Thoughts before reading:
Only four more mysteries to go after this one!
The basics:
Claudia's at the library, doing some research on Grandmother Madden, a famous artist who used to live in Stoneybrook, because she just got a job babysitting for her great-grandson. His mom, Rebecca Madden, has recently inherited her grandma's house and is prepping it for sale. (There sure are a lot of famous people in and around Stoneybrook...) Claud's mom steps in to help her, and together they learn that Grandmother Madden died six years ago, she taught art in Stoneybrook, her folk art style was roasted by art critics until folk art came back into vogue. She then sold a painting for six figures. Her work featured incredible detail, down to cobwebs and pet's whiskers. After she died, there was a five year battle over her will. Her last show was a disaster, and she destroyed all her late paintings. When word got out, her older works doubled in value.
On her first sitting job with Jimmy, who's 7, Claudia finds him to be really quiet and sulky. Claudia gets him to show her the art studio, which is full of paintings by GM's students. Claudia finds one she loves, of a Japanese woman wearing a kimono. She's smiling like she has a secret, and reminds Claudia of Mimi.
While she's looking around, Jimmy's busy pretending to paint. Claudia asks him about it, and he says he's not very good at art, and his dad gets mad at his mom whenever she talks about wanting to paint. (He sounds lovely...) She wonders what he means by this exactly, but they're distracted by someone outside on the porch. It's an Asian-American man who says he works for the company helping Ms. Madden with the estate sale, but when Claudia goes to tell her, he leaves. (She's working on the house while Claudia's sitting.) Ms. Madden reassures her it was probably Mr. Ogura, who's helping her price items.
During the brief time they were talking, Jimmy's gone missing. Claudia finds him crying outside in his treehouse, because he thought the visitor was going to be his dad. Claudia comforts him and takes him back inside. His mom says she's taking him to NYC the next day so he can see his dad. She also hires more of the BSC to help with some things around the house. Claudia wants to ask her about the painting of the Japanese woman too, but when they return to the studio, it's gone. Nothing else seems to be missing, so Ms. Madden reassures Claud that she likely just forgot where she put it.
The next day, when the girls show up at the Madden house, the same man is there. He assures them that he is Mr. Ogura, so they let him in, but then he gets a phone call and immediately leaves again. Not long after, a woman who looks very similar to Ms. M shows up asking about the estate sale. Luckily she pulls up with Jimmy right after, but the woman leaves without talking to her.
Everyone gets to work helping organize the house. Mary Anne finds a hollow book with the scathing review of GM's NYC show inside, and the catalog that lists all her works. Ms. M wistfully tells the girls how hard she worked on her paintings, and how many of them fit together to form larger paintings.
The next day, when Claudia arrives for work, there's another man there: youngish, blond, and grumpy. He gruffly tells her that he's Rebecca's husband, and he'll be sorting through the paintings, so she should work elsewhere. As she's leaving the room, Claudia finds a list of paintings on the floor. Someone has crossed some off the list, and checked others. She searches for the catalog to compare them, but is unable to find it anywhere.
While she's looking, Jimmy and Mal come in with a cat they found at the treehouse, and it has an injured paw. Jimmy's the most excited Claudia's ever seen him too. The cat's wearing a collar with the name Goldie on it. Ms. M walks in and gasps with shock when she sees it... apparently GM had a cat named Goldie.
Meanwhile, Abby's (very reluctantly) taken a job helping set up a children's room at the Stoneybrook museum. (She was the only BSC member free.) It's called the Kaleidoscope Room, and Abby's job is to bring a few kids by and try out different activities with them. It's a disaster, though: the director, Mrs. O'Neal, is stuffy and doesn't want the kids to make any mess, even while doing art... which of course they do.
Claudia visits the museum to take a turn helping, and explains to the director that kids need freedom to explore and create, so they can discover art is fun. (All true, and Claudia handles this very maturely.) Claud also chats with her about GM. Mrs. O'Neal turns out to be a big fan, and tells Claudia that there's a golden cat hidden in each picture, and that each of her paintings is 10x10, and fits together with 3 others to form a bigger picture. There's one GM painting in the Stoneybrook museum, so Claud goes to see it, and finds Mr. Ogura and the woman who looks like Rebecca already there. They're measuring it, then quickly depart after.
At the next BSC meeting, the other girls tell Claudia that they also saw Mr. Ogura snooping around at the house, and a delivery man came by with packages for Ms. M that looked like paintings.
Her next day at the Maddens', Claudia finds the missing painting in an empty trash can. Jimmy starts crying and says that he accidently knocked it over that first day, causing the painting to chip, so he hid it. Claudia assures him that it's not a big deal. He also tells her about a hidden cabinet with more paintings inside, and shows it to her. They explore it together, and Claudia finds one she thinks could be a GM. She pulls it out to show Ms. M, but bumps into Mr. Ogura on the way. He (literally) grabs the painting away from her, then takes off while she's distracted.
Claudia heads back to the library to compare the list she found to a book about GM's work. She notices the paintings with check marks are all in museums, and the ones with lines are all owned by individuals, privately. Mr. Ogura is also noted to own one.
Next, she decides to check out the company Mr. O works for. When she arrives, they are her if she wants "Old Mr. O or young". Puzzled, she says young, but he isn't in. She does run into Jimmy's dad, Mr. Cook, who isn't very happy to see her. He's carrying the painting Mr. O took off with. Claudia decides to wait outside, since this is all so strange, but she doesn't see anything else while there.
At the official opening for the Kaleidoscope Room, Claudia sees Stacey picking at her chipped nails and complaining... which gives her the idea that the painting Jimmy knocked over might have chipped because something was underneath. (Weird connection, but okay...) GM could have hidden her paintings by letting her students paint over them!
Early the next day, Claudia heads over to the Madden house to test her theory. No one's home, so she lets herself in. Right as she's starting to study the portrait of the Japanese woman, the Ms. M look alike shows up right behind her. She grabs a stack of paintings and starts raving about how they're hers, finally announcing that she's Suzanne Madden, Rebecca's cousin. Then Mr. Ogura shows up and also tries to take the paintings. Claudia's grabbed by them and quickly stuffed into the storage closet. (I'm surprised that the BSC members ever leave their homes after all the crazies they've dealt with by now.)
Awhile later, Jimmy and his dad get home and let her out. She tells them what happened in a rush, and then they call the police. Suzanne and Mr. Ogura are both caught, and Claudia learns that GM and Mr. Ogura Sr. were friends, and he bought one of her paintings, so Mr. Ogura Jr. knew what they looked like, AND his brother took lessons from GM, so he knew about the painted over canvases too. Claudia's theory was correct. The pair has been working together to steal the paintings, but thankfully they are all recovered.
Rebecca gets accepted to art school.
Also, once the kids are free to make any art they like at the museum, Mrs. O'Neal is amazed by what they can do. She lets the BSC pick pieces to make a Children's Gallery in the museum.
Timeline:
I guess it's summer again? No one seems to go to school in here, as they're always babysitting or working on the house.
Misc. thoughts:
*Claudia made her mom tiny book earrings, and the books really open! I'm super jealous...
*It sounds so weird when they say things from the early books weren't very long ago, like Mimi passing away. It's been forever from a reader's POV, and over a decade in real time.
*Haha, when Claudia starts wondering if there are still hidden paintings somewhere, her mom asks if she's been reading Nancy Drew again. I always knew the Kishis must have some idea about her hidden habits.
*Claudia wants to draw a BSC meeting, GM style, with all the little details. This is actually a really cool idea. I would have gone completely crazy for a poster like that as a kid.
*I like that Rebecca Madden was home working during all the babysitting jobs in here. It's so much more realistic a situation with babysitters who are in junior high.
*This was at least better than the other recent mysteries, if only because there was a lot of information and a lot going on, which made it much easier to get through. Plus, I really liked the idea of Grandmother Madden and her paintings. They sound like the kind of art I would love too... I wish she was real, because her paintings sound amazing.
*Abby brought Jamie Newton, the Arnold twins, and Corrie Addison to the museum that first time, and they were all disappointed that it was her and not Claudia, haha.
*A mystery revolving around paintings and an estate sale seems like a weird choice for the elementary school set to me, but I think I would have still liked this when I was a kid.
*Mary Anne gets the job of sorting books for the sale, and she's getting paid for it! I'd love to do that, even now.
*If a famous artist lived in Stoneybrook, even though it was awhile ago, wouldn't Claudia have known about her and be interested in her work before now? She's taken so many art classes, some of them would definitely have mentioned/taught a famous local artist. Especially taking into account that GM also taught art in the area.
*Margo's creative like her sisters, it's just never been mentioned before for some reason. In here she makes snake princesses out of clay, and has a whole story to go with them.
*Ghostwritten by Vicki Berger Erwin? A new ghostie! It's pretty late in the game for that, isn't it?
Books mentioned:
*Primitive Artists of the Twentieth Century
*Folk Art
(Both fictional, but very similar to several real titles.)
My rating:
3 stars. This wasn't bad... it was very readable, and had a full plot, something of a rarity now. However, the "painted over paintings" idea was used before, in Mallory and the Mystery Diary. So was the spooky, randomly appearing cat idea.
No comments:
Post a Comment