The third book in this series finds the three friends in “The Button’s” seventh grade class and no longer students of the beloved Ms. Hussey. While they get to go on a field trip to see the fabulous retrospective exhibit of the work of sculptor, Alexander Calder at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, “The Button” allows no notebooks or pencils, takes Calder’s pentominoes from him, and dogs Tommy whom she has decided is a troublemaker. Seemingly adding to their misery is the fact that Calder will be leaving to go to England with his father for a time. After only a few days in the little town of Woodstock, both the boy Calder and a Calder sculpture mysteriously disappear. Chaperoned by Mrs. Sharpe, Tommy and Petra are brought to England to help Walter Pillay find his son. Tommy and Petra make peace with each other in order to find Calder and soon realize that the two disappearances are related and the townspeople of Woodstock are more involved than the police seem to realize. The discovery of a broken piece of one of Calder’s pentominoes leads to his rescue and the three friends are united as the Calder sculpture is returned to its place of honor in the town square.
Strengths: Balliett continues to give the reader very real children and adults in exciting plots with the added benefit of the author’s passion for art and artists thrown in. The author’s sense of place is also very strong evoking village life in England as well as the grandeur of Blenheim.
Recommended grade levels: 5-8
2/13/2009
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Second. Another great addition to the literature-using-math-concepts collection from Balliet. This one works successfully alone, but the other books add a little dimesion if you know more about these stratigically-thinking kids.
ReplyDeleteI do question readability with older middle schoolers. I have had more than one 8th grader say these titles seemed very "young" - then again, 8th graders love to say things are babyish, they're so mature, you know!
I really enjoyed this book. I am having difficulty getting my fifth grader readers to get hooked enough to really get into it. That is my concern--if 8th thinks it is too young and fifth isn't getting it who will read it?
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