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Masterpiece | 
| Author: Elise Broach
Creator: Kelly Murphy
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $9.38
You Save: $7.57 (45%)
New (40) Used (13) Collectible (2) from $7.63
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 13428
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.8 x 1.1
ISBN: 0805082700
EAN: 9780805082708
ASIN: 0805082700
Publication Date: September 30, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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Product Description
DIVMarvin lives with his family under the kitchen sink in the Pompadays#8217; apartment. He is very much a beetle. James Pompaday lives with his family in New York City. He is very much an eleven-year-old boy.After James gets a pen-and-ink set for his birthday, Marvin surprises him by creating an elaborate miniature drawing. James gets all the credit for the picture and before these unlikely friends know it they are caught up in a staged art heist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that could help recover a famous drawing by Albrecht Duerer. But James can#8217;t go through with the plan without Marvin#8217;s help. And that#8217;s where things get really complicated (and interesting!). This fast-paced mystery will have young readers on the edge of their seats as they root for boy and beetle. In IShakespeare#8217;s Secret /IElise Broach showed her keen ability to weave storytelling with history and suspense, and IMasterpiece /Iis yet another example of her talent. This time around it#8217;s an irresistible miniature world, fascinating art history, all wrapped up in a special friendship#8212; something for everyone to enjoy./DIV
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Masterpiece is brilliant fun! January 2, 2009
I have almost finished reading this book with my eight year old son, and we love it.br /The style is warm, humorous and intelligently written from the point of view of Marvin, the br /beetle narrator and artistic genius. br /br /The story set in New York follows the adventures of Marvin who having descovered he is amazingbr /at ink drawings forms a friendship with a boy James, whose father, mistakes Marvin'sbr /masterpiece for his sons. Intrigue ensues as James and Marvin get sucked into a world of forgery, stolen artifacts and double dealing . br /br /A fast paced adventure with enough action for a reluctant reader and enough intrigue for a compulsive one.
Masterful! November 11, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Masterpiecebr /br /Regardless of whether or not you have read Elise Broach's SHAKESPEARE'S SECRET, you will absolutely fall in love with a marvelous little beetle named Marvin. Marvin inadvertently discovers he is a miniatures artist when he dabbles in James's ink set. The uncanny ability to recreate Durer miniatures puts Marvin in a number of dangerous (for beetles) situations, especially when everyone mistakenly assumes that James is the talanted artist--and later when Marvin and James try to thwart an art heist! br /br /This novel has just the right blend of suspense, mystery, humor, and compassion to appeal to my middle school students. My students cannot put this book down once they start reading. As a matter of fact, one of my students got so wrapped up in the prose that she missed hearing her bus bell to go home.br /br /I thought SHAKESPEARE'S SECRET was a masterpiece, so imagine my surprise when I discovered that MASTERPIECE was as masterful!br /br /br /br /
Courtesy of Mother Daughter Book Club.com October 16, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Masterpiece by Elise Broach is a delightful story of the unlikely friendship that develops between a lonely young boy named James and a beetle named Marvin. In the tradition of E. B. White's Charlotte's Web and The Trumpet of the Swan, Broach takes this human/insect encounter out of the wild and into New York City, where Marvin lives with his parents and other relatives behind a kitchen cupboard in James's home.br /br /The two characters meet when Marvin draws an ink rendition of the skyline outside James's window as a birthday present. When everyone thinks that James is the artist, of course he can't tell them who really drew what's being hailed as a masterpiece. The two are drawn into a staged art heist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where officials hope to recover previously stolen masterpieces by a well known artist from the early Renaissance.br /br /You'll happily follow the adventures as the two work to unravel the complications of their deception while they learn the true value of art and friendship. The publisher, Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, also features an excellent companion discussion guide on its Web site, [...] br /
MAsterpiece is a MASTERPIECE October 16, 2008
I picked this book up because i had read Shakespeare's Secret and loved it. When i saw this book in the stores i knew i had to have it. i started reading it when i got home and couldn't put it down. The suspense got me gripping to my seat. The tale of a beetle and a boy was fantastic. By the end of the book my heart was racing. I can honestly say that this book is the key thing to have to be able to survive. If you have nothing to do pick up this book and start reading!
 amusing fantasy adventure October 12, 2008
Broach, Elise. Masterpiece. Henry Holt and Company. 2008.br /br /Marvin is a personable young beetle who befriends a human boy named James; they live together in the same house, although, James has to contend with an unpleasant mother, a stepfather, and a favored half-brother while Marvin clearly has a caring extended family. These two disparate detectives become friends and together solve a mystery about a stolen Albrecht Durer drawing. Marvin turns out to be a talented artist who can reproduce an exact copy of this famous Durer art print, of course the humans in the story believe that James is the masterful artist; however, it is this copy that becomes the means for an art heist from the Metropolitan Museum of Art by an unscrupulous art director. The mystery is a central element in an appealing story that also wryly contrasts the uncaring human family with the delightful beetle family. In one humorous incident, a human loses her contact lens down a bathroom sink, and the beetles worry that a visit from a plumber would expose their presence to the humans so Marvin who has taught himself to swim retrieves them. Marvin then takes a bubble bath in dishwashing detergent to get clean since "he was wet and slimy, and smelled overpoweringly of the drain water." Recommend this humorous fantasy adventure story to readers who enjoy books like "A Cricket in Times Square". br / br / br /br /
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