Chasing Vermeer
By Blue Balliett, 2004
Illustrated by Brett Helquist
254 p.
Reading Level: 5+
Interest Level: 10-13 years old
Awards:
Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Children’s Mystery, Agatha Award for
Best Children’s/Young Adult Novel, Chicago Tribune Prize for Young Adult
Fiction, Book Sense Book of the Year Award for Children’s Literature
Reviews: Booklist Starrred, Publisher's Weekly Starred, School Library Journal, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Starred, Kirkus Review Starred, Wilson’s
Petra Andalee and Calder Pillay are sixth graders attending U. School on the campus of The University of Chicago. Although they both have Ms. Hussey as a teacher and they only live 3 doors from each others they were not friends- each thinking the other odd- until a series of coincidences brought them together. They find that they have much more in common than they thought, with a strong love of books, art, making sense of seemingly unrelated things, and blue M&Ms.
When a Vermeer painting that was en route to Chicago from Washington is stolen, Petra and Calder realize that a strange phenomena is at hand and that they are somehow privy to clues which could help them recover the missing painting before it’s destroyed by the art thief as has been threatened.
This is a book of puzzles. Petra uses pentominoes not only to create designs, but as letters which provide clues to the things happening around him. Dreams, reproductions of paintings, an old book of curious events, and more are all interconnected like puzzle pieces which all lead Petra and Calder to the conclusion that they know where the painting is hidden But will they get to it in time?
Illustrations by Brett Helquist are found throughout the book and are a nice visual addition.
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