Author: Blue Balliett
Illustrator: Brett Helquist
© Date: 2004
Publisher: Scholastic Inc
Pages: 254
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: Yes, some full page illustrations are sprinkled throughout
Publisher Recommended Age: 8-12 years
Bonus Activities at End of Book: Yes, about the author and illustrator, Q&A with author and illustrator, activities, and character design sketches
Summary from Book: When a book of unexplainable occurrences brings Petra Andalee and Calder Pillay together, strange things start to happen: Seemingly unrelated events connect, an eccentric old woman seeks their company, and an invaluable Vermeer painting disappears. Before they know it, the two find themselves at the center of an international art scandal, where no one—neighbors, parents, teachers—is spared from suspicion. As Petra and Calder are drawn clue by clue in to a mysterious labyrinth, they must draw on their powers of intuition, their problem-solving skills, and their knowledge of Vermeer. Can they decipher a crime that has left even the FBI baffled?
Note: This review is done from memory. I originally read this a short bit ago.
Page Pig Thoughts: This one wasn’t a bad book, but it wasn’t really great either. Usually 50 pages from the end, I struggle to put a book down. This one was easy to put down at 50 pages and even 20 pages to go. I wasn’t even tempted to sneak in reading a chapter during the day. The story was alright and the mystery kept me guessing, but I just wasn’t overly into it. The beginning of the story felt very forced and not overly organic. Some of Calder and Petra’s initial emotions/apprehensions about speaking with others didn’t seem overly realistic for a kid of their age, but I am no child thought expert. The story flowed a little better after the beginning, but still felt forced at times.
I liked that pentominoes were used in the story. We hadn’t heard of them before and Page Pup has enjoyed playing with a set. I also liked the idea of the coded letters that Calder sends back and forth with his friend, Tommy. However, as a tired person reading in bed, I did not feel like decoding them. But even after realizing that the letters may be useful for the plot, I still didn’t feel up to flipping around the pages to decode the letters. So be prepared to decode 4 short letters if you want to fully follow the story.
The story’s premise is that you need to pay attention to details that other people may not notice. When the whodunit was revealed at the end, I struggled to even remember the character. Maybe I am used to clues being sprinkled differently throughout a mystery, maybe I am sleep deprived, or maybe I just need to work on that skill. But the obscure feeling at the end took the excitement out of the ending for me. After finishing the book and decoding the letters, I discovered that maybe the big reveal wouldn’t have been such a mystery if I had taken the time to decode the letters. The majority of the references to a character seemed to be in the letters.
Page Pup read this one at school some time ago. Page Pup and couldn’t remember liking or disliking it, so this one didn’t get much of an endorsement from Page Pup.
Family Unit: Calder lives at home with his mother and father. Petra lives at home with her mother, father, and four younger siblings.
Conflict/Social Issues:
- A famous painting is stolen and no one knows where to find it.
Positive Items:
- The fifth grade class explores the ideas of how useful letters are as communication and what makes something a piece of art. Maybe by thinking of things in a different fashion, kids can find a new interest or appreciate an item in a different way.
- The activities at the end of the book share ideas for ways to look at art in a museum. Try looking for a particular item or color in an artist’s work or various artists. Maybe look at a particular technique and how it is used in different pieces of work. These types of ideas seem like they could be useful for making a trip to an art museum more of an adventure than just looking at tags on random pieces of art.
- Codes are used throughout the story, someone may enjoy looking for clues in the pictures are decoding things. Maybe that someone will also create their own code for writing letters.
Items of Interest:
- Calder always carries pentominoes in his pocket. When he is trying to make a decision or think of things, he pulls out a pentomino, thinks of the letter that it is associated with, then thinks of the first word that comes to mind. The pentomino words lead him to solutions for the mystery.
- Petra has a dream about a lady in a painting. The painting speaks to her. Turns out the painting also spoke to Mrs. Sharpe.
- Calder and Petra sneak around trying to solve the mystery themselves.
- Calder’s best friend, Tommy, moved away just before this story starts. Tommy sends a letter to Calder to tell him that the boy next door, Frog, vanished and he thinks that he was kidnapped. Much later in the story, we learn that Frog’s family had taken a long trip and left Frog with a relative. Tommy thinks that maybe no one wanted to tell the new kid or maybe they just aren’t overly nice.
- Calder’s friend’s mom abruptly marries a man. Then takes her son, Tommy, when she moves with the man to a different city. The man then leaves as abruptly as he came.
- Petra’s father leaves on a long work trip, but doesn’t tell anyone what he is doing.
- Ms. Hussey, Calder and Petra’s fifth grade teacher, does not teach based on a curriculum. The class explores ideas and follows things that interest them.
- Calder is knocked off the top of a slide by the art thief. He gets a bad concussion but attempts to follow the thief anyway. Calder eventually passes out in a treehouse in freezing temperatures. Petra finds Calder and saves him from potentially dying in the treehouse. Calder feels up to eating birthday cake the next day.
Other Books in Series (At Time of Posting):
- Book 2 – The Wright 3
- Book 3 – The Calder Game