Chasing Vermeer
I read the book Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliet and illustrated by Brett Helquist. It was written in the mystery genre and copyrighted in 2004. It was published by Scholastic Press and has a total of 254 pages. Chasing Vermeer is a very addiction book with many details. The author, Blue Balliet, also made the book very descriptive when taking place in a new setting at the beginning of ever chapter. I liked the book because it was a different type of mystery book. Pictures were here and criminals popped up there! Your eyes will be soaring all over the book pages just to find the small clues.

Petra and Calder are two very normal twelve-year-olds that just happen to be in the same homeroom at their school and live three houses away from each other in the town of Hyde Park, Chicago. Never in a million years would you catch either one of these two talking to one another or even to another person at all. One day in October though, everything starts to change, such as secrets forming between families and friends. It all began when late at night, the beginning of a resolution plan gets executed. Three people in the town of Hyde Park receive a mysterious and life threatening letter at the front of their doorsteps. The information that was enclosed in the letter was a plea for help to solve an art crime that was now centuries year old. Of the three people that received these letters, Petra obviously was one of them, and Calder the other. What remained a mystery was the third receiver of the letter, but not long after that does a more disastrous situation occur. Vermeer, a famous artist in the middle 1600's, got his most valuable painting stolen when being shipped to a museum for a tour. The painting was called A Lady Writing. In the process of trying to find out where the sneaky thief is hiding the painting, Petra and Calder work together until the very end to find their most treasured item
. . . A Lady Writing.

I think that Blue Balliet did a fanstastic job on giving the reader a taste and picture of what she imagined in her mind. She included very specific details of the characters and their personalities throughout the whole book. Chasing Vermeer satisfied me greatly. It was a different kind of mystery book that held its own uniqueness because of its fast-paced chapters and unexpected twists and turns!

What entertained me most in Chasing Vermeer was that not only were there words for me to read, but pictures/illustrations were even included in every two chapters! In these images were clues that hid from top to bottom. The illustration not only made the book more exciting, but it also gave the reader an accurate description and form of the characters that Blue Balliet wanted her readers to continue reading until the very last page. Because of the exciting plot that Blue Balliet set up in Chasing Vermeer, many people all around the world will surely enjoy reading this awesome mystery book!

Many, many mystery books are found to be the same with just the detectives and spies throughout the book; Chasing Vermeer is a mystery book like no other. It is a page-turner with lots of suspense and will also occupy your eye with finding a frog and specific shape in each illustrated image. Taking just a few hours or days to finish this book will not be a waste of time because in the end, a new lesson will always be learned!