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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
Calder Pillay is entering sixth grade without his best friend, Tommy, who just moved to NYC and is a bit lonely. His sixth grade teacher, Ms. Hussey, is very interesting. Instead of teaching straight curriculum, she's always throwing out fun research. Calder becomes friends with Petra who is also in his class and lives down the street. Three letters go out asking or threatening 3 unknown people to do something.
Ms. Hussey has her class thinking about what would be a more memorable letter and then what makes art. She's not afraid to go down a path, find a dead end and then try something else.
But there are a bunch of coincidences. Petra finds a book, Lo!, about unexplained disappearances and thinking differently and a scrap of letter that seems ominous. Tommy's neighbor, Frog, disappears. Then there's a connection between Mr. Watch, the bookstore owner, and Mrs. Sharpe, the woman who got rid of Lo! This bookstore is where Calder works part time.
Now a famous painting has been taken and the thief wants the world to examine all Vermeer paintings because he says only 26 of the 35 attributed to him are truly his. The thief sends letters to the newspaper to print. He says he will return the painting after research is done and he thanks his three helpers.
Ms. Hussey and Petra's dad are acting weird. Tommy's stepfather walks out on Tommy and his mom. They want to come back but don't have the money.
Mrs. Sharpe goes to the police because she was the recipient of one letter. Calder's dad remembers her husband was a Vermeer scholar killed years ago in Europe. Ms. Hussey missing from school next day. Turns out she got a letter. Mr. Sharpe had written letter to wife just before death saying he made a big discovery about Vermeer but he was killed before the announcement.
Petra and Calder figure out that the painting is hidden behind a secret panel at their school. They are chased by the thief, and they split up with the thief chasing Calder. Petra is picked up by Campus Security. She leaves the painting in there as she chases Campus Security who is looking for Calder because he's been injured. The thief removes the painting from Campus Security car and gets away. Petra later finds Calder with the painting in nearby tree house.
Thief was Tommy's stepdad who used the three letters to deflect attention from him. He was big time thief who died of a heart attack while trying to run away.
Painting is returned. Many coincidences and patterns. Fun because of it.
Most of the kids in the class liked it. (2020) 1st thru 5th
Ms. Hussey has her class thinking about what would be a more memorable letter and then what makes art. She's not afraid to go down a path, find a dead end and then try something else.
But there are a bunch of coincidences. Petra finds a book, Lo!, about unexplained disappearances and thinking differently and a scrap of letter that seems ominous. Tommy's neighbor, Frog, disappears. Then there's a connection between Mr. Watch, the bookstore owner, and Mrs. Sharpe, the woman who got rid of Lo! This bookstore is where Calder works part time.
Now a famous painting has been taken and the thief wants the world to examine all Vermeer paintings because he says only 26 of the 35 attributed to him are truly his. The thief sends letters to the newspaper to print. He says he will return the painting after research is done and he thanks his three helpers.
Ms. Hussey and Petra's dad are acting weird. Tommy's stepfather walks out on Tommy and his mom. They want to come back but don't have the money.
Mrs. Sharpe goes to the police because she was the recipient of one letter. Calder's dad remembers her husband was a Vermeer scholar killed years ago in Europe. Ms. Hussey missing from school next day. Turns out she got a letter. Mr. Sharpe had written letter to wife just before death saying he made a big discovery about Vermeer but he was killed before the announcement.
Petra and Calder figure out that the painting is hidden behind a secret panel at their school. They are chased by the thief, and they split up with the thief chasing Calder. Petra is picked up by Campus Security. She leaves the painting in there as she chases Campus Security who is looking for Calder because he's been injured. The thief removes the painting from Campus Security car and gets away. Petra later finds Calder with the painting in nearby tree house.
Thief was Tommy's stepdad who used the three letters to deflect attention from him. He was big time thief who died of a heart attack while trying to run away.
Painting is returned. Many coincidences and patterns. Fun because of it.
Most of the kids in the class liked it. (2020) 1st thru 5th
This novel would be a good pick for a Grade 5, 6, or 7 student who likes to read mysteries. Along with the intriguing and quick-moving plot surrounding the theft of a famous Vermeer painting, each of the pictures in the novel help to decipher a secret code using pentominoes. This may interest the critical thinkers, who might want more mystery to their stories.
This book is a lot of fun. As an adult I found it intriguing so being that it’s meant for middle grade kids, advanced readers should really enjoy it. I’m excited to read the other books in this series.
Fun middle grade mystery filled with art and secret codes. At times it felt a bit unnecessarily complicated, but most of the book club kids still really liked it. I am curious enough to read the other two books in the series.
I'll admit, I totally couldn't crack the code hidden within Brent Helquist's awesome pictures. I had to look it up online. Only to realize I had all the pieces, I just hadn't put them together yet. Sigh.
I'll admit, I totally couldn't crack the code hidden within Brent Helquist's awesome pictures. I had to look it up online. Only to realize I had all the pieces, I just hadn't put them together yet. Sigh.
I feel bad reviewing and rating this, since at 44 I'm not the target audience. I read it with my 7 year old and by the end she was finally into it enough to finish the book off by herself. I found it a little slow moving and dull at times. But I enjoyed the fact that the author talks a lot about coincidences, and what are basically psychic powers of connection (though not labelled as such). You don't get stuff like that in a typical book. The whole thing about codes and puzzles really baffled me. I guess I'm not good at that sort of thing. I could see that a lot of the photos had pentaminos and frogs in them and that that was supposed to mean something, but I couldn't figure out what. My daughter actually got furthering into solving it than I did. She really liked that facet of it. For me, I was just happy that this was a story focused on two un-typical kids and their un-typical teacher, and about art.
I would put this at about 4th or 5th grade level as far as 'mystery' then maybe they wouldn't be questioning the very-convenient conclusions that happen throughout the book. It's a good intro to kids of puzzle-mystery type genres, but I had to question a lot of the leaps-in-conclusion. So not a YA book per se...
Molly loved this book, but I thought it was just ok. Not as clever or exciting as it promises to be.
Am I glad that's over.
Between the mystery based on gut-instinct speculation and the audiobook narrator having a hard time deciding whether to pronounce the main character's name as "Petra" or "Peetra," this is one book that got old really quickly.
I'd had this on my radar since I first became a librarian, thinking it sounded really fun: a kid's mystery based around fine art? Count me in! Unfortunately, it just wasn't up to snuff. The details about Vermeer and Charles Fort were presented in an engaging way, and the two main characters were likeable at first. But then they started listening to their pentaminoes and pursuing their own suppositions without any physical evidence or other rationale. I felt a little cheated about the whole mystery. Fans of the 39 Clues might enjoy this one, too. But I won't be reading any further in the series.
Between the mystery based on gut-instinct speculation and the audiobook narrator having a hard time deciding whether to pronounce the main character's name as "Petra" or "Peetra," this is one book that got old really quickly.
I'd had this on my radar since I first became a librarian, thinking it sounded really fun: a kid's mystery based around fine art? Count me in! Unfortunately, it just wasn't up to snuff. The details about Vermeer and Charles Fort were presented in an engaging way, and the two main characters were likeable at first. But then they started listening to their pentaminoes and pursuing their own suppositions without any physical evidence or other rationale.
Spoiler
AND OF COURSE IT WORKS!. In the end, it's a really luck string of coincidences.
This is a great book for both boys and girls in middle school. Fun mystery with great characters. I would love to have a teacher like they had!