Petra, Calder and Tommy are back with another great math and art related mystery. Calder goes to England with his Dad. He has a great time exploring the small town where they are staying. There's a new art installation in town of a Calder (the artist) sculpture that he finds fascinating because his class had just gone to see a Calder exhibit in Chicago before he left. He's got a whole plan for how let his friends know how much fun he's having...until he dissappears and so does the sculpture. Are the related? That's the mystery
Petra and Tommy get to go to England to help find him and they create lots of extra intrigue and humor to the rest of the plot.
Friday, September 12, 2008
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Posted by Dana Fisher
As The Calder Game has been annotated previously, I’ll write a bit about this book in terms of medium and message. I’m not thinking McLuhan here so much as artist’s medium. The fact that Elizabeth “Blue” Balliett was an art history major in college should surprise no one. We also sense that she was/is a teacher and a mom—it’s something in the deft way she draws the characters of teachers and parents that shows us this side of her technique. All these things end up on her palette as she creates a book. To the blank canvas of her computer screen, she brings the medium of art and artist to serve her story. It is what draws so many to her books. With all these things, she invites us in so that we can find the coded message of her stories.
Before the backdrops of a fabulous Alexander Calder retrospective exhibit and the village beside England’s Blenheim Palace, Calder, Tommy, and Petra meet again. The urgency of this mystery they are solving is considerable—Calder is missing. “My central message is that kids are powerful thinkers, and their ideas are valuable, and that adults don't have all the answers,” the author told Newsweek. For me, this is the key to the power of this series of books. These young characters absolutely model the standards for 21st century learners. Tommy, Petra, and Calder are the perfect embodiments of the constructivist theory’s ideal students. (Dewey, Piaget, and Vygotsky would be so proud.) They are born critical thinkers. Petra uses words and is seldom without her notebook and pencil; writing down lists and ideas is the key to her problem solving. Calder sees patterns, and little gets by him. With the help of his ever-present pentominoes, he sees repetitions, alterations, duplications. Tommy is a finder. He has a strong intuition and great powers of observation. The three children are constantly conferencing to share ideas, revising their theories, and retooling their plans.
Balliett’s books are really giant problem-based learning projects. In The Calder Game, their skills have become so respected by the adults in their lives that they are allowed to tackle the very serious job of finding Calder whose life is in danger. Balliett says, “Kids really aren't being given the encouragement they need to tackle ideas. They have something valuable to contribute. In that way, I think these books are both original at this time, and they're rather old-fashioned. When I think back through children's literature, it's been quite a long time since kids have been given real-world problems.” In addition to introducing readers to artists and architects they may not know, Balliett is also showing what critical thinkers look like. They have different strengths and talents, but they know the importance of sharing information and continual revision. Through the fascinating medium of art, Balliett has found a way to deliver a most important message—young people’s thinking is not only powerful, but has great value.
Resources
Springen, Karen. "Going Mobile with Blue Balliett." Newsweek. 11 APR 2008. Newsweek, Inc. 3 Oct 2008
http://www.newsweek.com/id/131535
Posted by Dana W. Fisher at 7:58 AM
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