# Chateau de la Tobler

## Thursday, July 31, 2008

### Illustrations

Brett Helquist's illustrations for Blue Balliett's books. They are not picture books but chapter books with pictures. I listened to her first book on CD and didn't understand everything that he did. I read her second book aloud to my class last year and loved it. I just finished her third book this summer and actually went back over the illustrations to find the secret code hidden there. It took about 45 minutes with sticky notes, pen and paper and a lot of flipping pages back and forth. Brett Helquist hides clues in his picture that have to do with the story. IT'S FUN!
By the way, I've been thinking about recommending her books to the family at large. Each book tackles an art mystery with a ton of facts thrown in to the fiction suspense. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them and intend to read one aloud to my class again this coming year. The pictures above are the covers for Balliett's first and second book. Blogger wouldn't let me upload the third one.
Check them out- they're great!

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