From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler meets Chasing Vermeer in this clever middle grade debut
When Theodora Tenpenny spills a bottle of rubbing alcohol on her late grandfather’s painting, she discovers what seems to be an old Renaissance masterpiece underneath. That’s great news for Theo, who’s struggling to hang onto her family’s two-hundred-year-old townhouse and support her unstable mother on her grandfather’s legacy of $463. There’s just one problem: Theo’s grandfather was a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and she worries the painting may be stolen.
With the help of some unusual new friends, Theo's search for answers takes her all around Manhattan, and introduces her to a side of the city—and her grandfather—that she never knew. To solve the mystery, she'll have to abandon her hard-won self-reliance and build a community, one serendipitous friendship at a time.
“Uniquely readable, entirely charming, and a pleasure from start to finish. Debuts this good are meant to be discovered.” —SLJ Fuse 8 Blog
Before dying, Jack, Theodora's grandfather, whispers, "There's a letter… And a treasure" hidden "under the egg." After his passing, Theo could certainly use a treasure; her absentminded mother hides herself away on the top floor of their dilapidated Greenwich Village townhouse while the 13-year-old struggles to make ends meet with the $463 that Jack left. Hanging above the mantelpiece is one of her late grandfather's paintings which depicts a large egg. Could a treasure be hiding underneath? An accident with a bottle of rubbing alcohol reveals an unusual image that sets the teen off on an art history adventure taking her from New York Public Library's Jefferson Market branch to a fancy Upper East Side auction house and to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Along the way, she befriends Bodhi, the jet-setting, paparazzi-hounded daughter of two celebrities; Reverend Cecily from Grace Church; and a punk-rock librarian named Eddie. Fitzgerald gets the Manhattan setting pitch-perfect; from the rich aroma of a roasted nut stand to the hushed hallways of the Met. While the mystery unwinds at an even pace through most of the book, the last few chapters conclude too quickly. Still, fans of Blue Balliett's Chasing Vermeer (Scholastic, 2004) and Elise Broach's Masterpiece (Holt, 2008) will enjoy this art caper.
Publisher Dial Books (March 18, 2014)
Hardcover 256 pages
ISBN-13 978-0803740013
Age 9 - 12 years
Weight 10.4 ounces
Dimensions 5.75 x 0.9 x 8.6 inches
My eleven-year-old loved this book so much, she made me read it and I love it also. It is a very satisfying read, especially for anyone who is at all interested in art history, museums, libraries, the Renaissance, the Holocaust, or New York City. It it also surprisingly educational on the sly, because it gives kids an idea of how one can use librarians and books as resources. But in the end, this was just a fun book with a supercapable thirteen year old protagonist who solves a mystery about a painting with the help of her ultracool best friend. This is better than the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Adults are nostalgic for that book, but times have changed and not everything in that book makes sense anymore. Even Under the Egg is already dated, as MMA museum goers don't wear those metal M pins anymore. So get your middle-schooler to read this soon. I enjoyed it so much I am going to watch the Monuments Men movie.