Age 8-12

A bestseller in America and soon to be a film, Balliett’s novel has been called a “Da Vinci Code for kids”. It is a mystery about a painting, stolen for apparently idealistic ends. Beautifully packaged, with noir-ish, atmospheric drawings by Brett Helquist (who also illustrates Lemony Snicket’s stories), the book is not so much about solving a puzzle by logic and reason, as about the patterns and coincidences that connect ideas and events that may or may not be meaningful. Classmates Calder and Petra, inspired by their unconventional teacher, and by the writing of Charles Fort, chronicler of the unexplained, try to track down a stolen Vermeer to make the nation aware of wrong attributions. Some of the children’s leads are intuitive, even random, and the plot resolution involves information they could never have deduced, but the point is learning to think for yourself, look closely and care about art and other people. Four messages in the book can only be read by deciphering a code, using the key on its bookmark. The perfect follow-up would be a trip to the National Gallery (or its website, given in the text) to look at the Vermeers.

(The Chicken House £9.99)

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