Blue Balliett Books

Welcome to the written world of Blue Balliett! This former teacher has created a very interesting niche in my Anovelanche. Her stories combine her love of children, art, and literature. These cleverly written mysteries not only entertain but they also teach you a little bit about a certain artist.

Balliett's books are not part of a continuous series. I believe you could read them individually without feeling like you were missing something. But I would encourage you to read them in order of publication for the sake of the character development.

In the first book, Chasing Vermeer, we are introduced to good friends, Calder and Tommy. Tommy has to move away suddenly from the Chicago suburbs, and Calder begins a friendship with classmate Petra. Calder loves pentominoes, and Petra loves to write - and their teacher Ms. Hussey loves to encourage her students to think creatively. When a painting by Johannes Vermeer is stolen, the two kids search for the piece and do a lot of research to help them solve the case. Tommy shows up at the end of the book in the most unlikely of situations.

Next comes The Wright 3, a book that focuses on the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, who lived in a Chicago suburb. One of his well-known houses is being restored, and it is near to the kids' school. Ms. Hussey's class gets involved, especially Calder, Tommy, and Petra. Talk of ghosts in the house and a hidden treasure leave some people in the area worried and some a little too curious.

Finally, we have the book that I just finished reading - The Calder Game. I learned that Calder the character was named after an artist named Alexander Calder. He worked in many art mediums, but perhaps is most famous for his astonishing mobiles. When an exhibit of his mobiles opens at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, Calder, Tommy, and Petra's 7th grade class go to take a look. Calder's encounter with the artist doesn't end there - when his father takes him on a surprise trip to England a few weeks later, there is a Calder scuplture just outside the place where they are staying! Unfortunately, the locals in this classically traditional English town don't like the modern piece. In the first chapter, Balliett prepares the reader for what happens next - both Calder the boy and the Calder sculpture go missing in the same night. Petra and Tommy fly to England to help look for their friend.

Art is not the only thing that is a unifying factor in these books - so are the illustrations, another kind of art, I guess. All the illustrations are done by Brett Helquist, who incorporates codes from the books into his drawings. At the end of each book, you are told about the hidden codes and how to look for them, but the answers you must figure out on your own. (They make me think of Graeme Base's book The Eleventh Hour which is chock-full of codes. I spent a week the summer after I graduated from high school figuring them all out. It was so cool! If you love codes, you have got to check it out!)

Anyway, you should definitely look up books by Blue Balliett, whether you are into art or not. I can't wait to see if she writes a fourth book and who the artist might be. Maybe Da Vinci - oh wait, somebody's already written a book about his "code." (blech!)