As soon as I began reading The Frame-Up, I knew it had to be on this year’s book club reading list. The premise of living artwork was too fun not to explore further! 
Luckily twelve-year-old Sargent Singer, an aspiring artist himself, is more interested in learning about the vast and intriguing world behind the frame than he is in sharing her secret. And when Mona and Sargent suspect shady dealings are happening behind the scenes at the gallery, they set out to uncover the culprit. They must find a way to save the gallery—and each other—before they are lost forever.
Wendy McLeod MacKnight, the author of this fantastic middle-grade book, wrote in many rabbit trails perfect for exploration of the arts, family issues, crime, geography, and much more. I love when books lend themselves well to fun unit studies, and there are so many ways that you could use The Frame-Up to learn that you could explore these topics for quite some time!
MacKnight generously agreed to Skype with my book clubbers, and so we arranged a time in advance for everyone to meet for this. I think that being able to talk with authors is very important. Why? Read ’10 Reasons Why Kids Should Meet Authors’ to find out more.
Our time with MacKnight was all of this and more. She was encouraging, inspiring, and creative. You could tell that she is enthusiastic about her craft, and being able to see behind the scenes into her authorly life provided a glimpse into what it might be like to work in that kind of profession. (At least one of those book clubbers is determined to be an author someday. What better way to research this career than by speaking to those who currently work in the field?)
MacKnight told us about her writing journey, her inspiration, and generally conversed and shared with the kids. She even read the first chapter in her WIP to us!
One of the wonderful elements of The Frame-Up is the art camp that the main character Sargent attends at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. The art gallery is the setting for most of the book, and the highlight of each camp is an overnight experience held at the gallery. The events of those overnights were too fun not to recreate, so the girls held their own book club slumber party to celebrate.
My Big Helper really got into the spirit of this. Although decorations aren’t mentioned in the book – it was an art gallery, after all – we decided to decorate with rainbow-colored streamers, candy, and fruit. We covered tables with black tablecloths to make the vibrant colors stand out, and she draped streamers over the mantle, in the doorways, and radiating out from the kitchen chandelier. The house was definitely full of color!
The girls started their first art project soon after arriving. I planned for this to be a group project, but they had so many ideas about what to do that we ended up breaking out more paper and paint so that everybody could make her own.
They created mixed medial collages about what art is and how it makes them feel. It was fun to listen to them discuss how to put the color on the paper (should there be overlaps? All the way to the edges? Defined edges of color or blurred together? Should the colors go only once around or should they repeat?) They were quite intent on their work as they painted, cut, and glued.
After that we met on the back deck for our book discussion and some game time. I created a trivia game, and the kids played the game to win advantages in the next game. I love doing that! The questions in the trivia game were about the contents of the book and related art, and they sparked some really neat discussions among the girls as they played about art, their education, and what they do and don’t know about art. Unfortunately, most said that they don’t study art, and only a few had ever been to an art gallery or museum. (They were really creative with our next game, however, so I hope that encourages them to ask for an art-related field trip!)
The idea for the next game is a simple one: choose a piece of art, consider the elements that make it unique, and recreate it. When the teams were ready for a photo to be taken, they described their goal and I took a picture of them and the piece of art they chose. Later I merged them together, as seen below, so we could compare the two pieces.
The girls had limited resources and spaces to work with, but they were super creative as they examined art in the books I shared and tried to make living versions of them.
Aren’t these great?
The beard stumped this team for a bit, but they figured out a way to get it in there!
This team was so precise with the paintings they chose!
This one was super creative with the materials they had!
This team happened to have a dress similar to Mona’s description from the book and insisted on recreating this one!
By the time everyone finished, it was time to eat! The girls built their own pizzas, … 
and because it was a beautiful, warm sunny day, we grilled them and ate outside. 
They tasted delicious! I love grilled pizza.
Our evening progressed through more games, a mini-birthday party, and a late-night movie. The girls chose to watch Night at the Museum, following the theme of inanimate objects coming to life – and because it was in the book, of course.
The next morning, following pancakes, sausage, and fruit, we broke out our art supplies for one last project.
They made a kind of self-portrait based on a prompt I created, and they came out really well!
We’re still talking about The Frame-Up at our house, and we’re still diving into more art studies than normal, too. We’re really enjoying the lessons that originated with this book and the rabbit trails to further learning that we’ve taken, and being able to have some of those adventures with our book club friends makes it even better.
What are you reading right now?
Save yourself time and energy with these print-and-go resources to accompany The Frame-Up!
What are your thoughts?