Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliet
WAW 2006 Award Nominee (Gr. 6-8)
December 27, 2006
This is a story full of coincidence and puzzles. Petra and
Calder are two eleven-year-olds who become entangled in a mystery,
involving codes, pentominoes, and a valuable painting titled "A
Lady Writing" by Johannes Vermeer. With the aid of clues that
seemingly come right of the air, the two sixth graders use
imagination and teamwork to locate the missing artifact.
Readers should know that Johannes Vermeer was a real 17th century artist, whose portraits may be viewed at the National Gallery of Arts (NGA). You can see examples of his work -- including "A Lady Writing" -- at the website of the National Gallery of Arts (listed below).
The book's illustrator, Brett Helquist, also did the
illustrations for Lemony Snickett's A Series of Unfortunate
Events.
Readers can also explore the fascination and fun of pentominoes by visiting the Scholastic Books website: You can even print out a set of your very own.
Sometime in 2007, Warner Bros. Pictures plans to release an adaptation of the novel Chasing Vermeer.
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