Balliett, Blue. The Wright 3

[heather]

I had a major breakthrough as a reader last night. For the first time ever, I skipped to the end and read the last few chapters of a book.

I wanted to like it and I wanted to finish it, but I just couldn't do it. I read reviews of it because I wanted to know what others thought and it seems that I am the only one who couldn't finish it. So what did YOU think of it?

I can't even tell you why I couldn't finish it. Argh!

Maybe it was the code that so clearly confused me I had no idea what was going on. Maybe it was the coincidence after coincidence that didn't sit right. Or maybe it was that the 'bad guy' actually untied the kids when they said "just untie us while she is in the bathroom". (COME ON!)
I can handle a house that moves. But why did Tommy dig in that ONE spot of the garden? Why did someone throw the Invisible Man off of the train?

So what did YOU think?

[Tess]

I was thoroughly disappointed by the pointlessness of the code in Chasing Vermeer. Was the code confusing to you, Heather, because it was required to understand it and you didn't want to mess with it or because it added nothing to the solving of the "mystery"?

Based on my experience with Chasing Vermeer, I have no inclination to read this one unless someone raves and raves and raves about it. And, even then. . .

[heather]

Yes, Tess I think you are right on both counts.

As far as I remember (and I did skip a lot of the book) the code was not important to solving the mystery, but the children did use it to communicate with each other and I had no idea what they were talking about.

In order to understand the code I would have had to understand a huge mathematical concept (which was not even explained in the book). Had I really been drawn in and were it important to the mystery, that is something that I would have done. Alas, I could not even finish the book, so I was NOT inclined to pursue code-breaking or math for it.

[Tess]

Thanks, Heather. Obviously there is an audience for this series. We just aren't part of it.

[kmg365]

Ugh. I'm three quarters of the way through reading it, and by golly, I'm going to finish. I am. I AM. Maybe.

I was disappointed by Chasing Vermeer, and I really, really wanted to like it. The hype calling it "The DaVinci Code for kids" didn't help, because it soooo wasn't. But I always knew I'd give Balliett's next book a try, just to be fair.

The writing seems flat, I feel no connection with any of the three kids, and I do not find pentominoes endlessly fascinating.

What really gets me, though, is how all three kids keep finding Big Important Meanings in things that to me are mildly interesting coincidences, at best.

Unless things change a lot over the next few chapters, it gets a big ol' thumbs down from me.

[martha]

I read an advance copy of this book several months ago, which did not contain the illustrations. I did like Chasing Vermeer, and I liked this as well. It's a good read for mystery buffs as well as people interested in art. (I know an art teacher who is using Balliet's books in her classes.) It probably doesn't have enough universal appeal to be a Newbery winner, though.