Book Descriptions
for From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Can it really have been 35 years since Claudia and her little brother, Jamie, first took up residence in the Metropolitan Museum of Art? A lot has changed in New York City since Konigsburg’s 1968 Newbery winner was first published but the story itself about a young girl’s search for identity has certainly stood the test of time. This special 35th anniversary edition includes an extremely thoughtful and characteristically witty afterword by E. L. Konigsburg in which she talks about some of the changes that have occurred since the book was first published. “Olivetti no longer has a typewriter on a stand outside a building on Fifth Avenue. Olivetti no longer makes manual typewriters. (Does anyone?) The Donnell Branch Library on 53rdStreet still caters to children – even though the card catalog Claudia and Jamie used has gone the way of the manual typewriter.” Also included in the back matter is a copy of the letter of acceptance the author received from her editor Jean Karl back in 1966, and a dialogue between Jamie and Claudia about the Newbery Medal which was specially written for attendees at the 1968 Newbery-Caldecott Awards banquet. (Age 9-13)
CCBC Choices 2003 . © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2003. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021)
Run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with E. L. Konigsburg’s beloved classic and Newbery Medal–winning novel From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler!
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.
Run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with E. L. Konigsburg’s beloved classic and Newbery Medal–winning novel From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler!
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.
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.
