Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	Chasing Vermeer
	Author:	Balliett, Blue
	Date Published:	2004
	Genre:	Mystery
	Grade Level:	5 - 8
	Booktalker:	Marilyn Bunker

Notes:
The Da Vinci Code for Kids I used a picture of the Vermeer painting A Lady Writing, and the Pentominoes that are on the publisher's web site, scholastic.com. Click on Chasing Vermeer.

Booktalk:
Does anyone recognize this painting? It’s a Vermeer painted in 1665. Does anyone know what these are? Pentominoes or mathematical puzzle pieces. Have you ever heard of this Book Lo by Charles Fort? A book full of newspaper clippings about bizarre happenings: venomous snakes falling in backyards in Oxfordshire, England, red and brown worms fell with snowflakes in Sweden, people disappearing and then being found far away, disoriented and confused, crashes and explosions that no one could explain. What do a Vermeer Painting and Pentominoes and Charles Fort’s book have in common? Chasing Vermeer Petra Andalee and Calder Pillay may be in the same sixth grade class at The University of Chicago Laboratory School, but they barely know each other. Petra always thought that Calder was a tad weird, he carried around these strange puzzle pieces and muttered things, and he always looked like he had just woken up. Calder knew that Petra was exceptionally weird. Petra was always by herself and didn’t seem to care. She was quiet when other kids were loud and she had a fierce triangle of hair like one of those Egyptian Queens. On a field trip Petra and Calder collided in the art museum. Actually Calder had been following Petra. Ms. Hussey their art teacher had unique methods of teaching. She came to class one day and wrote, “The letter is dead.” First she asked her student if they had ever received an extraordinary letter. She asked her students to write her a letter that she would never forget. When no one could do that, they went to the Art Museum to see if any of the pictures had a letter. Petra was sure she had seen a letter in the hands of an angel, so she left the group, and Calder decided to follow her. When a guard caught them snooping in an off-limits area, their friendship has begun. Blue M and M’s , three letters, a stolen Vermeer painting, a thief that advertises, a missing friend, Pentominoes that seem to be giving clues all make for a mysterious labyrinth. Read Chasing Vermeer. Clues are in every picture throughout the book. Pentominoes are available on the publisher’s web site and the answers to solving the pictures