Under the Egg

I picked up Laura Marx Fitzgerald's novel for middle schoolers because it was about art.  I read it before giving it away as a gift to one of my young friends.  What a wonderful surprise it turned out to be.  Fitzgerald has written an intriguing suspenseful novel about Holocaust stolen artwork that will appeal to a young reader and teach them some history at the same time.  The history is told in a careful non -threatening style, that includes the facts simply and subtly as part of the storyline.

Theodora Tenpenny, Theo for short, is happily living with her grandfather and her mother in a two hundred year old brownstone in New York City.  When her grandfather passes away unexpectedly Theo is left to manage the house, the chickens, the vegetable garden and her mother, who has her head in the clouds still writing her PhD thesis on solving theorems, after fifteen years.
Theo makes a rare find in the paintings Grandfather Jack left in his studio.  In her search to find out the truth about the painting and Jack's past, Theo makes friends and leaves the cloistered world she has been living in.

Bodhi is the new girl down the street.  Her parents are both movie actors, who don't spend much time or attention on Bodhi.  Left to her own devices, she finds Theo and her simple lifestyle exciting and they are off and running to uncover the mystery behind the painting.  Their research takes them both to the New York City Library, where they meet Eddie and to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Along the way the reader learns about some of the "Old Masters".  We learn about Raphael and the Renaissance period of art.  We also learn about paintings and forgery detection.  Then of course, there is the history lesson about stolen artwork from World War II.  The reader is introduced to the Monument Men and others who tried to save some of the artwork and return it to its rightful owners after the war.

As Theo's world is turned upside down, she learns many important lessons, makes friends, saves herself,  her mother and their house.  It is a very eventful summer and though she will miss her grandfather, he has left her wealthy in so many ways.  A wonderful story of love, loyalty and how sharing an adventure can really cement a friendship even when you come very different backgrounds.