The Pentomino Oracle
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c6/J._VERMEER_-_El_ge%C3%B3grafo_%28Museo_St%C3%A4del%2C_Fr%C3%A1ncfort_del_Meno%2C_1669%29.jpg/220px-J._VERMEER_-_El_ge%C3%B3grafo_%28Museo_St%C3%A4del%2C_Fr%C3%A1ncfort_del_Meno%2C_1669%29.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/A_Lady_Writing_by_Johannes_Vermeer%2C_1665-6.png/220px-A_Lady_Writing_by_Johannes_Vermeer%2C_1665-6.png)
The Pentomino Oracle is a children's book by the American author Blue Balliett (own Elizabeth Balliet Klein), which was published in New York City in 2004 under the original title "Chasing Vermeer" . The illustrations are in the original version by Brett Helquist, in the German version by Regina Kehn .
In August 2005, the Fischer publishing house has launched the book in German (translation: Dirk van Gunsteren ), and in a nod to the book " The Da Vinci Code touted" as "The Da Vinci Code for kids."
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The whole book revolves around the art of Jan Vermeer , especially his pictures The Geographer and Letter Writer in Yellow .
The setting is Hyde Park in Chicago . Calder Pillay and Petra Andalee attend the Laboratory School founded by John Dewey in 1896 and affiliated with the university . In this school, learning is based exclusively on experience (“ learning by doing ”). Calder always has a set of pentominos in his pocket. On a case-by-case basis, he pulls out one of the 12 stones and takes the embodied letter as an indication of how to proceed.
A theft happened in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC : The "Letter Writer in Yellow" was stolen. The thief explains his deed in newspaper advertisements: He wants to induce a rethinking: Everyone should see that some of Jan Vermeer's pictures are incorrect ascriptions.
Inspired by reading “Da!” (In the original: “Lo!”, 1931) by Charles Fort , Calder and Petra set out to find the image again.
Awards
Web links
- Official Homepage of the book (English)