From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
E. L. Konigsburg's From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is a 1968 Newbery Medal winning middle grade classic about Claudia Kincaid, a meticulous twelve year old in suburban Greenwich, Connecticut who feels invisible in her own family and decides she deserves a more interesting life. She drafts her younger brother Jamie as a financial backer, and the two of them run away not to a forest but to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they bathe in the fountain, sleep in antique beds, and live on automat snacks for a week. Their stay coincides with the museum's acquisition of a small marble angel that may or may not be the work of Michelangelo, and Claudia becomes obsessed with solving its provenance. The mystery leads the children to the reclusive collector Mrs. Frankweiler, whose archives, and whose narration, frame the entire book. Konigsburg writes with the dry, intelligent affection that has made the novel a perennial gateway book for art loving children.
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Eleven-year-old Claudia and her younger brother run away from home and quietly set up house inside the Metropolitan Museum, where a newly acquired statue may or may not be a Michelangelo.
Yes. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler won the Newbery Medal in 1968. It has remained in print continuously since publication and is a staple of children's literature courses.
From the Mixed-Up Files is middle grade, recommended for readers 8 to 12. The premise of two siblings running away to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art has appealed to generations of children.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler was written by E. L. Konigsburg, published in 1967 by Simon & Schuster, Limited.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is 162 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler takes most readers 2 to 4 hours to finish.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is a standalone novel by E. L. Konigsburg, not part of a series.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
