IDEA: What games can you and a friend invent using a set of pentominoes and a 9 x 12 grid?
For all kinds of pentomino games go to: http://www.gamepuzzles.com
More Than Meets the Eye
While there are only twelve pentominoes to a set, in actuality there are many more pieces to work with. When rotated and reflected, each piece potentially takes on a new form or shape. Count the rotations and reflections that create a new shape. How many shapes are there to work with? (Answer: sixty-three for a 2-D set.) To see all sixty-three go to: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pentomino.html
Make Your Own
You can make your own pentominoes — either a 2-D set or a 3-D set.
For 2-D pentominoes: Print out a template from a PDF file at: http://www.scholastic.com/titles/chasingvermeer/pentominoes.pdf
For 3-D pentominoes: Try using sugar cubes. Following the diagram at the front of this book, glue together five cubes to create each of the twelve pentominoes.
IDEA: Can you build parts of the Robie House using your 3-D set of pentominoes? If you make many sets (as Calder does in The Wright 3), do you think you could build almost the entire Robie House?
E-Play
If you have access to a computer, play with an electronic set of pentominoes (with different levels of difficulty) at: http://www.scholastic.com/titles/chasingvermeer/
In Chapter Fourteen, Calder and his mother talk about Fibonacci numbers, a mathematical sequence in which each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, etc. (Do you know the next five numbers in this sequence?) Calder and his mom also talk about how these numbers appear in nature, particularly in spiral shapes. The story mentions irises, buttercups, marigolds, black-eyed Susans, and pansies. Where else can you identify Fibonacci numbers in the natural world? Look at cross sections of shells, or spirals on pineapples or pinecones.
IDEA: Fibonacci numbers appear in many places in The Wright 3. Some are hidden, and some are not. How many different ways are Fibonacci numbers used in this book? Make a list, and compare notes with a friend.
When Is a Rectangle Just a Rectangle?
According to Calder’s mother, many people believe that the Golden Rectangle, with a length-to-width ratio of 1 to 1.618 (the constant ratio between Fibonacci numbers), is particularly pleasing. Try to create a Golden Rectangle and a rectangle with random proportions. Then compare. Decide for yourself. Is the Golden Rectangle more pleasing?
After Blue Balliett read aloud The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler to her class, the students wanted to read another art mystery that was set in the real world. Unable to find another book that met the requirement, Blue and her class set out to write their own art mysteries. And they did. Can you write your own art mystery?
Before beginning to write your art mystery, here are some hints on how to go about structuring a mystery:
The Pieces
Blue Balliett says, “Frank Lloyd Wright is fascinating because each one of his buildings is, in a sense, a puzzle — each has many pieces that fit within and around each other, and it is very difficult to figure out how they work or how exactly he put it all together. I love the tricky, surprising feeling of his buildings.”
This is also true about Balliett’s books. There are numerous elements that at first glance don’t seem to fit together — the Robie House, Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, H. G. Wells’s The Invisible Man, and the tense relationship of three twelve-year-olds. But in the end, they do seem to fit together with ease. How did she do that?
IDEA: Make yourself a list of three or four things that you love to think about, but that don’t seem related. Can you invent a way to connect them in a story?
The Skeleton
So much of a good mystery’s success is about how its events unfold and how the story is built. Balliett wrote this book in the third person, alternating the point of view, allowing simultaneous events to unfold from different perspectives. For example, in Chapter One, the mason falls from the Robie House roof. Then, in Chapter Three, an ambulance is heard in Ms. Hussey’s classroom. It is up to the reader to connect the events and decide on their significance. Hmmm …
Not to Be Missed
Throughout The Wright 3, Petra, Calder, and Tommy (and the reader) are offered seemingly unrelated events, hidden patterns, and puzzles, which often reveal and foreshadow what’s to come. What might seem like a random happening or story ingredient is most likely a clue. For instance, there are many kinds of fish in The Wright 3. Where are they? How do they fit with each other? And why are they appropriate for the meaning of the story? Foreshadowing events to come is just about planting seeds. See if you can spot all of the seeds. Which ones grow?
Red Herrings: Fish or Foe?
Keep in mind that not all clues are clues. Sometimes an author wants to throw her reader off the scent with a red herring — a false clue that is meant to mislead the reader and to keep the reader thinking.
Character Building
The players of the story are an extremely important element. Balliett takes great care in crafting her characters with rich histories and unique qualities — it’s what makes Calder and Petra and Tommy so real. You might want to start by creating a character sketch. What is your character’s heritage? What is unique about his or her physical appearance as well as personality? And remember there are other kinds of characters, too. In this book, the Robie House truly becomes a character, not just a setting.
Here are some Wright 3–related activities you can try:
Create Your Dream Home
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) believed that buildings should grow naturally from their surroundings, and that they should be open, with rooms that flow from one to another. Have you ever thought about designing your own dream home? Create a floor plan. Would it have many levels or just one? How many rooms? Where would you build your house? What are your needs for the house? How would it relate to its natural surroundings?
Unbreakable Art Glass
In Chapter Seventeen, Mrs. Sharpe describes Frank Lloyd Wright’s art-glass windows. She says, “Living in that house felt like living in a slowly turning kaleidoscope. The light captured by those windows changes by the hour, and sometimes even by the second….”
Have you ever seen art glass? You can easily create your own art glass (and perhaps hide a message or a man in the window) with colored acetate (or tissue paper) and construction paper. Simply use Scotch tape to “solder” the pieces together. Notice how the different colors are affected by the light. What mood or message are you conveying with your design and color choices?
Architect Frank Lloyd Wright visits his 1910 Robie House in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, March 18, 1957.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s art-glass window, “The Man in the Window,” from the Robie House
I want to thank many people. The voices of my three children, Jessie, Althea, and Dan, are always with me as I write, as are the voices of children I taught at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. Bill Klein took numerous photographs that helped in the making of this book, brought me countless sandwiches at my desk in the laundry room, and continues to be the best husband ever.
The team at Scholastic has been a delight. Special thanks go to my brilliant editor, Tracy Mack, whose vision and sharp eye have rescued me any number of times, and to Leslie Budnick, Marijka Kostiw, Liz Szabla, Charisse Meloto, Jean Feiwel, Jazan Higgins, and Barbara Marcus. My agents Doe Coover and Amanda Lewis have been terrific throughout.
Other friends have helped me in countless ways — Anne Troutman, Barbara Engel, Cindy Garrison, Lucy Bixby, Dorothy Strang, and Irene Patner have all listened and offered chocolate and ideas, as has Bob Strang, mathematical thinker extraordinaire. Will Balliett, Betsy Platt, and Nancy and Whitney Balliett have been enthusiastic and supportive at every stage. John Klein has offered expert legal advice on finding treasure.
Last, but not least, Janet Van Delft, manager at the Ro
bie House, has played an important part in the making of this book — I have had to return to look again and again, and she has patiently held open the door in all weathers and at crazy times of day.
Thank you all.
This book was originally published in hardcover by Scholastic Press in 2006.
e-ISBN 978-0-545-36232-0
Cover art © 2006 by Brett Helquist
Cover design by Marijka Kostiw
Text copyright © 2006 by Elizabeth Balliett Klein. Illustrations copyright © 2006 by Brett Helquist. All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, AFTER WORDS, APPLE PAPERBACKS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. Photograph in the After Words section of Frank Lloyd Wright visiting his 1910 Robie House in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, March 18, 1957, reproduced courtesy of AP/Wide World Photos. Second photograph in the After Words section of Frank Lloyd Wright’s art-glass window from the living room prow of the Frederick C. Robie House, Chicago, Illinois, 1910. Courtesy of the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust.
First Scholastic paperback printing, June 2007
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
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