Chasing Vermeer
by Blue Balliett

Calder and Petra are sixth-graders at the University of Chicago Laboratory School. Their teacher, Ms. Hussey, is a wonderful young lady who spends most of her time suggesting ideas for her class to think about, and very little time lecturing information at them. Things are going pretty swell for them, except that Calder is a bit eccentric and his only friend moved to New York over the summer, and Petra is even stranger besides being the oldest of five children in a house filled with chaos. They live three doors down from each other on a street near the University, and they are in the same class, but they arenÂ’t really friends.

Then coincidences start popping up. Some of them have to do with a book called Lo! by Charles Fort, a famous non-conformist thinker who challenged everyone’s basic ideas about reality. Some of the coincidences have to do with a priceless painting by a mysterious 17th-century Dutchman. Mysterious letters, a stolen masterpiece, a missing child, suspicious neighbors, showers of frogs, a talking painting, and pentominoes (a puzzle game using twelve differently-shaped pieces) that display remarkable problem-solving powers, all play a part – not only in a staggering series of coincidences, but in a creepy, dangerous, sensational puzzle-mystery.

The book that came to mind most often, as I read this, was The Westing Game – another book billed as a “puzzle mystery.” But Chasing Vermeer leans more heavily on the mystery, ironically. It’s only that an additional puzzle runs through the book, embedded in the illustrations by Series of Unfortunate Events artist Brett Helquist. There are also coded messages for you to decode, classic paintings for you to discover, weird ideas for you to think about, and all kinds of ways to stretch your brain and to try out new ways of thinking. Bright children will love this book; average children may actually be brighter after reading it.

Interestingly enough, when I looked up Charles FortÂ’s book Lo! on Amazon.com (ISBN 1596050284), it turns out you can buy the paperback together with a set of Pentominoes for $23.75. Hmmmm....could that be a coincidence?

Robbie Fischer
USA

Recommended Age: 11+

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