READERS GUIDE
CLUES

In The Thrift Shop Diary, Catey's search for answers to her mother's mysterious phone call leads to a set of veiled clues steeped in art, literature, music, fashion,and mysticism. 

ART

A Maid Asleep
Artist: Johannes Vermeer
Dimensions: 2′ 10″ x 2′ 6″
Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Date: 1656-57

Catey finds a postcard of this painting in the attic box and it ultimately provides the key  to her mother's secret. It is suggested that readers not Google information about the painting, as that may ruin the story.

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Mona Lisa      
Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
Dimensions: 2′ 6″ x 1′ 9″
Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Medium: Oil on panel
Date: 1503

While this painting is technically not a clue, the mysterious Mona Lisa --  who surfaces several times in the novel --       serves as a metaphor to the mystery of Sophie McBride. At the end of the diary, Catey and her family go to Paris and see the painting at the Louvre.

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LITERATURE

Swann's Way by Marcel Proust published in 1908

'C' a poem by Louis Aragon published in The Eyes of Elsa (1942)

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MUSIC

The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amedeo Mozart written in 1791

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