Artful Tales

Balliet, Blue.   Chasing Vermeer

When strange and seemingly unrelated events start to happen and a precious Vermeer painting disappears, 11-year-olds Petra and Calder combine their talents to solve an international art scandal.

 

 

Broach, Elise.   Masterpiece

After Marvin, a beetle, makes a miniature drawing as an eleventh birthday gift for James, a human with whom he shares a house, the two new friends work together to help recover a Durer drawing stolen from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

 

 

Cornwell, Autumn.  Carpe Diem

16-year-old Vassar Spore's detailed plans for the next twenty years of her life are derailed when her bohemian grandmother insists that she join her in Southeast Asia for the summer, but as she writes a novel about her experiences, Vassar discovers new possibilities.

 

 

Franklin, Emily.  The Other Half of Me

Feeling out of place in her athletic family, artistic 16-year-old Jenny Fitzgerald, whose biological father was a sperm donor, finds her half sister through the Sibling Donor Registry and contacts her, hoping that this will finally make her feel complete.

 

 

Gallagher, Liz.  The Opposite of Invisible

Artistic Seattle high school sophomore Alice decides to emerge from her cocoon and date a football player, which causes a rift between her and her best friend, a boy who wants to be more than just friends.

 

 

Grey, Christopher Peter.  Leonardo’s Shadow: Or My Astonishing Life as Leonardo da Vinci’s Servant

15-year-old Giacomo--servant to Leonardo da Vinci--helps his procrastinating master finish painting "The Last Supper" while also trying to find clues to his parentage and pursue his own career as an artist in late fifteenth-century Milan.

 

 

Johnson, Maureen.  13 Little Blue Envelopes

When 17-year-old Ginny receives a packet of mysterious envelopes from her favorite aunt, she leaves New Jersey to criss-cross Europe on a sort of scavenger hunt that transforms her life.

 

 

Koja, Kathe.  Buddha Boy

Justin spends time with Jinsen, the unusual and artistic new student whom the school bullies torment and call Buddha Boy, and ends up making choices that impact Jinsen, himself, and the entire school.

 

 

Lisle, Janet Taylor.  The Art of Keeping Cool

In 1942, Robert and his cousin Elliot uncover long-hidden family secrets while staying in their grandparents' Rhode Island town, where they also become involved with a German artist who is suspected of being a spy.

 

Lockhart, E.   Fly on the Wall

When Gretchen Yee, a student at the Manhattan School for Art and Music, wishes she were a fly on the wall of the boys' locker room, she never expects her wish to come true in such a dramatic way.

 

 

Mack, Tracy. Drawing Lessons

12-year-old Rory begins to lose the passion for making art that she shares with her father after she finds him kissing his female model and fears for the safety of her parents' marriage.

 

 

Sandell, Lisa Ann.  A Map of the Known World

Devastated, along with her parents, by the death of her older brother and apprehensive about being a freshman in the same high school he attended, 14-year-old Cora finds unexpected solace in art.