The Wright 3 [Anglais] [Cassette]

Grade 4-7–Sixth-graders Calder and Petra and Calder's friend, Tommy, form an uneasy triangle, trying to work out how they can all be close friends and trust each other. The trio get caught up in an effort to save Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, when their teacher, Miss Hussey, explains that the architectural masterpiece has fallen into disrepair and will be divided into four parts and sold to museums. Miss Hussey asks her students a difficult question: Can a house be art? The special abilities of Petra (writing and organizing), Calder (geometry and codes) and Tommy (finding and collecting) help the friends in piecing together information about the tragic history of Robie House. Blue Balliett packs this story (Scholastic, 2006) full of information about art, architecture, literature, geometry, codes, talismans, film, and community activism. Middle school listeners will enjoy the intrigue, suspense, and danger that the triumvirate experience, but might miss some of the details. The Author's Note at the end explains what is factual and what details were changed to accommodate the story. Ellen Reilly reads in a breezy style with great tempo, easily distinguishing between the characters and adding suspense to the story. Fans of E.L. Konigsburg's A View from Saturday(Atheneum, 1996) as well as Wendelin Van Draanen's Sammy Keyes series will enjoy this mystery.– Jo-Ann Carhart, East Islip Public Library, NY
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What is art? Balliett's newest book asks listeners to ponder that question and whether Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House is art. While Petra, Calder, and Tommy work to answer that question and to save the house from destruction, they slowly build a friendship, and a team. Ellen Reilly's reading is solid; her narrator is clear and builds the pace from the startling beginning through the mysterious happenings. Her character voices are distinct; although her male voices tend to sound forced, her female voices sound real. An occasional change in the production's balance doesn't distract but does break the flow of the narrative. W.L.S. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Gr. 5-8. How many newsworthy art crimes can 12-year-old sleuths thwart in a single year? At least two, as readers will discover in this sequel to Balliett's celebrated Chasing Vermeer (2004). After all, "magical coincidences" are what these -thinking-kids' adventures are all about. Tommy Segovia, the best friend Calder corresponded with during the Vermeer crisis, has returned to Hyde Park, and he resents Petra and Calder's tight twosome. But when a house by Frank Lloyd Wright is slated for destruction, the sixth-graders overcome tensions to save the landmark and decode its secrets--among them, an intriguing buried artifact. Leapfrogging connections and mystical messages from Calder's pentominoes once again drive the plot, but some children may find this second installment more arcane than the first, with too much focus on Wright and his genius, difficult-to-follow gleanings from sources as eclectic as H. G. Wells' Invisible Man and Fibonacci, and a central problem that lacks the glamorous hook of an international art heist. But determined fans will grab hold of the true-to-life friendship issues Balliett introduces, and some--particularly her brainiest, most open-minded readers--will emerge energized by the invitation to explore themes of an interconnected universe. A new pentominoes code appears in the narrative, and Helquist likewise embeds another challenge in his drawings (unfinished in the galley). Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.