| "Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away. That is, running way in the heat of anger with a knapsack on her back. She didn't like discomfort, even picnics were untidy and inconvenient: all those insects and the sun melting the icing on the cupcakes..." (from the first line) When Claudia decided to run away, she planned very carefully. She would be gone just long enough to teach her parents a lesson in Claudia appreciation. And she would go in comfort-she would live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She saved her money, and she invited her brother Jamie to go, mostly because be was a miser and would have money. Claudia was a good organizer and Jamie bad some ideas, too; so the two took up residence at the museum right on schedule. But once the fun of settling in was over, Claudia had two unexpected problems: She felt just the same, and she wanted to feel different; and she found a statue at the Museum so beautiful she could not go home until she bad discovered its maker, a question that baffled the experts, too. The former owner of the statue was Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Without her-well, without her, Claudia might never have found a way to go home.
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Part adventure story, part mystery, FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER tells of a sister and brother's amazing sojourn in New York City. Fed up with life in suburban Connecticut, and wanting an adventure that will make her more appreciated by her family and "different" to herself, 12-year-old Claudia Kincaid decides to run away from home. She asks her younger brother, Jamie, to come with her, not only for his company, but also for the fact that he has managed to save a lot of money, which she will need to bankroll her trip. Practical beyond belief, Claudia plans to eventually return home, but in the meantime, she has found an amazing place for them to stay--The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ||Claudia and Jamie become fascinated by the Museum's latest acquisition, a statue that might have been sculpted by Michelangelo. Determined to prove once and for all that the Renaissance artist created the statue, Claudia and Jamie reach out to its previous owner, an eccentric widow named Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Mrs. Frankweiler claims to know the identity of the artist--but will she share what she knows with Claudia and Jamie? Illustrated with B&W drawings, FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER won the 1968 Newbery Medal and has been a children's classic ever since.
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Author Bio| E. L. Konigsburg | | Elaine Loeb Konigsburg attended Carnegie-Mellon University where she majored in chemistry. After graduation she worked as a chemist and taught chemistry before becoming a mother and a full-time author. Her first two novels were both published in 1967--the first, JENNIFER, HECATE, MACBETH, WILLIAM, MCKINLEY, AND ME, ELIZABETH was named a Newbery Honor Book; the second, FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER won the Newbery Medal and continues to be a children's classic. She won the Newbery Medal again for her novel VIEW FROM SATURDAY. In addition to her work as an author, Konigsburg is also a painter; her artwork illustrates many of her novels. |
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