Chasing Vermeer
First US edition cover
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| Author | Blue Balliett |
|---|---|
| Translator | John Adams and Quincy |
| Cover artist | Brett Helquist |
| Country | USA IL Chicago |
| Language | English |
| Genre |
Young Adult fiction Mystery |
| Publisher | Scholastic Press |
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Publication date
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June 1, 2004 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 272 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 51172514 |
| [Fic] 21 | |
| LC Class | PZ7.B2128 Ch 2004 |
| Followed by | The Wright 3 |
Chasing Vermeer is a 2004 children's art mystery novel written by Blue Balliett and illustrated by Brett Helquist. Set in Hyde Park, Chicago near the University of Chicago, the novel follows two children, Calder Pillay and Petra Andalee. After a famous Johannes Vermeer painting, A Lady In Writing, is stolen on route to the Art Institute of Chicago, Calder and Petra work together to try to recover it. The thief publishes many advertisements in the newspaper, explaining that he will give the painting back if the community can discover which paintings under Vermeer's name were really painted by him. This causes Petra, Calder, and the rest of Hyde Park to examine art more closely. Themes of art, chance, coincidence, deception, and problem-solving are apparent.
The novel was written for Balliett classroom intended to deal with real-world issues. Balliett values children's ideas and wrote the book specifically to highlight that. Chasing Vermeer has won several awards, including the Edgar and the Agatha. In 2006, the sequel entitled The Wright 3 was published, followed by The Calder Game in 2008,.
Chasing Vermeer is Blue Balliett's first published book. Its original purpose was a book to read to her class for fun. She realized that a mystery about "real" art issues had not been written since E.L. Konigsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and desired to write what she wished to read.Chasing Vermeer took about five years to complete, as Balliett was also a teacher and parent. She compared writing the book to weaving, as she first wrote mainly about art, but then incorporated the pentominoes and classroom scenes, creating many different levels to read on. She admits that it ended up more complex than she had thought it would be.
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