Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
The Mystery Surrounding the Disappearance of a Vermeer Painting
Jun 23, 2009
In Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett (Scholastic Press, 2004, ISBN 0-439-37294-1), a series of seemingly unrelated coincidences and events bring Petra Andalee and Calder Pillay, sixth grade students, together. Their shared fondness for art, their teacher, Ms. Hussey, and blue M&Ms help to build their friendship.
Ms. Hussey challenges her students to think and make connections that adults often miss, making her a favorite amongst the children. It is Ms. Hussey who first provokes the students to consider letters as an important form of communication. She also brings the students on a field trip to the art museum to search for clues in the artwork on display. Her enthusiastic nature is what gets Petra and Calder thinking outside the box.
From there, Petra finds a book and becomes entranced in the author's study of unusual, unexplainable events and has dreams about the lady from A Lady Writing. Calder increasingly relies on his mathematical prowess and pentominoes to help him during difficult times of the day, always thinking in patterns, numbers, letters and how things can fit together.
When A Lady Writing goes missing, the friends keep track of their thoughts and findings, collecting clues to help them try to solve the crime. Along the way, the two have many suspects that include Ms. Hussey, their parents, an eccentric older woman they befriend and a used bookstore owner.
Balliett, an art history major who later became a teacher at the University of Chicago Lab School, sets her novel in the Hyde Park area. It is on this campus that Petra and Calder go to school and search for the missing Vermeer painting.
Pentominoes
A set of pentominoes consists of twelve pieces. Each piece is made up of five squares, each sharing at least one side. They are named for the letters of the alphabet that they most closely resemble. Pentominoes can be used like puzzle pieces, manipulated to form rectangles of varying sizes and shapes.
In the novel, Calder and his friend Tommy correspond in a secret code based on the pentominoes. There are several letters that the reader can decipher between Calder and his friend Tommy. Pentominoes are also used as a catalyst to help Calder think about different events.
Johannes Vermeer
Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch artist whose paintings focused on indoor scenes of middle class life. He is known for his use of bright colors, especially blue and yellow, and his treatment of light in his work. He was only moderately successful during his lifetime, but gained status hundreds of years after his early death at age 43.
Balliett incorporates two of Vermeer's paintings, The Geographer and A Lady Writing, into the story. Another novel, The Girl With the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (Plume, 2001) is also based on a work by Vermeer.
Illustrations by Brett Helquist
Brett Helquist, a fan of newspaper comic strips, is also famous for his illustrations in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (Harper Collins Publishers, 1999-2007). It is said that by studying Helquist's illustrations in Chasing Vermeer, the reader will find a hidden message, related to the pentomino code given in the book. There are a few hints about a living creature, an even but odd pattern and twelve pieces to help find the message.
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