The Calder Game: Author's Note from Blue Balliett

How did author Blue Balliett's childhood discovery of Alexander Calder's mobiles lead her characters, Petra, Calder, and Tommy, to a mystery in England? Learn the story behind Blue Balliett's third book, The Calder Game.

I am 100% sure that Alexander Calder’s art changed the way I see the world around me, and that this happened when I was still a kid. Maybe that’s why I think the ideas you get when you’re young are REALLY important. I kind of KNOW that’s true.

I first saw his mobiles when I was nine years old, at a big Guggenheim Museum show in New York City. I can still remember that first shock of surprise and delight — this was art that bobbed and drifted! This was a universe of slowly-shifting shapes, of giant objects and primary colors that seemed to float! I touched a mobile that day, and remember that it made ding sounds and took off on its own. Calder’s sculpture was almost alive, that much was clear.

I saw more of his amazing work as I was growing up in New York, and it always made me feel good. I still don’t understand exactly why, but his art left me with a delicious sense that everything was going to be fine, and that balance was possible. That all things might work! Art is Everywhere, and Art is for Everyone, Calder seemed to be saying. Don’t fuss, don’t worry — celebrate, observe, wonder!

So I grew up, had my own kids, taught school, and then wrote Chasing Vermeer and The Wright 3, which are both mysteries investigating some exciting, hard-to-answer questions in the art world. I wanted to write about Alexander Calder one day, but still wasn’t sure how to tackle an artist who had influenced my thinking for so long… I didn’t want to mess up. I wanted to share what I loved about his art — but how?

And then, suddenly, I just knew. After a 2005 book tour in England, my husband and I took a few days off and rented a car. Late one afternoon, we drove into the little town of Woodstock, in the Cotswolds, thinking we might spend the night. We got out of the car next to a wedge-shaped main square in this 1,000-year-old community of stone houses. The square was strangely empty, with a few lonely benches around the sides. It was then that the idea jumped into my mind: I could picture a huge, red Calder sculpture standing in the middle of this square, a mysterious gift to the town. What would local people think? It was perfect . . . and perhaps a perfect recipe for trouble.

Once the sculpture arrived, in my imagination, Petra and Tommy and Calder followed. Woodstock, after all, looked like a cozier and smaller world than the neighborhood in Chicago where these three American kids had grown up. What a natural place for them to explore on their own! Of course, no one realized how dangerous that might be . . . I was off and running.

I managed to go back to Woodstock two more times, as I needed essential details. My husband took hundreds of photographs, and we both ate far too much Cadbury chocolate. This book was a delight to work on, it kind of poured out — I guess that’s because it was truly from the heart. My hope is that The Calder Game will inspire lots of kids to let art change the way they see and think, to let art become an adventure that takes them to a place they’d never dreamed of going. I also hope this book gives back a tiny bit of what Alexander Calder has given to me.