ISBN: 0439372976
List Price: $6.99
Amazon Price: $6.99
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Avg Cusomer Rating: 4
Reviews:
Summary: Chasing Vermeer
Having taught middle school English in Florida when CHASING VERMEER was on the Sunshine State Recommended Books list for 2005-2006, I read this book in the summer of 2005 and had all my students read it that school year. It has been a year since I've read it, but things about the book resonate still.
First off, my inital impression was to be impressed. I figured my high-end students would love it; it was clever and paced well; the characters were relatively unique (perhaps a bit too cartoony, although there was no hint at a tone of comedy).
My students liked it, but weren't blown away by it.
A year later, what I still remember of it is that it was a bit over-written (to a point of being so intricate and so clever that it eventually became unrealistic). Kids obsessed with math problems and mysterious clues that require decoders probably love CHASING VERMEER, but I found it a little too precocious and lacking in emotional reality. It is fun, but writing a mystery for kids does force plot to follow to where the clues can be found. That forced writing of plot removes the organic feel of writing that flows and can take you anywhere because you have no idea what might happen next.
But on the positive side, it makes kids think (and too much information in this case does not hamper the entertainment factor). Kids love a mystery and CHASING VERMEER moves well, stays brilliantly focused, and makes art history fascinating.
It deserves a recommendation, but for great a YA mystery novel, there is better out there.
Summary: TEACHERS..... read this book.
As a teacher, I am always on the look-out for great books to use with my advanced fifth-grade students to get them thinking. This book not only is a fantastic story, but uses art, geometry, patterns, and geography to tell the story. Using this novel alone I can hit on many objectives. I am overjoyed with this book and can hardly wait to use it with my class in the fall; as a matter of fact, I think I'll email my students from last year and suggest it as a summer read.
Summary: Strong mystery for the younger set
I was in the mood for a quick read this week, but that doesn't mean I wanted a weak story. Blue Balliett's young readers' mystery Chasing Vermeer turned out to be perfect. It's the story of two sixth-graders, Petra and Calder, who get wrapped up in a case of a major art theft and a swirl of untruths that seem to surround the artist of the lost masterpiece, Johannes Vermeer. Everywhere they look they find clues, puzzle pieces and other players in their game, and if they can't solve the crime, a masterpiece may be lost forever.
Some of the reviews are calling this a DaVinci Code for kids, in that it uses real-world mysteries as the core of the plot. I don't think that's quite fair -- this is a much better book than The DaVinci Code. The writer has more respect for his readers, doesn't cheat on the clues and creates characters that aren't smugly self-important, but in fact, are very intelligent and very realistic at the same time. In addition to the Vermeer mystery and the clues that surround it, Balliett seems to be making a statement about connections and coincidence. Much of the book relies on happenstance, shared numbers and the lucky application of a game of pentominoes, and although Balliett frequently winks at the audience with the implication that there's some greater underlying truth beneath the coincidence, she never quite attempts to explain that away, and that's probably a good thing.
This was a quick, satisfying read that will be quite satisfactory for any child growing into mystery stories.
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