A fun read! ( )

A great young adult mystery, probably appropriate for around a fourth grader?

Calder and Petra are both enrolled at the University School in Chicago. They find themselves becoming friends after a few encounters that others might write of as coincidental. When they predict the theft of a valuable Vermeer painting, they feel it is their duty to continue to follow the mystery through, saving the work from the benevolent art thief.

Along the way they are assisted by an elderly neighbor, their teacher, Calder's best friend who has moved away, and a set of pentominoes, a tile game that provides practice in logic and as a prognosticative tool.

More choose your own adventure than Bobbsey Twins, there are several challenges and hints throughout the book. While it is not necessary to break the codes to appreciate the work, I appreciated the diversion. ( )

Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

I think the fact that I had never heard of CHASING VERMEER before I picked up a copy at the bookstore helped in my enjoyment of it. After I finished reading the book, I read with interest other reviews, which is usually my habit after I've written my own review. I like to see what other readers thought of a story, or how similar--or, in some cases, dissimilar--my own thoughts and feelings are from other readers. I was surprised to see that many had touted CHASING VERMEER as a THE DA VINCI CODE for the younger set. I was surprised by the supposed hype that the book had generated. I was surprised, in fact, by the way I was caught up in the story myself. Although I can't comment on it's similarity to THE DA VINCI CODE (I'm one of probably only a handful of humans on the planet who hasn't read it!), I can say that CHASING VERMEER is a mixture of mystery, art, precociousness, and ingenuity that made it a joy to read.

Petra Andalee and Calder Pillay live down the street from each other in Hyde Park, share the same birthday, and have as the same sixth-grade teacher, the wonderful Ms. Hussey, at University School. It's rare to find a teacher who allows her students to have a say in what material they will cover, and both Petra and Calder are aware of this. When Ms. Hussey asks the students to discuss with an adult a letter that changed their life, most students are baffled. When the assignment fails, Ms. Hussey instead takes them on a field trip to the Art Institute--where the worlds of Petra, Calder, Ms. Hussey, and Vermeer collide.

Who was Vermeer? An artist, it turns out, who has several paintings attributed to him that some members of the general public don't agree were done by the painter himself. Suddenly, Petra and Calder's world is filled with a strange book entitled "Lo!", a painting known as "A Lady Writing," an old lady named Mrs. Sharpe, a man who owns a bookstore, a set of twelve pentominoes, a bunch of frogs, and a few bags of blue M&M's.

CHASING VERMEER is, quite simply, an art mystery in the style of Nancy Drew or The Hardy Boys, but more interesting and complex. This is a delightful read, and I can't wait to read THE WRIGHT 3, the next story in the adventures of Petra and Calder. ( )

Right from the beginning this book draws the reader in by showing a map, describing pentominoes and discussing clues to pick up within the artwork shown in the book. An intriguing read for those who like mysteries, and accessible to a reluctant audience with pages presented with more space around text, and the illustrations sprinkled within each chapter. This would coincide well with a trip to the Art Institute in Chicago.

A valuable Vermeer painting mysteriously disappears, and two University of Chicago Lab School students--Petra and Calder--use all their intuition and intelligence to find it. This story follows their burgeoning friendship and their exploits as amateur detectives. In their quest, the two sixth graders are aided and challenged by a free thinking teacher who encourages their creative thought. As an added adventure, this book cleverly employs illustrations as part of the mystery. Every other illustration contains pentomino letters that spell out a sentence in code. Solving the code helps to solve the mystery. One of the central themes of the tale is that connections are possible among even the most unlikely things, as long as we are open to discovering them. Like many mystery novels, this tale's questions are more interesting than the answers, but the book makes up for that deficit in its novel way of approaching the world. The word and logic puzzles make this work a good fit for upper elementary students with a passion for word play. In addition, the setting--downtown Chicago--provides interesting real-life connections for students in the greater Chicagoland area. ( )