Among them are pentominoes, the use of which is detailed in a note that follows a map of the neighborhood where the story takes place and precedes a note about pentomino clues hidden within Brett Helquist's illustrations. I never feel like I can play along with the sleuths at their own pace.ĭespite my issues, Balliett does a wonderful job cramming Chasing Vermeer full of all sorts of disparate facts and figures. The coincidences just seem to coincidental to me and I am either frustrated by the fact that I knew who the culprit/murderer was from the start or I never saw it coming. Over the past twenty-five years I have dabbled in everything from Agatha Christie to Ayelet Waldman's Mommy-Track mysteries and I just can't get over the way mysteries play out. For some reason, I can suspend my disbelief to read a fantasy or science fiction novel but I cannot do this when reading a mystery. Before I go any further I have to state a personal quirk as an adult reader. While Konigsburg focuses on the interior lives of Claudia and to some extent, her brother Jamie, Balliett focuses on Calder and Petra, classmates and awkward new friends who are brought together by a series of odd coincidences. Chasing Vermeer is, above all else, a mystery story where as From the Mixed-up Files is at its heart a story about personal growth, emotional connections and change. Although both books concern mysterious or disappearing works of art by well known artists, the similarities end there. When I get stuck I just ask myself, 'What do kids see? What are they capable of? What am I saying to them? And what do adults know, anyway?' Usually, that gets me back on track.It is so hard for me to read Chasing Vermeerby Blue Balliett without thinking of EL Konigsberg's masterpiece, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs basil E Frankweiller. The thought that I'm writing for children helps me tremendously. But the business of sifting and then capturing on paper is sometimes elusive –- and it's difficult not to wonder how your work will be judged. Writer's Block Regimen: 'I'm lucky, because I always have more ideas than I have places to put them. Such is life I like the thought that this isn't a likely place to write or think.' Now I have a table, and am surrounded by mountains of paper and the occasional runaway dish towel or t-shirt. During the five years it took me to finish Chasing Vermeer, I worked with a laptop on an extra bed that was always covered with a mountain of clean socks and blue jeans. How She Writes: 'I write as soon as I'm awake, and I work in the laundry room in our house. She lives with her family and cats in Chicago.

Balliett graduated from Brown University with a degree in art history. Her latest, The Wright 3, is a detective story that takes place in a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Blue Balliett is the author of two novels for children.

Blue balliett books in order