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heetlibrarian's review against another edition
5.0
What a fun mystery for kids! I can see why it is so popular with teachers. Added bonus is that it deals with 2 of my favorite things, Chicago and Frank Lloyd Wright!
blakehalsey's review against another edition
4.0
Another great mystery with Calder, Petra, and Tommy. This book and its predecessor are very interesting youth mysteries-they incorporate history, art, math, science and the unexplainable in ways that cause me to think deeply, which is a challenge considering it's a middle-grades novel and I'm 28. Or maybe that says something about my intellectual abilities!
compass_rose's review against another edition
Giving up on this one. I might have liked it at age 9, but unlike lots of the other YA/Kids books I read, it didn't hold my attention as an adult.
andreabridget's review against another edition
4.0
This book definitely took a while to get off of the ground - a majority of it was bogged down with the three main characters trying to learn how to be friends now that an old friend has returned to the group. It raised some interesting questions about art, and had some cool info about Frank Lloyd Wright!
roshk99's review against another edition
2.0
Ok book, author seems to take pride in attempting to make his book as confusing to the reader as possible and obscuring as much of what is going on as he can
raquel_reading_stuff's review against another edition
3.0
It wasn't as good as CHASING VERMEER and it was more spooky- like, in a bad way. I rated CHASING VERMEER five stars, but this one I'm rating three stars. The secret codes they put in the pictures weren't constant like in CHASING VERMEER. There was less mystery and figuring out stuff. the latter was replaced by almost silly coincidences that were almost random, which was annoying. A little bit of the prequel's detective stuff still survived in this prequel, but I still think that CHASING VERMEER was better.
adeperi's review against another edition
4.0
Not as good as the first in the series (Chasing Vermeer), but still very good. It also introduced me to Frank Lloyd Wright, who is now my favorite artist/architect.
kristinasshelves's review against another edition
4.0
Calder and Petra are back for a new art adventure- this time joined by Calder's friend Tommy. This time, the trio is attempting to save a home built by Frank Lloyd Wright. Aside from information about the architect, this adventure has the children learning about the Fibonacci sequence, creating a secret code and Calder using his pentominoes even more. Although targeted towards a middle grade audience, I adore these books!
motionocean's review against another edition
5.0
I remember reading this years ago, and it was just as exciting now. It was maybe a bit too scary for me though, haha, I thought someone was gonna come kill me in the middle of the night.
rockingreader's review against another edition
5.0
This was assigned summer reading for my son who is entering 6th grade. We didn't read Chasing Vermeer, which is book #1 in the series. Thus he found the beginning a bit confusing so I'd recommend kids begin with book 1 to familiarize themselves with the characters and their back story. However I found the author does an admirable job getting readers new to the series up to speed. (Or perhaps as a seasoned reader I was able to fill in the gaps easily!) This is an engaging story about three inquisitive and imaginative kids who take an interest in saving a local historic landmark, the Robie house. Combining mystery, art, architecture, and math this is a great read for middle-schoolers.