Blue Balliett

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Elizabeth "Blue" Balliett Klein (1955-) is an American author, best known for her award-winning novel for children, Chasing Vermeer.

[edit] Professional works

Blue Balliett was born in New York City. Living on the sixth floor of an apartment building, she grew up playing ball and rollerskating on the sidewalk outside, playing in Central Park with her sister and brother and riding the public buses and subways. Some of her favorite memories of the city include the dizzying cherry blossoms around the reservoir on 90th Street and 5th Avenue in Central Park, and coconut Good Humor ice cream bars from the truck outside the Guggenhiem Museum.

She has written three books, Chasing Vermeer, The Wright 3, and The Calder Game, all of which feature Calder and Petra, the last two featuring Tommy as well.

Chasing Vermeer, released by Scholastic Press in 2004, is her best known and most highly praised book. Illustrated by Brett Helquist, it is about the fictitious theft of a Johannes Vermeer painting. It was a bestseller and won a number of accolades and awards, including the 2005 Edgar Award in the Best Juvenile category, and it was optioned by Warner Brothers for a film version. A second book, The Wright 3, was released in April of 2006 as a sequel, and a third, "The Calder Game," was released two years later, in April 2008. She also wrote Nantucket Hauntings / 21 firsthand encounters with the super natural in 1990.

[edit] Bibliography

Nantucket Hauntings: 21 Firsthand Encounters with the Supernatural (Down East, 1990)
The Ghosts of Nantucket: 23 True Accounts (Down East, 1984)
Chasing Vermeer (Scholastic - 2003
The Wright 3 (Scholastic, 2006)
The Calder Game (Scholastic, 2008)