Chasing Vermeer, books 1-4 – Blue Balliett Free Audiobook

Written by Blue Balliett
Read by Ellen Reilly, Deirdre Lovejoy , Bahni Turpin
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Chasing Vermeer
Chasing Vermeer Series, Book 1
Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Release date: November 9, 2004
Duration: 04:46:51

When a book of unexplainable occurrences brings Petra Andalee & 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?

A Vermeer painting is stolen. Petra and Calder, two bright, quirky sixth-graders, come together to solve the crime that has the whole world baffled. Going beyond a simple mystery, this story explores the meaning of art and the nature of coincidence. Ellen Reilly shines as narrator, providing perfect voices for the protagonists and the host of supporting characters. Her pleasant pitch and well-tempered pace make it easy to follow the twists of a complex plot. Once the mystery is solved, however, the ending seems tacked on, falling flat.

The Wright 3
Series: Chasing Vermeer, book 2
Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Release date: February 14, 2006
Duration: 05:01:29

In this intricate, magnificently imagined sequel to Blue Balliett’s international bestseller, Chasing Vermeer, supersleuths Petra and Calder, along with Clader’s old friend, Tommy, are cryptically drawn into another art mystery – this time involving a Frank Lloyd Wright architectural masterpiece, the Robie House.

When the kids’ sixth-grade class attempts to save the Hyde Park landmark from demolition, eerie events are reported: Voices float out from within, shadows shift behind the art-glass windows, even the roof moves! Suddenly, a well-meaning art restoration project turns into a frightening search for ghosts, hidden treasure, and a coded message left behind by Wright. In this tangled web where life and art intermingle with death and danger, can the kids pursue justice and escape with their lives?”

The Calder Game

Series: Chasing Vermeer, book 3
Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Release date: June 10, 2008
Duration: 06:17:24

When Calder Pillay travels with his father to a remote village in England, he finds a mix of mazes and mystery- including an unexpected Alexander Calder sculpture in the town square. Calder is strangely drawn to the sculpture, while others in the village have less-than-friendly feelings toward it. Both the boy and the sculpture seem out of place…and then they disappear!!!!

Calder’s friends Petra and Tommy must fly to England to help Calder’s father find him. But this mystery has more twists and turns than a calder mobile caught in a fierce wind-with more at stake that meets the eye.

Acclaimed for her sophisticated juggling of art concepts, mystery, philosophy and storytelling, Balliett (Chasing Vermeer) outdoes herself with this ambitious novel. Like its predecessors, it asks readers to consider big ideas, this time using the mobiles of Alexander Calder as a springboard. Now in seventh grade, series heroes Petra, Tommy and Calder first see Calder’s mobiles at an exhibit at a Chicago museum. There they are introduced to the “Calder game,” which invites participants to join five ideas or things that move in relation to one another, while looking for “balance, beauty, and surprise.”

The mystery is crafted more solidly than in either of Balliett’s previous titles, and the setting—enriched by the hedge maze of Blenheim and the possible proximity of the pseudonymous British artist Banksy—proves completely enticing.

Pieces and Players
Chasing Vermeer Series, Book 4
by Blue Balliett
Bahni Turpin

Publisher: Scholastic Audio
Release date: April 1, 2015
Duration: 08:30:56

THE PIECES
Thirteen extremely valuable pieces of art have been stolen from one of the most secretive museums in the world. A Vermeer has vanished. A Manet is missing. And nobody has any idea where they and the other eleven artworks might be . . . or who might have stolen them.

THE PLAYERS
Calder, Petra, and Tommy are no strangers to heists and puzzles. Now they’ve been matched with two new sleuths—Zoomy, a very small boy with very thick glasses, and Early, a girl who treasures words . . . and has a word or two to say about the missing treasure.

The very mysterious Mrs. Sharpe, who may be playing her own kind of game with the clues, has drawn in the kids. And it’s not just Mrs. Sharpe who’s acting suspiciously—there’s a ghost who mingles with the guards in the museum, a cat who acts like a spy, and bystanders in black jackets who keep popping up

With pieces and players, you have all the ingredients for a fantastic mystery from the amazing Blue Balliett.
As in her previous mysteries, chance and coincidence drive the action, and the narrative is salted with repeated motifs and literary allusions. The eighth-grade sleuths, summoned to help because a museum trustee believes they will do detective work that the adult investigators are incapable of doing, use prime numbers, Mother Goose rhymes, and messages in dreams and from a ghost to crack the case. (The FBI may want to invest in its own Ouija board.) Fans of Balliett’s previous work will find and enjoy the same meld of puzzling mystery and art history in this adventure.