Calder Game
Scholastic Press - Scholastic Press
Release date: 2008-05-01
Hardcover
Author: Blue Balliett
Mysteries, Espionage, & Detective Stories, Children's Books, Juvenile Fiction / Mysteries & Detective Stories, Children's Books/Ages 9-12 Fiction, Juvenile Fiction, Missing persons, Mobiles (Sculpture), Sculpture, Children: Grades 4-6
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Calder Game
Date undefinedI read this book after my 12-year old grandson offered his opinion of it. I ended up agreeing his assessment: The first third, or so, is quite boring. After that point the book became engrossing and entertaining.
Calder Game
Date undefinedBlue Balliett's innovative novels featuring University of Chicago Lab School students Calder Pillay, Petra Andalee and Tommy Segovia have been widely praised for their portrayal of creative problem-solving, enthusiastic discussion of art and intriguing character dynamics. Although I awaited the latest installment, THE CALDER GAME, with as much enthusiasm as Balliett's many fans, I also hoped that perhaps this third entry in the series would have a more finely hewn mystery plot than its predecessors. As mystery novels go, CHASING VERMEER and THE WRIGHT 3 relied a little too much, in my reading, on coincidence, questionable clues and quasi-supernatural "evidence" to advance the mystery plot. Would THE CALDER GAME deliver for readers wanting a good mystery as well as a satisfying story? Yes, indeed.
Calder, Petra and Tommy's seventh grade school year is off to a very unsatisfactory start. Not only did they have to move on from their beloved, unconventional, free-thinking sixth-grade teacher Miss Hussey, their seventh-grade teacher, the rules-oriented Miss Button, seems set on quashing creativity. And creativity is what these three friends value most --- Calder solves math problems and cracks codes, Petra thinks about language in unusual ways, and Tommy finds peculiar objects that often have larger significance.
Then Calder breaks the news that he will be leaving Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood for a couple of weeks, accompanying his father to a conference near Oxford, England. Tommy and Petra are horrified. Calder, their best friend, is the glue that holds the often-feuding Petra and Tommy together. With Calder temporarily out of the picture, will their bickering develop into all-out war?
Before Calder leaves, however, the kids head to Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art to see the world's largest exhibition of works by mobile and sculpture artist Alexander Calder, Calder Pillay's namesake. Despite Miss Button's strictness, Tommy, Petra and especially Calder are inspired by the breathtaking exhibit, particularly by the invitation to play the "Calder Game" and design their own unconventional "mobile" of five interconnected ideas or objects.
Calder's arrival in England coincides with the arrival of another Calder --- a large sculpture called "The Minotaur," placed in the town square of tiny Woodstock by an anonymous donor. The tradition-bound villagers are suspicious of the sculpture, and of Calder, who seems to make enemies just by asking simple questions. So when both the sculpture and the boy disappear on the same night, Calder's distraught father calls in Tommy and Petra to see if they can zero in on connections that he and the police are missing. In order to find their friend, can Petra and Tommy overcome their differences and disagreements and make an effective detective team?
Like its predecessors, THE CALDER GAME utilizes real information about art, artists and places (in this case, the Cotswolds' Blenheim Palace and its famous maze) to get readers excited about learning. It also shows how kids, each of whom has his or her unique way of thinking and problem-solving, can work together to make connections and find patterns. Unlike the previous two books, however, THE CALDER GAME relies more solidly on evidence, clues and deductive reasoning to arrive at its conclusion --- resulting in a novel that will satisfy mystery fans as well as art lovers.
THE CALDER GAME is Blue Balliett's best work of fiction yet, and readers will be eager to see how this series continues to develop over time.
--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl
Calder Game
Date undefinedWhat can I say about Blue Balliett? I loved Chasing Vermeer. I enjoyed how she fused art with mystery and had fun with a concept totally new to young readers. With The Wright 3, I thought she terribly overplayed her hand. The book was all over the place and utterly confusing. Still I could tell, the voice, the potential was there and I believed that one day Balliett would knock our socks off. I hoped that this time around she'd abandon Petra, Calder, and the gang and venture into a new mystery, but no such luck. So how does her third novel, The Calder Game, fare?
Calder, Petra, and Tommy are still struggling with the idea of being a trio. Petra and Tommy can't get along because each one wants Calder all to themselves, which puts Calder in an awkward position. So when his father heads to England for a conference, Calder escapes the tension by traveling along. He's excited, upon arriving, to discover that the village of Woodstock where they'll be staying, harbors an original Alexander Calder (the artist the boy was named after) sculpture, named The Minotaur. Later, when the sculpture is suddenly stolen and Calder disappears shortly afterwards, Petra and Tommy journey with Mrs. Sharpe to England to help Calder's father find their friend.
When comparing to Chasing Vermeer and The Wright 3, I would probably rank this one somewhere in between. It's definitely a major step in the right direction after The Wright 3. It's biggest downfall however, is it's utterly slow and somewhat boring beginning. Chapter One of this book is a very short, one page description of an eerie setting and a missing boy. We, the reader, know this boy is Calder and are supposed to feel excited about reading on and discovering why he's gone missing. I love hooks like this, when they're done well. The problem with this hook? I feel it's actually more of a cop-out, especially after reading what follows.
I got the feeling while reading this, that Balliett wrote the first one-third of her novel before she realized that she hadn't even gotten to her problem, thus the plot of her story, the stolen sculpture and the missing boy. It's then that she probably decided to go back and sprinkle these "mysterious" flashbacks in the beginning, to hold her reader's attention as a promise that she was in fact, getting to her point. I wasn't fooled. Balliett seems to do a lot of incoherent rambling here and makes no real attempt at putting together the pieces laid before her, or moving her story along. She's a better author than this and the beginning one-third of this particular story comes off sloppy, lazy, and hurried. We begin in the past, we're rushed to the future, only to be brought back in time yet again. It's confusing. The beginning of this book reads an awfully lot like The Wright 3 and I found myself putting it down quite often, not wanting to return to it.
But I'm glad I did. Once the story finally gets going, it's rather good. In The Wright 3, I felt sorry for the characters, who seemed to desperately want to do some real detective work, but that Balliett didn't supply them with any. Her new book, actually has a story to tell, without random nonsense floating throughout it. Finally, in The Calder Game, Balliett does away with Petra's "visions", Calder's pentominoes (well, not entirely), and even allows Calder's father to come to the front of the stage and become quite the information-seeker. Gone are the friendly confines of Chicago's Hyde Park and gone is the company of the all-to-lovely Ms. Hussey (the three's new teacher, Ms. Button, is incredibly cranky). I think these slight changes give this series a well needed shot to the arm. Petra and Tommy's realization that they are alone together, in another country, and both grieving the loss of Calder, was well-written, albeit inevitable. It'll be interesting to see where Balliett takes us next, considering that the three children are over their differences now.
Where The Wright 3, and even Chasing Vermeer to a certain extent, dangled way too many unnecessary story pieces in front of us, some that never did fit in anywhere, The Calder Game does a fine job of putting everything together without wasting any information. My only complaint about the ending is Balliett's need to sit us down and explain carefully HOW each and every puzzle piece fit. The last three or four chapters are literally, explanations. If you're going to do away with the unnecessary information, then trust your reader to put together some of the rest, on their own.
These books have a nice look and feel. Brett Helquist's illustrations are creative and the jacket covers are colorful and engaging. I just don't find myself enjoying what's inside them as much as I want to. Blue Balliett has interesting ideas, and I love how she centers each story around a deserving artist. I feel like they're not executed as well as they could be. The Calder Game was pretty good though, so I still have faith that eventually she will put all her talent together and produce something far beyond what Chasing Vermeer even was. I still wish she'd give these characters a break and dabble in something different, but I don't see it coming. So until then, it's her potential that will probably lure me back to a fourth book to see what this trio has in store for us.
