Chasing Vermeer

Chasing Vermeer

First US edition cover
Author	Blue Balliett
Translator	John Adams
Cover artist	Brett Helquist
Language	English
Genre	Young Adult fiction Mystery
Publisher	Scholastic Press
Publication date	June 1, 2004[1]
Publication place	USA IL Chicago
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	272
ISBN	0-439-37294-1
OCLC	51172514
Dewey Decimal	[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 Writing, is stolen en 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's 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.