reader looks for clues within the artwork (even though the clues are disappointing in their simplicity). And so, as I went along on the journey with Petra and Calder, I was drawn into their dilemma and was decoding messages and looking for clues, thinking that this was a very interactive puzzle.

However, as the solution of the problem began coming together, I was horrified at the methods taken to form the conclusion. I will not give away the ending, but there are two main clues which resolve the issue. The first one is obtained through a dreamlike transmission of information from the dead woman in the painting, a form of ¡Èchanneling¡É. While paintings can convey emotions and cultural atmosphere, they cannot convey specific information about their location within a building! The second clue comes through using the pentominoes, not as a mathematical tool, but linguistically as shapes that roughly resemble letters of the alphabet. The reader is introduced to a willy-nilly word jumble that results in a clue. This is like using a protractor to make a peanut butter & jelly sandwich; it is possible but why waste a perfectly good mathematical tool in this way? The resulting clue was not created in the same manner that it is deciphered by the children, so there isn¡Çt even a cause and effect relationship in the problem-solving. None of the clues are based on solid evidence, I feel that this is very misguided and a lost opportunity to teach critical thinking. Throughout the second half of the book, readers are encouraged to look for coincidences and to give any connections the weight of solid evidence. There are confusing statements such as ¡Èthe sixth grade class¡Ästudied the idea of coincidence. Was it, as a number of interested scientists believed, just the human fascination with patterns? Or was it something more?¡É So, instead of an introduction to the field of mathematics called probability where the likelihood of an event occurring individually or simultaneously with another event can be quantified, the adolescent is encouraged to believe in some supernatural intervention. I was shocked that a fellow educator would model this fallacy in reasoning. Another passage sounds like a throwback to numerology, ¡ÈCalder discovered more twelves. First he made a list¡ÄThere were twelve names, and twelve letters in each name. ¡Äthe message ¡Æ1212¡Ç also has twelve letters if you spell it out, and so does the name of the painting.¡É Superstition also abounds, ¡ÈHe felt that things were often connected in ways that no one could yet explain in scientific terms. But if none of this was coincidence, what was it?¡É


I am glad that our wonderful city and the U of C campus is featured in a book for young people and I think that Ms. Balliet did a good job piquing the interest of adolescents in art history. But, this book claims to give us insight into how children process information, and there it falls apart. The author should put forth a little more effort in developing the clues so that there is some attempt to foster true critical thinking based on analysis of real data. We need to have more respect for the intellectual capabilities of our students.

54 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun, but the hype may have done it in for me..., September 15, 2004

By	Darren in Kansas City "Darren in Kansas City" (Kansas City, MO United States) - See all my reviews

Here's some applause for an intelligent, art-centered kid's mystery studded with some sharp writing and magnificent illustrations that are works of art all on their own. Now for the dose of reality in the midst of all the hype: the story doesn't hold up. Things begin to crumble halfway through when (don't worry, I'm not going to give away any specifics plot points) the mystery's solution begins to be uncovered via some very flimsy "feelings" and coincidences. That's something of a betrayal to a setup that was, until that point, so clean and logical. I was so charmed by Petra and Calder that I would happily read another book about them. In fact, next time around, I'd like to learn a little more about the two of them.