A Thinking Kid's Mystery:The Wright 3 by Blue Balliet

The team of author Blue Balliett and illustrator Brett Helquist has come up with a sequel to their first much-hailed mystery, Chasing Vermeer, which again features sophisticated sixth-grade sleuths who are light years ahead of the trusty old Three Investigators.

The Wright 3 returns the reader to the pleasant University of Chicago Lab School neighborhood with art sleuths Petra and Calder morphing into a triumvirate with the return of Calder's former best friend, Tommy. As the school year comes to an end, another newsworthy event captures their attention. Frank Lloyd Wright's 1910 Robie House, a Hyde Park landmark, is scheduled for demolition and division into parts to be shipped to four museums worldwide.

When their quirky teacher Ms. Hussey involves her class in a demonstration to save this architectural treasure, Calder and Petra incorporate newcomer Tommy into their search for a way to save the old house, naming themselves "the Wright 3." Despite some jealousy between Petra and Tommy, the three are soon caught up in a series of ominous but intriguing coincidences. Lights and shadows are seen moving inside Robie House; the house appears to move and sigh; and a mason employed by the demolition company swears that the house shook him off the roof. Tommy finds a mysterious sculpted fish buried in the Robie House garden and discovers that it was a valuable Japanese talisman lost by Wright during the construction of the home. Calder, still viewing the world though his set of pentominoes, discovers repeated patterns and the Fibunacci number code appearing in the house plan and in its art glass windows. Petra finds two discarded copies of The Invisible Man, with marked passages leading back to the house and its unusual windows.

As the weight of coincidences seems to keep leading the three back to Robie House, Tommy's apartment is robbed and the talisman is stolen. The three children are convinced that they must sneak into the house by night to discover the secret of the mysterious lights, but once inside they are captured by crooks who intend to steal the art glass windows and burn Robie House to conceal the theft. The clever escape of the kids with the unexplainable cooperation of the old house leads to the capture of the thieves and opens up a way to save the historic structure.

Like most mysteries for young readers, this one has seemingly unrelated clues which come together to solve the case. There are warnings from strangers, ominous threats, midnight visitors,a deadly chase through a house which seems haunted by its creator and past owners, and finally an exciting conclusion in which the bad guys get their comeuppance. But unlike the standard mystery, this one has a lot to think about even when it's done. Can an old house be a work of art? Does a work of art have a life of its own? Can three disparate kids use their differences to form a new whole? Are there any real "coincidences" in life, or is everything somehow connected to everything else?

Blue Balliett's The Wright 3 gives the thoughtful reader plenty to consider as the plot works itself out in the colorful but comfortable environs of Chicago's Hyde Park.