Thursday, June 7, 2012

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

Overview from Barnes and Noble:


Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away...so she decided not to run FROM somewhere, but TO somewhere. And so, after some careful planning, she and her younger brother, Jamie, escaped -- right into a mystery that made headlines!
Having run away with her younger brother to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, twelve-year-old Claudia strives to keep things in order in their new home and to become a changed person and a heroine to herself.

My thoughts:
I read this book aloud with my children. While the older two are are totally able to read on their own I still like to read books with them so we can discuss them and I can show them that I value reading and books.  As my husband and I read all the time and we have tons of books around, I don't think they are in danger of not seeing that we value books and literacy, but it is something I want to continue to share with them.

This is a book that I recall loving in elementary school.  The idea of hiding at a museum seemed so fun.  I recall going on a Girl Scout sleepover at a discovery museum, and I imagined it kind of like that.  Being able to take all the time they wanted to look at the works of art and read the cards.  Things are so different now than they were when this book was written.  Pay phones, typewriters, and no security system at the museum seem so different than now.  I kept waiting for them to ask me why Claudia and Jamie couldn't just use the computer to look for the information on the piece they were researching.

One thing they did notice was how much less things cost in the book than they do now.  We kept talking about when the book was written and how things were different then than they are now which was a whole different topic than what I thought we would get into in reading it.  I added the book to my daughters shelf and it will be interesting to see if she ends up reading it again on her own.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780689711817
  • Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
  • Publication date: 4/1/1998
  • Edition description: Reissue
  • Edition number: 35
  • Pages: 168
  • Age range: 8 - 12 Years

1 comment:

  1. I adored this book as a kid. Actually the kids are going to be featured in an FFC post later in the month.

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