The Wright 3 (review)

They dealt with art thieves, secret messages, and uncanny synchronicity in Chasing Vermeer (BCCB 7/04), and now Calder, Petra, and Tommy return for another mystery. This one revolves around Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Robie House, which is threatened in the story (though not in real life) by deteriorating conditions and a plan to sell the building off in pieces to various museums. A horrified Calder and Petra eagerly join their sixth-grade class' campaign to save the building, but Tommy, newly returned to the neighborhood, is more concerned with his family's now-straitened circumstances and Calder's insistence on including Petra in what had formerly been a cozily male buddyhood. His neighborly proximity to the Robie House, however, allows him to see some strange occurrences there and to unearth an old stone talisman from the grounds, while Petra and Calder find signs in Calder's pentominoes and in frequent coincidental (or are they?) references to H. G. Wells' Invisible Man; together they dub themselves the Wright 3 and determine to solve the mystery and save the Robie House. This is the same unusual blend as the previous title, with intricate interrelationships, mathematical concepts, and significant coincidence combining with an easy, plainspoken narrative and an old-fashioned Scooby-Doo plot wherein clever kids foil the adult criminals (there's even a classic "'Pretty clever.' . . . 'Maybe too clever'" exchange). The underlying message throughout, whether you're talking Fibonacci sequences, architecture, or humans, is "the more you look, the more you see," and readers may take that point to heart as well as enjoying a lively mystery. A note about Wright and the Robie House is included; final illustrations not seen.