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November 8, 2005, 1-2pm ET
Moderated Author Chat
Blue Balliett
Flashlight Readers Featured Author

Growing Up
Blue Balliett knew she wanted to be a writer when she was 8 years old, but before publishing her first book, she did a lot of other things. Growing up in Manhattan, she spent a lot of time wandering through museums, namely the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frick Museum, both of which housed a few Vermeer paintings. After graduating from Brown University with a degree in art history, Blue worked on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts for a while, working as a cook, waitress, art gallery curator, and of course, writer. However, Blue says that while she “tried to sit down and be a writer at 21,” she had a hard time finding her voice, and that she could not have written Chasing Vermeer “without all the living that preceded it.” Learn more about the author in Blue Balliett’s biography.
  
books

About Chasing Vermeer
Blue Balliett started writing Chasing Vermeer six years ago when she was a teacher in Hyde Park, Chicago, while her third-grade students wrote art mysteries. Chasing Vermeer is a smart detective story set in Hyde Park and centers around two precocious children who are intent upon uncovering the mysterious connection between a suddenly missing Vermeer painting, their extraordinary 6th grade teacher, and their neighbor, Ms. Sharpe. One of Blue’s reasons for writing this book was to encourage children to solve mysteries, draw connections, appreciate art, and think critically.
Moderated Author Chat
illustration © Tyson Smith