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| Author | Blue Balliett |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Brett Helquist |
| Cover artist | Brett Helquist |
| Country | United States of America |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Children's Mystery novel |
| Publisher | Scholastic Press |
| Publication date | 2006 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 318 pgs. |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-439-69367-5 |
| Followed by | TBA (2008) |
The Wright 3 is the sequel to Chasing Vermeer, by Blue Balliett and illustrated by Brett Helquist. The underlying plot elements include 3-D pentominoes, Frank Lloyd Wright, the Robie House, Fibonacci numbers, The Invisible Man and mysterious occurrences.
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Synopsis
Calder's friend Tommy, who moved away a year before, has moved back to Hyde Park, Chicago. He is immediately jealous of Calder and Petra as they received the "glory" of saving a Vermeer painting in the previous book (Chasing Vermeer). Tommy feels that he deserves something, as he is the "expert finder." In his first new day of class, Ms. Hussey announces that the world-famous Robie House is soon to be demolished, which she considers to be murder. The class takes a field trip to the house, and discovers that there are many secrets concerning the building that they were not aware of. After Tommy learns to tolerate, and (later) actually like Petra, the three (who call themselves the Wright 3) work to save the house, even breaking into it toward the end. Tommy finds a fish talisman in the Robie House garden and realizes it was worth a lot of money. Finally, after saving their own lives, they manage to save that of the house. In every illustration, there is a drawing of a fish (referring to Frank Lloyd Wright's luck talisman) that is usually hidden by nature. On one of the last illustrations, a dragon can be found, expressing the legendary Chinese story of a trout that becomes a dragon.
Main characters
Tommy Segovia, Petra Andalee and Calder Pillay
Noted topics in the book
The book features a number of noted topics.
The Robie House
The Robie House was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and was built in 1910. It was constructed as a residence for the Robie Family. The architecture of the Robie House is very intricate, with stained glass windows giving the house an interesting visual structure. The Robie House had many real-life tragic events, including a death, a bankruptcy, and two near destructions of the house itself.
Pentominoes
Pentominoes are figures which are made up of five congruent squares that connect orthogonally. There are 12 different pentominoes, each named for the letter of the alphabet that they represent. F, I, L, N, P, T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z are the letters used. They can be rearranged into rectangles, an activity that Calder especially enjoys. Calder now has a three dimensional set of pentominoes, which are orange and made of cubes. In the book Calder has seven pentonimoes.
Fibonacci number sequence
The Fibonacci number sequence is found by adding the first two numbers in a sequence to get the third (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13...). Fibonacci numbers are often found in nature, as well as mathematics. The petals on a flower, for example, almost always follow the Fibonacci sequence.
The Invisible Man
The book also alludes to The Invisible Man by H.G.Wells twice in the story. The first occurrence was when Petra found it in the book box outside of Powell's Used Books. The second time was when the man Petra was spying on threw it out the train window.
Other
There is also a reference to the Alfred Hitchcock film Rear Window when Tommy views the Robie House. He also is blinded by a camera flash, as in the movie when investigating.
