From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler: A book I missed in my childhood

Title: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Author: E.L. Konigsburg
Age range: 8-12
Genre: Fiction

I thought I'd review this book even though it is an older classic, simply because I didn't read it as a child.  Somehow with all the extensive reading, reading under the covers with a flashlight, reading on the sofa for hours, I missed this book as a child.  It surprises me even now that somehow I didn't read this book.  I remember seeing it, and being a bit scared of it for some reason, not for any good reason, but just because I was a chicken.   I missed out.

It wasn't until about 3 years ago that one of my students wanted to read it, so I had to read it with her.  I finished the book really quickly, as it wasn't a hard read for me, but I remember being completely excited and drawn into the book, even as an adult.  In the book, a young girl, Claudia Kincaid, decides that living at home is too much of a cross to bear and decides to run away.  The only problem is that she has spent too much of her allowance and doesn't have enough of her own so she is forced to take along with her, someone who does have some disposable income, her younger brother Jamie.

She carefully plans their runaway, down to where they will run away to...the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.  They live there, hide there, sleep in there and roam the museum after it has closed.  While in the museum the fall upon a mystery, trying to figure out if a statue is actually real or a hoax.  In the investigation of this mystery they learn about themselves and meet some key people along the way.

The only minor parent warning that I have is that the Claudia runs away without even looking back.  She doesn't consider her parents' feelings and just leaves without worrying about what they will do.  It's a rather selfish gesture and one that shows that she isn't very considerate.  Some parents may find this a bit hard to swallow, but it's rather a minor detail in the book. More of the book is surrounding all the amazing things they see and learn about while at the museum.  They do take a bath in one of the museum fountains, so you may have to teach your child not to do THAT after they've read the book.