Thursday, December 29, 2016

Brezenoff, Steve. The Case of the Counterfeit Painting. (Museum Mysteries.)

Brezenoff, Steve.  The Case of the Counterfeit Painting.  (Museum Mysteries.)  Capstone Publishers  2017      128p    $25.99  ISBN 978-1-4965-2518-5  elem  Mystery/Detective  VG        

Elementary students who enjoy mystery fiction will like this new title in the Museum Mysteries series.  Written in an easy-to-comprehend fashion, the novel introduces students to the four Capitol City Sleuths: Amal Farah, Raining Sun, Clementine Wim, and Wilson Kipper.  In this installment, Clementine sees what she thinks is a famous painting by Goings being carried by two people during the Dino Festival.  She finds this strange, because she knew the painting was going to be featured at an upcoming exhibit on Photorealism at the Capitol City Art Museum.  Immediately, Clementine thinks the painting has been stolen, but when she sees it at the museum, she is surprised.  Unsure of what to do, she enlists her friends to try to see if the painting at the museum is fake or real.  Students will cheer for Clementine and her friends as they help solve the mystery and retrieve the real painting. 

The author includes colorful graphics scattered throughout, a glossary of terms, discussion questions, writing prompts, information on the genre of art known as photorealism, biographical information on the painter Ralph Goings, and biographical information on the author and illustrator. 

As of this review, eight titles have been published in this new series, Museum Mysteries.  Each title follows four friends as they take in culture and solve crimes in the Capitol City museums. 

Summary: “While searching for her friends at the Dino Festival, Clementine Wim runs into two people carrying what she thinks is the “Tiled Lunch Counter” (a famous painting) away from the Capitol City Art Museum, but when she checks the painting is still hanging in place--and before she can track down the thieves, and prove that the painting now hanging in the museum is a forgery, she has to convince her friends that she is not imagining things.”  Would make a good addition to an elementary collection for casual reading.

Museums-Fiction, Art-Fiction                                                           --Charleen Forba-MacCain

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