Masterpiece

Today I’m focusing on another book for National Young Reader’s Week, one of the relatively new titles I think is destined to become a classic. A mystery and suspense novel, it also presents the work of Albrecht Durer, painter and printmaker, to young readers in grades three through six. Precocious as a child because of his drawing skill, Durer became known for his meticulous, true-to-life pencil sketches, etchings, and woodcuts. Today Durer is considered the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance. Obviously, an original Durer drawing could be worth an immense amount of money. But could anyone successfully forge a drawing by this master?

This question lies at the center of a book that brings to mind several children’s classics—From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, The Westing Game, The Cricket in Times Square—and then adds just a trace of Kafka. The unusual, though very likable, protagonist of Elise Broach’s novel Masterpiece happens to be a beetle—one who lives with young James Pompaday in a Manhattan apartment building. After James receives a pen-and-ink drawing set for his eleventh birthday, Martin the beetle discovers that he can use it to craft museum-quality miniatures of existing artwork. Being small and agile, Martin can actually forge a believable copy of a Durer drawing. Hence he and James are drawn into the art-smuggling world, trying to be of service to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

However farfetched this plot may sound, the author presents the entire saga in such a believable way that readers get swept up, cheering for Martin and James, and learn a lot about the art world and Albrecht Durer in the process. With suspense, mystery, and humor, Masterpiece is perfect to read alone or aloud to a fifth or sixth grade classroom. Memorable characters, great drama, and beautiful writing have helped establish this book as a classic in the making. The friendship between a beetle and this young boy tugs at one’s heartstrings. It even makes you wish you could have a beetle like Marvin as a friend in your own home!

In short, the book is a masterpiece—and a perfect way to celebrate National Young Readers Week.

Here’s a passage from Masterpiece:
 

Home, for Marvin’s family, was a damp corner of the cupboard beneath the kitchen sink. Here, a leaking pipe had softened the plaster and caused it to crumble away. Just behind the wall, Marvin’s family had hollowed out three spacious rooms, and, as his parents often remarked, it was a perfect location. It was warm, because of the hot-water pipes embedded in the wall; moist, to make burrowing easy; and dark and musty, like all the other homes the family had lived in. Best of all, the white plastic wastebasket that loomed on one side offered a constant litter of apple cores, bread crumbs, onion skins, and candy wrappers, making the cupboard an ideal foraging ground.