From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

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Description

New York City girl Claudia, a month shy of her twelfth birthday, has resolved to run away from home with her younger brother, Jamie. She plans everything to perfection, including their destination: the grand, elegant, all-encompassing Metropolitan Museum of Art.

However, no sooner have Claudia and Jamie settled into their new home, than they are caught up in the mystery of an angel statue bought by the museum for the bargain price of $225. Is it in fact an undiscovered work by Michelangelo, worth millions Claudia's investigation leads her to the remarkable, secretive Mrs. Frankweiler, who sold the statue to the museum - and to some equally remarkable discoveries about herself.

Since its first appearance over 50 years ago, The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler has gained a place in the hearts of generations of readers, becoming one of the most celebrated and beloved children's books of all time.

Reviews

'One of the finest storytellers of her era and genre... [From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler] is a story of discovery and self-discovery' - Washington Post

'Mischievous and metropolitan... A wild rumpus... Japes abound' - New Yorker

'E. L. Konigsburg is one of our brainiest writers for young people, not only in the considerable cerebral powers she brings to her books but in the intellectual demands she makes on her characters' - The New York Times

'A work of genius' - Katherine Rundell

'In the US... [Konigsburg] is pretty much required reading for anyone under the age of 11 and, indeed, over, too, and I strongly urge everyone who falls into either age group to discover her forthwith... From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler... dominated my imagination in the way only a really good book can wholly inhabit the head of a child... Re-reading From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler,... it was, if anything, even more wonderful than I remembered' - Hadley Freeman

Author Bio

The writer and illustrator E. L. Konigsburg (1930-2013) is one of the most celebrated writers of books for children and young adults. She is the only author to have won the Newbery Medal and Newbery Honor in the same year - a feat she achieved in 1968, for The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, respectively. Not only that, but she won the Newbery Medal again almost thirty years later, for The View from Saturday.