Adorable. It sure does make me wish I lived near NYC so I could visit the Met. and the Frick. As is, I am going to look up online the images of the paintings the children saw. ( )

The Artsy Smartsy Club is a chapter book about three kids and a chicken who are stuck in Hoboken for the summer while school isn't in session. Nick Itch, Loretta Fischetti, and Bruno Ugg are very bored. Suddenly, a mysterious piece of chalk art shows up on the streets of Hoboken and it's up to the kids to find out where it's coming from. They set off into a summer adventure of mystery and exploring their town.

This book is about Nick, the narrator, Loretta Fischetti, Bruno Ugg, and Nick’s giant chicken, Henrietta, as they try to find their way through summer vacation boredom on an expedition to find and copy the wonderful chalk artist who left beautiful drawings of Picasso’s in the park. I read this book for the summer reading program at our library this summer. The group consisted of kids ages 5-14, and from the reactions of the kids, I would recommend this book more for ages 8-13. It is a fun chapter book, but some of the younger kids would get bored and wanted more pictures. There are pictures in the book, but not many, so I would spice up the reading by showing some of Picasso’s paintings while I was reading. Overall, this is a fun book that I enjoyed reading, and it’s a good book for reading aloud because there are some fun-sounding words throughout the text. I would recommend this book for my library (medium public library). ( )

I have not yet read this book.

Metapsychology Online Review, Jan 4th 2006
School Library Journal 2005
Booklist 2005