Adventure

This one wasn't for me. I loved the information about Vermeer, but I found it really unsatisfying that the kids used coincidences to solve the mystery.

The mystery started out with such promise. It was going to be a fun historical art history romp, like a kid's version of the DaVinci Code. But no. Instead it was a series of wild dreams and leaps and coincidences that led two 12 years old's to hunt for a stolen painting. I want a mystery to follow logic. LOGIC. Coincidences do not equal a valid mystery plot line. Boo. ( )

I want to add a tag that's for kids books that have both a male and female main character. But what to call it? Gender-neutral appeal? That sounds dumb.

Anyway, I really appreciate it when a book strikes me as being equally attractive to both girls and boys, and this is one of those books. Our two little heroes are ridiculously precocious eleven-year-olds who enjoy their teacher's constructivist approach to learning and communicate psychically with art and pentominoes. They set out to solve an international art mystery and guess what? They do!

I wasn't terribly impressed with the way the mystery was wrapped up in a hurry (and didn't even explain just HOW the painting was stolen in the first place), but I really enjoyed the first 90% of the book. Very well done for the most part. (But the "code" in the illustrations is LAME-O (not the figuring-it-out part, but the message it reveals)). ( )

When a book of unexplainable occurrences brings Petra Andalee and Calder Pillay together, strange things start to happen: seemingly unrelated events connect, an eccentric old woman seeks their company, and an invaluable Vermeer painting disappears. Before they know it, the two find themselves at the center of an international art scandal.

As Petra and Calder are drawn clue by clue into a mysterious labyrinth they must draw on their powers of intuition, their skills at problem solving, and their knowledge of Vermeer. Can they decipher a crime that has left even the FBI baffled?