From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
by E.L. Konigsburg
List Price:
Our Price: $5.45
You Save: $4.54 (45%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.92 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: E.L. KonigsburgBrand: Books
Illustrator: E.L. Konigsburg
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Deckle Edge
Published: 2007-09-25
ISBN: 1416949755
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Accessories:
Book Reviews of From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Book Review: this book is waaaaay over-rated and should be shot
Summary: 1 Stars
Two precocious Manhattan children, Claudia and Jamie, run away and live for weeks in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They investigate the provenance of a mysterious recent acquisition, a small Renaissance statue once owned by an eccentric elderly woman. Eventually they meet her, solve the mystery, and return home.
The Newbery committee swung and missed with this one. The story line itself isn't the problem; it's the execution. The narrative frame has the old woman telling the story to her solicitor. She reports verbatim conversations the children had, supposedly garnered from reminiscences they tape-recorded. But she keeps intruding into the story of Jamie and Claudia to address the solicitor, who is presumably reading the manuscript. A straight narrative with a narrator who stayed in the background would have worked much better.
Mirroring the clumsy frame is the tone-deaf exposition and dialogue. Jamie says "Oh boloney" about every other page and is repeatedly "corrected" by Claudia for his supposedly poor grammar, including the phrase "look up under" (as in "look it up under the other name"). But Jamie does occasionally use incorrect English, in statements like, "You sure know how to nervous a guy." That's the best the author could come up with to portray a boy speaking sloppy English? She makes him sound like English isn't even his native language.
One baffling sentence after another makes its appearance: "They knew ... they would accumulate a lot of hunger" and "[Jamie washed] his mouth but not the eyes of his face." Everyone keeps saying the statue was "sculptured" rather than "sculpted," Claudia says she packed her "petticoats" for running away, and the narrator offers this anachronistic simile: "it was like trying to wrap a loose peck of potatoes into a neat four-cornered package." I know the narrator is an elderly woman, but she lives in the 1960s, not the 1860s. Petticoats and pecks are out of time and out of place here. One line near the end is an unintentionally ironic comment on the text itself: Mrs. Frankweiler says at one point that Claudia sounded "like an actress in a bad play -- unreal."
The drawings are even more unsatisfying than the text. Done by the author, they are rough sketches rather than finished illustrations. The scratchy pencil lines call attention to themselves, so rather than see a whole image, one sees these lines. Faces are elongated and dyspeptic, and postures oddly hunched. The overall effect is creepy; the book's editor should have insisted on a professional illustrator.
This book is appropriate for NO audience. Steer children away from it.
Summary of From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
When suburban Claudia Kincaid decides to run away, she knows she doesn't just want to run from somewhere she wants to run to somewhere--to a place that is comfortable, beautiful, and preferably elegant. She chooses the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Knowing that her younger brother, Jamie, has money and thus can help her with the serious cash flow problem she invites him along.Once settled into the museum, Claudia and Jamie, find themselves caught up in the mystery of an angel statue that the museum purchased at an auction for a bargain price of $250. The statue is possibly an early work of the Renaissance master Michelangelo, and therefore worth millions. Is it? Or isn't it? Claudia is determined to find out. This quest leads Claudia to Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the remarkable old woman who sold the statue and to some equally remarkable discoveries about herself.
After reading this book, I guarantee that you will never visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art (or any wonderful, old cavern of a museum) without sneaking into the bathrooms to look for Claudia and her brother Jamie. They're standing on the toilets, still, hiding until the museum closes and their adventure begins. Such is the impact of timeless novels . . . they never leave us. E. L. Konigsburg won the 1967 Newbery Medal for this tale of how Claudia and her brother run away to the museum in order to teach their parents a lesson. Little do they know that mystery awaits!
Art Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Art Books
A First Guide to Photography (First guides)by Jonathan Hilton, Barrie Watts
Oxford University Press; Published: 1994-07; Hardcover; Book
Oxford First Book of Artby Gillian Wolfe
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1999-12-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $49.57
Art Everywhere Grade 4 English/ Spanish Workshop Activity Book: Harcourt School Publishers Art Everywhere (Art Everywhere 06)Harcourt School Publishers; Published: 2003-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.89
Price in other shops:
Wildflower ABC: An Alphabet of Potato Printsby Diana Pomeroy
Sandpiper; Published: 2001-05-01; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
Americans Who Tell the Truthby Robert Shetterly
Puffin; Published: 2008-05-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.69
Price in other shops:
Create Your Own Cartoonsby John Byrne
Puffin; Published: 2003-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $70.34
The Addams Familyby Elizabeth Faucher
Fantail Books; Published: 1991; Paperback; Book
Writing: Letter Patterns Bk. 1 (Learn with Noddy)by Enid Blyton
Picture Lions; Published: 2001-08-06; Paperback; Book
What Comes Next? (Let's Draw)by Colin Caket and Leon Baxter
Collins; Published: 1988; Paperback; Book
Chasing Vermeerby Blue Balliett
Listening Library (Audio); Published: 2004-11-09; Audio Cassette; Book
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Because of Winn-Dixieby Kate DiCamillo
Candlewick Press; Candlewick; Published: 2009-02-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.62
Price in other shops:
When You Reach Me (Yearling Newbery)by Rebecca Stead
Wendy Lamb Books; Yearling; Published: 2010-12-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.98
Price in other shops:
Number the Starsby Lois Lowry
Laurel Leaf; Sandpiper; Published: 2011-05-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.45
Price in other shops:
The Phantom Tollboothby Norton Juster
Books; Bullseye Books; Published: 1988-10-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.60
Price in other shops:
Harriet the Spyby Louise Fitzhugh
Yearling; Yearling; Published: 2001-05-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.51
Price in other shops:
Island of the Blue Dolphinsby Scott O'Dell
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN; Sandpiper; Published: 2010-02-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.44
Price in other shops:
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh (Aladdin Fantasy)by Robert C. O'Brien
Aladdin; Aladdin; Published: 1986-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.35
Price in other shops:
A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quintet)by Madeleine L'Engle
Square Fish; Square Fish; Published: 2007-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
The Borrowersby Mary Norton
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN; Sandpiper; Published: 2003-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.71
Price in other shops:
The Cricket in Times Square (Chester Cricket and His Friends)by George Selden
Square Fish; Square Fish; Published: 2008-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.09
Price in other shops: