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Masterpiece | 
| Author: Elise Broach
Creator: Kelly Murphy
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $9.44
You Save: $7.51 (44%)
New (39) Used (12) Collectible (2) from $8.97
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 28436
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
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
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Product Description
Marvin lives with his family under the kitchen sink in the Pompadays’ 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’t go through with the plan without Marvin’s help. And that’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 Shakespeare’s Secret Elise Broach showed her keen ability to weave storytelling with history and suspense, and Masterpiece is yet another example of her talent. This time around it’s an irresistible miniature world, fascinating art history, all wrapped up in a special friendship— something for everyone to enjoy.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Masterful! November 11, 2008
Lizbeth J. Phillips (Abingdon, VA United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Masterpiece
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!
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.
I thought SHAKESPEARE'S SECRET was a masterpiece, so imagine my surprise when I discovered that MASTERPIECE was as masterful!
 Masterpiece almost is! October 7, 2008
Travis Forsyth Sherman (St. Petersburg, Fl United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
"Home, for Marvin's family, was a damp corner of the cupboard beneath the kitchen sink." Marvin, a young beetle -- not a roach-- lives with his happy family in the kitchen of the Pompaday family,where they dine on a "constant litter of apple cores, bread crumbs, onion skins, and candy wrappers." They dislike the Pompadays themselves, but they are fond of Mrs. Pompaday's eleven-year-old son, a quiet boy. When Mrs. Pompaday throws James a birthday party and invites all the obnoxious sons of her clients, only Marvin's family notices how unhappy he is. They decide to give him a present, and send Marvin, a clever young beetle, off to deliver it. But in James' room, Marvin has an urge to give him something really special, and leaves a tiny beetle-leg-and-ink drawing for him... And so James' life will never be the same again, because Marvin's delicate sketch is so perfect that it could be confused for a Duhrer masterpiece.
In fact, it is confused for a Duhrer masterpiece.
Broach, author of the equally excellent stories, "Shakespeare's Secret" and the witty and funny picture book "When Dinosaurs Came With Everything", is a wonderfully gifted story teller. "Masterpiece" leaves the reader with the hope that it might be possible, in a good world, to enjoy the friendship of a gifted insect, to visit behind the scenes at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, and to solve a mystery. There's more than a little wisdom embedded in Broach's prose as well:
"Why don't beetles ever get divorced?" Marvin asks.
..."Well, our lives are short, darling. What would be the point?...And we expect a lot less than people do. If we get through the day without being stepped on, with a little food to fill our bellies, a safe place to bed down for a few hours, and our family and friends close by -- well, that's a good day, isn't it? In fact, a perfect day. Who could ask for more? ... Also, we have no lawyers."
I especially look forward to recommending this book to my very young, strong readers, who aren't old enough for the content in the young adult section but who are already too sophisticated to be placated with Junie B. Jones. They'll love turning "Masterpiece"'s pages.
Courtesy of Mother Daughter Book Club.com October 16, 2008
Cynthia Hudson (Portland, OR)
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.
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.
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, [...]
amusing fantasy adventure October 12, 2008
K. Cutler (Santa Rosa, California)
Broach, Elise. Masterpiece. Henry Holt and Company. 2008.
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".
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!
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