Born:
  New York, New York,
United States Of America

Current Home:
Chicago, Illinois,
United States Of America

Blue Balliett

Biography

• PRINT
• EMAIL

In 2004, Chasing Vermeer soared onto The New York Times best-seller list shortly after publication and was hailed by Newsweek as a "Da Vinci Code for tweens." It received accolades for its brilliant plotting, edge-of-the-seat suspense, and well-drawn characters.   The book is also an international sensation - Balliett's work has now appeared in 34 languages. "I never imagined, even for a moment, that I would be translated around the world," says Balliett. "I love to wonder about what children in Indonesia, in Iceland, in Turkey or Croatia think about these stories"

The highly anticipated sequel, The Wright 3, was also an immediate New York Times bestseller and international success. This second mystery introduced questions about architecture as art, as well as plunging readers into Frank Lloyd Wright's legacy.  In both Chasing Vermeer and The Wright 3, Balliett explores controversial ideas within the art world.  She says "We need our kids to develop into powerful, out-of-the-box thinkers, now more than ever.  I believe in making trouble of the right kinds."

In The Calder Game, Balliett celebrates Alexander Calder's sculpture, and in the process draws the reader into thinking about art and its context, and what it means for a piece of art - or a person- to be "foreign."  As in the first two in the series, Balliett uses setting that she knows first-hand.  While Chasing Vermeer and The Wright 3 are set in her neighborhood of Chicago, The Calder Game takes place in a small community in England, a 1,000 year-old-town that Balliett visited while on a book tour.  She states "I had a wonderful time writing this book.  I had to do lots of eavesdropping, poking-around, tip-toeing through graveyards, and climbing walls, and then there was all the Cadbury chocolate I had to eat.

Balliett's prizes for Chasing Vermeer, a New York Times Notable Book, include the Edgar Award, the Agatha Award, the American Booksellers Association's Book Sense Book of the Year Award, The Great Lakes Book Award, and the Chicago Tribune Prize for Young Adult Fiction.  For The Wright 3, a USA Today bestseller, she received a Child's Magazine Best Children's Book Award and the Chicago Public Library Foundation's 21^st Century Award, the first time the award was given to a children's book writer.  Warner Brothers has acquired the film rights to Chasing Vermeer.

Blue Balliett grew up in New York City, where she often visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frick, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Guggenheim.  She studied art history at Brown University.  Balliett and her family lived year-round on Nantucket Island for many years, and and now live in Chicago, within walking distance of Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House.  She taught at the University Of Chicago Laboratory Schools before becoming a full-time writer.  Balliett still likes to work in her laundry room.

• Scholastic Store
• 

  The Scholastic Store

  The Calder Game by Blue Balliett 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 other people have less-than-friendly feelings towards it.   Both the boy and the sculpture seem to be out of place . . . and then, on the same night, they disappear!   Calder's friends Petra and Tommy must fly out to help his father find him.   But this mystery has more twists and turns than a Calder mobile . . . with more at stake than first meets the eye. Learn more about Blue Balliett. $12.79 You save: 20% books;hardcover books;hardcovers | Ages 9-12

  
  The Calder Game
  Ages 9-12 $12.79
  
• Teacher Store
• 

  The Teacher Store

  Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett and Brett Helquist The world of art meets mystery and some rather artful detective work - all of which come together in these suspenseful and fast-paced stories - as a few friends attempt to crack puzzles and codes in time to save timeless creations from destruction. Petra and Calder find themselves in the middle of an international art scandal. Can they use their intuition and knowledge of Vermeer to solve a case that has left the FBI baffled? "A wealth of quirky characters enrich the exciting, fast-paced $7.99 Paperback Book | Grades 6-9

  
  Chasing Vermeer
  Grades 6-9 $7.99