"The Calder Game" by Blue Balliett Quiz

Answer: Predicting the weather

It's a set of twelve pieces, each shaped like a different letter of the alphabet. Everywhere Calder goes, the pentominoes go, helping the twelve-year-old to think through puzzles.

Answer: Collecting

He's good at finding things, is twelve years old, and has been Calder's friend since second grade. Tommy also has a pet fish named Goldman.

Answer: Writing

She is twelve years old, just like Calder and Tommy, but has a lot of relatives. She is never without a small notebook, and believes language to be "a landscape, a place with its own secrets."

Answer: The Museum of Contemporary Art

It is a school field trip to look at the different works by the great Alexander Calder. "Pieces borrowed from collections around the world filled the entire Museum of Contemporary Art."

Answer: A sculpture

It "has four dimensions, because it changes over time."

Alexander Calder invented several such creations-thousands, in fact. And he inspired "some of the greatest minds of the time" including Jean-Paul Sartre, who wrote:

"A mobile, one might say, is a little private celebration ... a pure play of movement. ... There is more of the unpredictable about them than in
any other human creation. No human brain, not even their creator's, could possibly foresee all the complex combinations of which they are capable. ... If you miss it, you have lost it forever. ..."

Answer: A teacher

"She had a flat face that fit her name and a tight helmet of hair the color of American cheese."

Bettina Button's a seventh-grade teacher at the University School in Chicago, and is not very popular with her students.

"She ignored questions, looked busy when she wasn't, and had the kind of ungenerous smile that stopped the moment it wasn't needed. According to Ms. Button, learning was a job that left little time to experiment and no time to talk."

Answer: A teacher

"Her long, swishy hair was forever trying to escape from clips and ties, and she wore earrings that didn't match."

Isabel Hussey teaches sixth grade at the University School.

In stark contrast to Ms Button, she "loved class investigations, understood noise and mess, and always listened... No classroom idea was too odd, and no approach too unusual-forever curious, she was not afraid of making mistakes."

Answer: Cat

He is Mrs. Knowsley's pet. "He comes and goes on his own."

The following description is from the first time Calder and Walter Pillay set eyes on the cat:

"Calder and his dad watched as an immense, black barrel of fur rolled toward them. One beady, amber eye blinked up from the end of the barrel; the other eye was closed in a permanent wink. It was hard to believe that Pummy could stand."

Answer: False

The name of the town is Woodstock, and the piece of art is called "The Minotaur".

A rich American businessman thought the town would appreciate it, but instead it's seen as a "monstrosity".

Answer: Take a tour of Christ Church

He did walk over to the building from the Botanic Gardens, but it was closed.

He also saw a bunch of boats by the river, just outside the greenhouses.