Chasing Vermeer

Great Book!

This was a good book, but I thought it was a little confusing in some parts. You have to take your time with this book, and make sure you understand it. Other than that, it was great.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Chasing Vermeer

This is a great book, and a thrilling adventure. You will be glued to the book once you start. It is great if you are doing mysteries in the classroom or just enjoy reading mysteries. Chasing Vermeer is meant for kids not really adults, but adults will enjoy it also. The character descriptions are great and enables you to visualize them in your head and the author does not give away the end so it surprises you.. If you enjoy this book you would defiantly enjoy the rest in the series (The Wright 3 and The Calder Game). Which are just as good if not better than Chasing Vermeer.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great Mystery!

I found this book to be very interesting! For anyone who enjoys mysteries I would highly advise you to read this book! Once I started reading this book I could not put it down because it was so interesting!!!!!!!!!!!!Blue Balliett did a great job!!!!!!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

this is my all time favorite book!

This is one of the best books I have ever read! My sister was reading it because we were in the car on a long trip and then she wanted me to read it to her. After I started reading it I could not put it down. I had seen this book in the library and the cover made it look lame to me so now I never judge a book by it's cover.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

I can't say enough about this book! Actually, by mistake I purchased the audiobook and it turned out to be the best mistake I've ever made! My children and I listened to the book during the summer, WHEREVER we went.

Each time we got into the car last summer to go on a day trip we listened to the story. It was exciting and interesting. I have three children, ages 5, 9, and 11. There was something in it for everyone, including myself. I found myself looking to plan long rides just to listen to more of the story!
The way the story starts gets you immediately interested. The kids minds were quickly engaged and challenged. We found ourselves completely immersed in the mystery, trying to figure things out. The kids could relate to the characters; they found them fascinating, yet regular.
We had such a great "experience" with this book. I even made a project after we completed the book- We took a trip to the library to check out books with Vermmers' art work in them. We brought them home and found the art pieces that were described in the book and talked about Vermeer. Then we painted our own art work on small canvases I picked up at an arts and crafts store.
I have recommended this book/ audio to all of my friends and to the school that my children attend.
Unfortunately, I have been unable to find the next book in the series on audio. However, I bought the book to read aloud to my kids. I just can't drive while we listen!!!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Art with a twist

This book makes you think of art in a new and incredible way! You'll be cracking codes and sreaching art right along with the characters. We did this book for a mother daughter bookclub and everyone enjoyed the book so much and the activites that go along with it!! It is a very thrilling and grasping book for children and adults. I would diffently recommend it.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Reviewed by Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius" for TeensReadToo.com

I think the fact that I had never heard of CHASING VERMEER before I picked up a copy at the bookstore helped in my enjoyment of it. After I finished reading the book, I read with interest other reviews, which is usually my habit after I've written my own review. I like to see what other readers thought of a story, or how similar--or, in some cases, dissimilar--my own thoughts and feelings are from other readers. I was surprised to see that many had touted CHASING VERMEER as a THE DA VINCI CODE for the younger set. I was surprised by the supposed hype that the book had generated. I was surprised, in fact, by the way I was caught up in the story myself. Although I can't comment on it's similarity to THE DA VINCI CODE (I'm one of probably only a handful of humans on the planet who hasn't read it!), I can say that CHASING VERMEER is a mixture of mystery, art, precociousness, and ingenuity that made it a joy to read.

Petra Andalee and Calder Pillay live down the street from each other in Hyde Park, share the same birthday, and have as the same sixth-grade teacher, the wonderful Ms. Hussey, at University School. It's rare to find a teacher who allows her students to have a say in what material they will cover, and both Petra and Calder are aware of this. When Ms. Hussey asks the students to discuss with an adult a letter that changed their life, most students are baffled. When the assignment fails, Ms. Hussey instead takes them on a field trip to the Art Institute--where the worlds of Petra, Calder, Ms. Hussey, and Vermeer collide.

Who was Vermeer? An artist, it turns out, who has several paintings attributed to him that some members of the general public don't agree were done by the painter himself. Suddenly, Petra and Calder's world is filled with a strange book entitled "Lo!", a painting known as "A Lady Writing," an old lady named Mrs. Sharpe, a man who owns a bookstore, a set of twelve pentominoes, a bunch of frogs, and a few bags of blue M&M's.

CHASING VERMEER is, quite simply, an art mystery in the style of Nancy Drew or The Hardy Boys, but more interesting and complex. This is a delightful read, and I can't wait to read THE WRIGHT 3, the next story in the adventures of Petra and Calder.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Recommended Children's Book

Always look in the tiniest places because what you're looking at may not always be as it seems. In the book Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliet, two kids set out on their own , figuring out clues to help them find a painting that has suddenly disappeared. This story takes place in Chicago. In the beginning of the story, Calder and Petra, the main characters, were just acquaintances, when they realized that mysterious things interest them both. They begin to try and solve the mystery of the painting. Their search for clues to find the stolen painting lead them in many directions: and old lady in the neighborhood, a famous bookstore, their teacher, a book of weird things that happened a long time ago, and series of odd coincidences. The closer they get to finding the painting and the culprit, the stranger and more difficult the clues become. I would recommend this book to Middle school students, and older elememtary school students. I would give this book a 9 out of 10, because most of the book was fantanstic, although the vocabulary was at a very low level. For the most part, I definetly enjoyed the novel and I hope that other people who read this book will enjoy as much as I did.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

SO COOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This book is very great especially of you like art.It is also a book of puzzles and mysteries.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great for elementary and middle schooler

Our five granddaughters loved this book, even the teenagers! We encourage daily reading in our family, and this type of book makes it very easy.

Wonderful Book for Boys

My 9 year old son started to read this book in his gifted program at school - not only did he really enjoy the book, but the whole family loved playing the pentominos game that is intertwined into the story.

My daughter loved it!

Very good

Fun and artistic, a masterpiece=)

FANTASTIC! I was extremely impressed with this book and immediately went looking for the second one in the series. It's a great mystery about a stolen piece of art, but its also a great story about each character and what art means to them.

Very Clever

I read this book several years ago. I must have seen a favorable review. I bought this particular copy for my grandson's birthday.

Locals...

I am totally in love with local talents and/or stories that occur in my home town !

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Good 1st Book in the series

Great series starter. Very educational to an under appericiated artist. Love blue Ballieet.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Praise For Chasing Vermeer

Chasing Vermeer
By Blue Balliett

In Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett, Petra Andalee and Calder Pillay, the main characters, work together to solve a strange art crime that has had the FBI dumbfounded! They must use their strongest solving skills to get a grasp on the situation clue by clue. I enjoyed this book because it had many similes, metaphors, and carefully chosen words. At times Chasing Vermeer was confusing and puzzling. I learned after reading this book that a Vermeer painting, the Concert, was really stolen! Praise for Chasing Vermeer!

Books Rating: ?????

Title:Chasing Vermeer Author:Blue Balliett Mystery Madness

The name of my book is Chasing Vermeer. My book takes place in the city of Chicago. The month's the story took place in is October, November, December. Three people in my book end up getting a letter that asked for help on a century old crime of one of the world's greatest painters. The letter also said that if the three people that got the letter showed it to authorities that they were placing themselves in danger.
Two kids that are the two main characters were in school one day and there teacher asked the whole entire class if they could go home and find something that seemed like a piece of art to them. Calder the boy went home and found a box that had a painting of a guy called The Geographer. He found out that it was painted by this artist called Johannes Vermeer. Petra the girl had a vision of a girl who had yellow ribbons in her hair and white pearl ear-rings in her ears. After seeing that vision she dressed up like that girl for Halloween. When Calder saw Petra in the costume she was in he told her that it was the costume of a girl who was in a painting called A Lady Writing by Vermeer. Then they found out that the painting had been stolen and that it was all over the news and every body was mad. The person that stole it sent out a letter and said that everybody will come to agree with me in the case of the missing painting. If nobody does agree he would ruin the painting.
The conclusion of my book is when Petra and Calder have clues that lead to The Delia Dell Hall. When they went there Petra got a vision of where the painting could be when she was on the iron steps, while looking. Later that same night they decided to go back at 7 at night to search some more for the picture. Then they remembered their one clue that was twelve and the steps, so the went to the bottom of the steps and found a door where the painting was. When they found the door they found the painting and had the thief go to jail

Chasing Vermeer

I really enjoyed this book. It first starts out by three random people receiving anonymous letters. The letters tell them that two other people have received the same letter as they have and they have been chosen. They have been chosen to solve a mystery that is hundreds of years old.
Now, the main characters are introduced Petra, and Calder. There teacher, Miss Hussey was one of the chosen to solve the mystery, but they don't know. Then their teacher gives them an assignment to find an old letter to share with the class. They find out about the letter, because they find one on the street. And they start trying to find the famous painting called "A Lady Painting" by Vermeer.
Petra and Calder start asking people about the painting and try to find it. And mysterious things start to happen. They have to sneak into school and go in basements and search through everything.
My conclusion of this book is that Petra and Calder finally find "A Lady Painting".
I recommend this book for everyone to read.

It is on my top five list

I love this book! It's a fab story and it is kind of eerie. It teaches a lot about Vermeer's art. It also shows that the most unlikely two people can be drawn together by circumstances so challenging, so weird they'll make you think about the book for years after you have read it. Chasing Vermeer's plot is not one that hasn't been used before, Police can't figure the crime out so the kids have to. But the twists and turns, the betrayals are far from conventional. Blue Balliet's Chasing Vermeer along with Bret Helquist, whose drawings where so beloved in the Series of Unfortunate Events, team toghether to make a unforgettable read!