Framed!

Framed! is the first installment of James Ponti’s TOAST series. This middle-grade novel is narrated by the 12-year-old protagonist, Florian Bates, a covert FBI asset who uses a keen system of observational skills called TOAST (the Theory of All Small Things). Together, he and his best friend Margaret solve crimes in their Washington, DC, community. Framed! describes Florian’s arrival to the capital city and his first encounter with his neighbor Margaret. He takes her to the National Gallery where his parents are employed and teaches her how to use his TOAST method, but when famous paintings are stolen from Gallery 85, Florian must work with the FBI to solve the crime. In the process, he becomes a target for a ring of art thieves.

This guide refers to the Aladdin 2016 e-book edition.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide contain descriptions of kidnapping and depict children in peril.

Plot Summary

Twelve-year-old Florian Bates, a middle-school student and FBI covert asset, takes a shortcut behind Safeway despite his best friend Margaret’s warnings. A large Romanian man in a florist van kidnaps him and takes him to a farm where he meets Nicolae Nevrescu, a notorious Romanian American gangster. Florian tricks them into letting him push the panic button on his inhaler but then sees the tattoo on Nevrescu’s forearm and realizes that the FBI has the wrong suspect.

The narrative shifts to a point in Florian’s life five months before the events in Chapter 1. In this earlier time frame, Florian moves to Washington, DC, from Italy and befriends his neighbor, a tall African American girl named Margaret. He teaches her about TOAST, his Theory of All Small Things, which he uses to gather information about people and surroundings. Together, they practice using TOAST at the National Gallery of Art, where Florian’s mother is a conservator and his father has designed the security system. They use the method to observe a sleeping man in the gallery.

Later, on a different trip to the museum, they see a copyist working on a version of Monet’s Woman with a Parasol in Gallery 85. Although the man has altered his appearance, the two friends realize that he is the sleeping tourist that they observed last time.

Time passes, and one day, Florian learns that three paintings have been stolen from Gallery 85. He tells his father about the copyist, and his dad takes him to the museum. A British man, Oliver Hobbes, who works for the museum’s insurance company is already there, along with museum staff members and Special Agent Marcus Rivers from the arts crime division of the FBI. Although Hobbes is rude to Florian, Rivers listens to Florian’s theory that the copyist is the same man as the sleeping tourist. While the adults talk, Florian uses TOAST to deduce that the missing paintings are still in the museum. Reviewing security footage in pursuit of a suspiciously absent custodian, Florian notices that the man’s garbage bag is gone and realizes that the bag is the same size as the paintings. They soon find the paintings hidden in the recycling bins. The adults applaud Florian.

The next day, Rivers asks Florian and Margaret to come to FBI headquarters and identify the copyist as Pavel Novek, an artist who works for the Eastern European League (EEL), an organized crime syndicate. While they wait, Florian uses TOAST to aid a different investigation. He then goes to meet the head of the FBI, Admiral Douglas, who is impressed enough with Florian’s work to offer him a position as a consultant.

Margaret decides that she and Florian will form a detective agency. Their first case will be to find her birth parents. First, they go to the museum because they feel that they have missed something in the art theft case. Looking at Woman with a Parasol, Florian realizes that the photos of Novak leaving the country show him without his copied painting. They pass this information to Rivers, who decides to test the painting’s true age. Next, the friends visit the firehouse where Margaret was left as a baby. They talk to Captain Abraham, who shows them a photo of the crew gathered around baby Margaret. In the photo, she is wrapped in a yellow blanket with “Margaret A” written on it.

At Quantico, the FBI training center, Agent Kayla Cross trains Florian in self-defense techniques. Rivers receives test results proving that the Woman with a Parasol hanging in the gallery is fake. Rivers also asks Serena to watch her employees because the art theft required inside information. Hobbes decides to investigate people who were interested in buying impressionist works on the black market or in auctions.

Florian goes to Margaret’s soccer championship game where she scores a goal and thwarts a trick-play by the other team. Suddenly, Florian is picked up by agents who escort him home. Rivers shows Florian a photo of Nicolae Nevrescu, known as “Nic the Knife,” an EEL crime boss who was at the soccer game watching him talk with Margaret. Nic is also a big name in the Romanian American community. Rivers is afraid that he is targeting Florian.

Florian and Margaret attend their first day of seventh grade. Florian finds normal activities difficult after working for the FBI. In their spare time, he and Margaret chart who among the museum staff could have met the copyist Novak in Europe and realizes that there are a range of other suspects for the theft of the art. Florian also believes that Nevrescu isn’t after him, but when he meets with Rivers at the Ford Theater to propose this idea, Rivers disagrees.

Florian talks Margaret into going to the Romanian embassy’s open house. When he ventures into an unauthorized area, the guards confront him, but Rivers arrives in disguise as Florian’s middle-school teacher and ushers both children toward the door. When the guard and Nevrescu try to stop them from leaving, Rivers tells Florian and Margaret to run. Agent Cross is waiting outside and helps them to escape. When Rivers meets them later, he is furious at Florian but gives him a hug. It is revealed that Margaret told Rivers about their plan to visit the embassy. Florian realizes that he acted irresponsibly.

Someone tells the press that the National Gallery is covering up an art theft. Hobbes, the insurance representative, is giving interviews and blaming people, including Nevrescu. Rivers’s job is in jeopardy because he is suspected of entering the Romanian embassy with a fake identity. Florian feels responsible, and his parents urge him to solve the case.

The narrative finally catches up to the events described in Chapter 1. Florian is kidnapped and brought to Nevrescu, who insists that he is innocent. Upon seeing Nevrescu’s daisy tattoo, Florian realizes that Margaret’s name in Romanian means daisy and that Nevrescu is her father. Because Nevrescu is involved in organized crime at his family’s behest, he refuses to tell Margaret who he is in order to keep her safe. He explains that his family disapproved of his relationship with Margaret’s mother, so he was forced to join the family business and distance himself to keep Margaret and her mother from harm. When the FBI rescue Florian, Nevrescu is already surrendering. Nevrescu, Rivers, and Florian talk, and Rivers agrees that no one needs to know that Nevrescu is Margaret’s father. As they drive home, Florian tells Rivers who the real thief is.

Florian has also realized that Hobbes is the real thief. Florian explains that Hobbes set Nevrescu up and had inside information about the gallery’s security. He didn’t have time to leave with the painting, so he stashed it in his museum locker. Rivers arrests Hobbes on live TV. Florian is sad that he cannot tell Margaret the truth about her father, but he understands that it is for the best. They take a shortcut behind Safeway to get out of the rain, and Agent Rivers is there to offer them another job, which they quickly accept.