Pieces and Players

SNATCH A STORY

Close your eyes and listen to the artsy opening to Pieces and Players:

THE WICKED READ

Audiobook Published by Scholastic Audio Narrated by Bahni Turpin

Age Range: 8 – 12 Years

THE PIECES

Thirteen extremely valuable pieces of art have been stolen from one of the most secretive museums in the world. A Vermeer has vanished. A Manet is missing. And nobody has any idea where they and the other eleven artworks might be . . . or who might have stolen them.

THE PLAYERS Calder, Petra, and Tommy are no strangers to heists and puzzles. Now they’ve been matched with two new sleuths — Zoomy, a very small boy with very thick glasses, and Early, a girl who treasures words . . . and has a word or two to say about the missing treasure.

The kids have been drawn in by the very mysterious Mrs. Sharpe, who may be playing her own kind of game with the clues. And it’s not just Mrs. Sharpe who’s acting suspiciously — there’s a ghost who mingles with the guards in the museum, a cat who acts like a spy, and bystanders in black jackets who keep popping up.

With pieces and players, you have all the ingredients for a fantastic mystery from the amazing Blue Balliett.

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THE CREEPY CREATOR

Blue Balliett was born and grew up in New York City, in a long, thin apartment near Mt. Sinai Hospital. Her name has always been Blue, although it’s Elizabeth on her birth certificate. She graduated with an art history degree from Brown University and then spent years writing poetry and making word mobiles (more playing with words!); she also waitressed, became a not-great grill cook, ran an art gallery, and researched old houses. She has a big and busy family, and always at least one bossy cat. All of her books are set in places she’s lived in or visited, and lots of her family discoveries and secrets are tucked inside them. These mysteries are fiction, but also not – they’re filled with details from her everyday world.