The Wright 3

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Title The Wright 3
Author Blue Balliett
Illustrator Brett Helquist
Cover artist Brett Helquist
Country United States of America
Language English
Genre(s) Mystery, Children's Fiction
Publisher Scholastic Press
Released 2006
Media type Print (Hardback)
Pages 318
ISBN ISBN 0-439-69367-5

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.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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 (entitled Chasing Vermeer), while 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 trip to the house, and discover 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 usualy hidden by nature.

[edit] Noted topics in the book

The book features a number of noted topics.

[edit] The Robie House

The Robie House
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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Fibonacci Number Sequence

A sunflower is an example of a flower whose petals follow the Fibonacci Sequence
A sunflower is an example of a flower whose petals follow the Fibonacci Sequence

The Fibonacci Number Sequence is found by adding the first two numbers 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.

[edit] Other

There is also a reference to the Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock), when Tommy views the Robie House. He also is blinded by a camera flash, as in the movie when investigating.