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A review of From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

by E. L. Konigsburg

Children’s novel about running away from home to the Metropolitan Museum: a classic from the 1970‘s.

Reviewed by: Nancy Chapple
About Nancy Chapple

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler Does every kid dream of running away from home? Or was I unusual? I have no idea, but as a 9-year old girl I identified completely with Konigsberg’s Claudia: "She almost forgot why she was running away. But not entirely. … She was the oldest child and the only girl and was subject to a lot of injustice. Perhaps it was because she had to both empty the dishwasher and set the table on the same night while her brothers got out of everything."

Claudia, 12, runs away from home (the Connecticut suburb of Greenwich) with her brother Jamie – to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Not wanting to undertake such an adventure completely alone, she chooses her second youngest brother both because he’s relatively quiet – and because he’s been saving his allowance for years. Once all has gone according to plan, hiding in the schoolbus and travelling into the city, Claudia appoints Jamie treasurer, which makes him feel important, and makes the rules for their life in the museum: first and foremost, stay inconspicuous. "Every day they would pick a different gallery about which they would learn everything." I’ve been a big sister all my life, and I identify with the pedagogic urge.

Smartalecky Claudia – she’s me all over again! "‘Somehow I feel older now. But, of course, that’s mostly because I’ve been the oldest child forever. And I’m extremely well adjusted.’"

Or this example combines big sister / little brother banter and Claudia’s smartaleckiness:

"‘I haven’t been a tightwad all my life, have I?’ ‘As long as I’ve known you,’ Claudia answered.

‘Well, you’ve known me for as long as I’ve known me,’ he said smiling.

‘Yes,’ Claudia said, ‘I’ve been the oldest child since before you were born.’"

I constantly played mental games along Claudia’s lines: "She pretended that she was blind and had to depend upon her senses of hearing, touch and smell." I made myself count something before I allowed myself to react in school. I played games in my head so that school’s seemingly endless routine wouldn’t kill me with boredom.

When she’s reunited with her parents – sick with worry and totally uncomprehending of why she would have run away – they are presences like the adults’ voices in old Peanuts cartoons – you hear a kind of low buzzing but there’s nothing they can say where you could discern the individual words, nothing that really penetrates. They just have no idea!

The narrator too is a joy: an extremely rich and famously crotchety old widow who’s developed a real liking and understanding for Claudia and her motivations.

OK, it’s a kid’s book. Even more than that it’s a big sister’s book. So find one to read it aloud to – you’ll have a great time!

Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Copyright © by Nancy Chapple, 2003

Reviewed by Nancy Chapple:
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--A Perfect Spy - by John le Carré
--The Duke of Deception - by Geoffrey Wolff
--The Loser - by Thomas Bernhard
--A Room of One’s Own - by Virginia Woolf
--Ragtime - by E.L. Doctorow
--This Boy’s Life - by Tobias Wolff
-- From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - by E. L. Konigsburg
--Into Thin Air - by Jon Krakauer
--Heart of Darkness - by Joseph Conrad
--Winter’s Tale - by Mark Helprin
--Harriet the Spy - by Louise Fitzhugh
--Dispatches - by Michael Herr
--Minor Characters - by Joyce Johnson
--Writing Creative Nonfiction: Instruction and Insights from Teachers of the Associated Writing Programs - by Carolyn Forche and Philip Gerard
--The Complete Chronicles of Narnia - by C. S. Lewis
-- Literary Journalism: A New Collection of the Best American Nonfiction - by Norman Sims and Mark Kramer
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