The Frame-Up audiobook

One perk of being a teacher is that you have an excuse to read kids’ books! A friend, who is a reading specialist recommended this book to me. I have to confess, I loved this book more than I expected, and couldn’t put it down. I am an art teacher, so a book about paintings that come to life (think Harry Potter) combined with an art forgery/art theft mystery, and art history was irresistible. The adult and kid characters were very well written, and relatable. I loved that the paintings that came to life and became characters are reproduced in the front of the book, and are all real paintings. There were so many layers to the story, and it felt magical and yet real at the same time.

Oh my god, this book was so adorable. I'm still reeling from that perfect ending.I guess the only word I can think of when thinking of this book is pure. There isn't any misplaced comedy or really anything I had a problem with. (view spoiler)[ Although there was a time skip that I was a little confused by, as there wasn't really any indication of one other than context clues. (hide spoiler)] I don't know if this was the publisher's or author's decision, but I'm glad they included pictures of the art pieces within the book, while also giving some history of the actual art gallery.This is a book that would please kids who are interested in art and any other who dream of a world where paintings come to life. It's something we've all thought of at some point, but I haven't yet read a book where that was the entire plot.It's really just a great standalone. Definitely get a recommendation from me.

I just finished Wendy McLeod MacKnight's THE FRAME UP. It's about a real art gallery in Canada, The Beaverbrook. The paintings there have a secret (in the novel), they are alive. A painting of a 13 year old girl named Mona Dunn (real painting) is accidentally found out by the 12 year old son of the gallery director and they become friends. It's a fun story, and WOW, the author does an amazing job of creating characters for the paintings, imagining the constraints, limitations, and frustrations of the magic that makes them real. An exciting climax will keep kids turning pages, and the story's resolution is absolute perfection. Final book will include full color reproductions of the key paintings!

I really, really enjoyed this book! If you have even a passing interest in art, I would encourage you to pick up this book. If you have ever visited the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, NB, then this is a MUST read! Imagine all of the people in the paintings coming alive at night once all of the visitors leave. What a cool premise. Throw in a cast of characters that are extremely relatable like our protagonist Sargent and his friends (both in real life and the paintings), and add an element of mystery and you've got one heck of a story. I also enjoyed the moments with Sargent and his father Isaac getting to really know one another, and how they were able to build an authentic relationship built on trust once they were completely honest with each other. The character of Isaac and his struggle to overcome his substance abuse problems is all to real for a lot of kids who witness these struggles in their own homes, and I really liked that Isaac recognized that he needed to make amends. I feel like that is a positive and hopeful message for kids who may need it.Although there were definitely clues as to who the 'bad guys' were, there were also a few red herrings that kept me guessing up until the reveal. Also, I have to say that I absolutely LOVED the ending. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a blend of fantasy and mystery with a little family drama thrown into the mix (and who wouldn't like that?!). If you are a kid growing up in New Brunswick, you've got to read this book!

What a fun book about a boy who, as he spends the summer with his father, discovers something magical about the gallery that his father runs. In this world, the subjects of the paintings are alive and move and interact with each other. But they must never interact with the humans who visit the gallery, that is strictly forbidden! Fortunately both the humans and the paintings, rules are made to be broken. Young Sargent Singer discovers the secret of the paintings and manages to show them some of our modern world. This was a fun, imaginative book with an artistic slant!

I probably shouldn't have started this near the holidays, lots of stopping and restarting but def worth it. Makes me wish I was a middle school teacher or a kid again, I have had all the paintings recreated by the kids pinned around the classroom as we read the story.

Interesting story, FABULOUS ENDING!

** spoiler alert ** This is such a great book. I love how creative it is. How the paintings come alive, and Sargent saves the paintings, plus all the awesome things in the middle! This book is for fourth grade and up, i will never stop reading it, ever! Thank you so much for creating such an amazing book.

4.5 starsYou know those paintings in the Harry Potter books, the ones at Hogwarts that interact with the students and professors? I don't know if this where author Wendy McLeod MacKnight found her inspiration, but she's taken the premise of painted beings interacting with flesh-and-blood humans and run with it to great effect! As an art history major and a past employee of another Canadian museum, I’ve been excited to read The Frame-Up since I first got wind of the story. Wendy did not disappoint! There's so much to enjoy here. The writing (pacing, plot, voice, etc.) is excellent. The mystery of who might be cooking up plans to steal the paintings--and the beings who reside within them--keeps the pages turning and the guesses coming. The varied cast of characters (painted and real) are drawn so well, especially Sargent and Mona. I think a lot of readers will relate to their struggles to forge new friendships, while they cope with the restrictions put upon them by well-meaning but misguided authority figures. Add to all this, that perfect ending, and a chance to brush up on your Canadiana, and you have one terrific book! In fact, it’s inspired my plans for this long holiday weekend, which is to revisit the Art Gallery of Ontario and I see if I can’t strike up a conversation with the Lady of Shalott in John William Waterhouse’s 1915 painting. Hmm...maybe we can even figure out a way to get her out of that darn tower--or I can at least share a couple "Bletchley Circle" episodes with her on my iPhone, or...

I was fortunate to read this one shortly after Ms. MacKnight signed the deal with her publisher. I was instantly enchanted with the world she created, and now I have the urgent desire to go to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.When Sargent goes to spend time with his father, who happens to be the curator for the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, he is not happy about it . . . until he discovers a whole hidden world right there in the museum. The subjects in the paintings can move! They can talk! They can jump from painting to painting! This world is secret, and only the curator is supposed to know, so Sargent promises Mona Dunn (a young girl in one of the paintings) that he will keep the secret. Their friendship opens new and exciting worlds to both of them. But when the art restorer arrives, and strange things start happening in the art world, Sargent and Mona have to solve the mystery before it's too late.I found this book so clever and fun! I loved the mystery, and the writing and characters pulled me in. I was so sad when the book ended, but so satisfied with the ending. This book deals with disappointments, working hard for what we enjoy, and appreciating people for exactly who they are. I won't spoil anything, but I highly recommend this book!

The Frame-Up is an amazing, imaginative, and heartfelt story that is like nothing I've read in the past. I had so much fun getting to know the characters and following the parallel (and intersecting) stories of Sargent and Mona. Part mystery, part adventure, part friendship story - readers can't go wrong with this book. LOVED!

Such a fun fantasy story! Set in a real Canadian art gallery, THE FRAME-UP is about paintings that are actually alive--and the friendship that develops between a boy visiting the gallery and a girl in one of the paintings. A great book both for learning about art as well as a fun, magical adventure.

Mona Dunn has an unusual life, to be sure. Painted in 1915 at age 13, she now lives at the Beaverbrook Gallery and spends her days sitting still and listening to visitors, and her nights running around and visiting other paintings, along with all the other residents of the other paintings. The one big rule for the gallery residents is that the people outside the frame must never know they are alive.Sargent Singer is going to spend the summer with his father, the director of the Beaverbrook Gallery. After his parents divorced, Sargent rarely saw his father, and from things he's overheard, isn't sure his father really loves him. Sargent does love art, though, and is a talented painter so he's very interested in the gallery. And when he sees Mona Dunn stick her tongue out as an offensive visitor leaves, Sargent's life--as well as the lives of all the people in the paintings--is turned upside down.Lord Beaverbrook (behind the frame) tries to hold iron control over the gallery residents, but some are frustrated by his restrictions and start breaking rules. Adding to the problems, an officious art restorer is working at the gallery, and an offensive potential donor is hanging around and causing Isaac Singer--Sargent's father--to ignore Sargent even more. As Sargent and Mona become fast friends, events start moving faster and faster both behind and in front of the frame. If they don't act quickly, it could be the end of the gallery--and perhaps the end of some of the paintings.I loved this! It had a great start, and I really loved that while I've read other books in which characters go into paintings or other artworks, in this one it's as much about the lives of the people in the paintings as it is about the characters on the outside--usually it's all about the kids on the outside. Not this one. The characters were all layered and memorable, as were their relationships and issues. I loved that the book was evenly divided between some more typically realistic-fiction passages about Sargent and his father and Sargent and Mona's friendship, and the mystery-adventure parts (though the denouement ran a bit long). I loved that I didn't know what was really going on--I couldn't figure it out and I love being surprised. I did guess one thing that happened in the end, but really, if you couldn't guess it you weren't paying attention from page 1. This is a complex book with lots of characters and lots going on, but the author handles the reins deftly and fills the book with wonderful detail as well as characters. When you read it, be sure to go to the Beaverbrook Gallery site for the book (http://beaverbrookartgallery.org/en/v...) so you can see all the paintings. I can't wait to booktalk this one!Forgot to say--I can't recommend the audiobook version of this. Bronson Pinchot seems to be trying to imitate Jim Dale and give every character a different, quirky voice, and it just doesn't work. The female characters all sound like lispy, breathy bimbos whether age 11 or 35 or 78, and a lot of the preteen boys sound like lifetime-smoker grandpas trying to be "cool with the kids' lingo" in deep, gravelly voices. Everyone sounded like a cartoon character. Didn't work.

This book was rather written for me, and hit me just at a time I had watched an art documentary. So I was pretty into it. I feel like your average civilian would give it a more modest 3 stars.The book pays a lot of homage to Harry Potter and the notion that pictures can be alive, move around, and visit other paintings. In this story, a young boy, Sargent, goes to spend the summer with his father, who is the head of a New Brunswick art museum, and quickly discovers that all the paintings are alive! He makes friends with a young girl (she has been a young girl for over a hundred years, since she was painted), Mona. Though Sargent is shocked by his discovery, he keeps it a secret. For her part, Mona is pleased to have a friend her age, but is preoccupied by the new and troubling developments in the gallery. Naturally, both characters get caught up in a mystery and unearth an art caper.I will say that the mystery wasn't much of one - I rarely solve these things, but I definitely saw it coming this time. I did like the the two main voices, and I LOVE that the gallery and all the art is real, and that I got full-colour replications of all the paintings in the book. I enjoyed the mix-up of modern and more classic art, and how the paintings came to life complete with their real-life personalities, and that they could inhabit other paintings. And that paintings can only come to life if they are real (not prints) and are done by an artist capable of imbuing them with real character and life. There was something quite delicious about the whole world that notion created, and I enjoyed jumping into it. Teachers will LOVE the real art history in the book and there are about a billion lesson plan ideas within it as a result.Admittedly, I'm a bit of an art history freak, so the book speaks to me more than it will others. But it is certainly fun and relatively unique - and Canadian!-Kirsten

Art that comes alive? I was hooked, and then swept in and spellbound by the distinct and charming voices of the very real people living within the gilded frames. Thirteen-year-old Mona, frozen in time as captured by her painter, crosses over to modern day to interact with a new friend, Sargent Singer, who is spending the summer with his father, an art director. Right away, the concept had me excited because of all the questions that came to mind. If Mona is immortal, what does that mean for her friendship with Sargent, a boy who will continue to age? What happens if her painting is moved? Is she trapped forever? The "residents" who are alive in their respective world-renown works teach the reader much about getting along with others and what's really important in life, no matter what limitations that life might hold. I loved the mystery behind who was out for revenge and why and would they cost Sargent's father his job and the art their lives? But there's also a deeper contemporary issue the author tackles here, the strained relationship between Sargent and his divorced father, Issac, an art director, who has largely been absent from his life. I also appreciated that the book contains gorgeous pictures of the art that comes alive, and found myself paging back to study them, feeling their emotions. Next up is a roadtrip to the real Beaverbrook Art Gallery with my family to see the art in person (and perhaps have a discreet chat with Mona. These lips are sealed). I highly recommend.

I had the opportunity to read an Advance Reader's Edition of this title. This is a truly clever story, woven with art, magic and issues from contemporary life. The setting itself is a bit magical, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery with its wide array of paintings—including a portrait of Mona Dunn, a thirteen-year-old from the early twentieth century. When twelve-year-old Sargent Singer arrives for a summer visit with his estranged father, he soon discovers the magic within the museum’s artwork and befriends Mona who has a life within the frame. As Sargent and Mona build their friendship, so too does Sargent learn to reach out to new contemporary friends he meets through the summer art program. He and his father make some progress toward repairing their rocky relationship but face complications when events put them at odds. Things also take a turn for the worse for Sargent and Mona when evil plans threaten to upend their friendship along with the museum’s artworks. The author has filled this story with great imagining, skillful plotting, and endearing characters. The mystery will keep readers turning the pages, and the ending will leave them filling more than satisfied. Highly recommended for middle grade readers who love mystery, magic, and an artfully grand read!