Indigo-

You missed a great book!

Spoilers ahead:
As I remember (it's probably been 20 years since I last read it) they run
away with their clothes in their instrument cases and hide out in the Met,
doing wonderful things at night like looking around and taking baths in the
fountains where they can also pick up spare change. They stay in the museum
after closing by standing on top of the toilets in the bathrooms, so the
guards miss them when doing the final sweeps (speaks so well to security in
museums.) At one point they run into their class on a class trip and hide in
an Egyptian sarcophagus. (there are quite some details to make us museum
people cringe- I think they sleep on the beds in the dec arts displays too)

There is a blockbuster show that they sneak into that features an Angel
statue that might have been done by Michelangelo. Claudia, the girl, falls
in love with this statue and wants to prove who it was made by, based on a
design on the base. She researched the provenance of the piece (oh, if only
Konigsburg knew that word!) which ends her up contacting Mrs. Basil E.
Frankweiler who was the owner of the piece. Mrs. Frankweiler invites the
kids to her house to do the research (my mother always said Mrs.
Frankweiler's house was based on the Hillstead Museum but I have no clue if
this was truth or a way to get me there). As I remember, Mrs. Frankweiler's
files were strange, but only to outsiders, she understood them perfectly
(just like alot of our Archives). The kids find the information they needed
to prove the artist and their parents come and pick them up.

It's a brilliant book because not only does it make a museum look more real
and exciting (I always liked seeing the fountains they bathed in) but it
shows some research process and makes it appear fun and exciting. It's a
brilliant book for a child to read regardless, but I would particularly
recommend it if your family is about to do a trip to NYC. Or the Hillstead
Museum.

Pamela


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Indigo Nights [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2002 9:31 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Mixed-Up Files
>
>
> Having once refused to do a huge, ugly filing job,
> where everything was filed numerically and by hand
> (way back in 1975 when the dinosaurs still roamed the
> face of the earth, LOL), and after having worked on
> computers in some form or another since 1973 (can you
> say mag card typewriter?), I find the thought of
> mixed-up files very disturbing.  I shudder at the
> thought of my files being thrown all helter skelter
> (somewhat like my bedroom right this moment).
>
> What troubles me more is that we're discussing a book
> that I had NEVER in my life before heard of.  It
> appears to have been THEE thing to read, and yet both
> my kids and I missed it.
>
> So, I wanted to know more about this book and what in
> the world was the list talking about.
>
> I found it is still available through Amazon.com (not
> a commercial, just my preferred source other than
> Ebay), and I was able to glean the following about the
> book (in case there are any others here on the list
> who had dinosaurs as pets and can't figure out what in
> the hell all the hubbub is about):
>
> From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler
> by E. L. Konigsburg (Illustrator)
>
> List Price: $5.50
> Our Price: $5.50
> Used Price: $1.91
>
> (For what it's worth, I've recently tried their used
> books option and had great success.)
>
> Anyway, the reviews of the book on the Amazon site
> include:
>
> Editorial Reviews
> Amazon.com
> "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!"
>
> Book Description Read by Jan Miner Two cassettes / 3
> hours 32 mins.
>
> Twelve-year-old Claudia Kincaid is restlesses--she
> wants to do something different, such as running away
> from her comfortable suburban life in Connecticut for
> a while. But not just any place will do because
> Claudia likes her comforts. It needs to be a place
> with a bit of luxury and some good company. Ans she
> wants to be gone just long enough to teach her parents
> to appreciate her.
>
> With careful planning, Claudia stages her own secret
> live-in at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art,
> taking along her nine-year-old brother, not so much
> for company, but mostly because he is a miser and will
> have money. What happens to Claudia and Jamie, and the
> changes that come about in this sister-brother duo,
> prove greater than either had bargained for. --This
> text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
>
> Ingram
> Claudia and Jamie run away from home and wind up
> living at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There they
> are privy to the introduction of a new statue and
> immediately are suspicious of its authenticity. 1968
> Newbery Medal; Library of Congress Children's Book of
> the Year; ALA Notable Children's Book.
>
> From the Publisher
> When Claudia decided to run away, she planned very
> carefully She would be gone just long enough to teach
> her parents a lesson in Claudia appreciation. And she
> would live in comfort-at the Metropolitan Museum of
> Art. She invited her brother Jamie to go, too, mostly
> because he was a miser and would have money
>
> The two took up residence in the museum right on
> schedule. But once the fun of settling in was over,
> Claudia had two unexpected problems: She felt just the
> same, and she wanted to feel different; and she found
> a statue at the museum so beautiful she could not go
> home until she had discovered its maker, a question
> that baffled even the experts. The former owner of the
> statue was Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler And without her
> help Claudia might never have found a way to go home.
>
> About the Author E.L. Konigsburg has never spent the
> night in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
> City, like the heroine of her Newbery Medal-winning
> novel, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E.
> Frankweiler, does. But she was born in New York, and
> she is a part-time painter. In fact she's done the
> illustrations for a number of books.
>
> Konigsburg did not grow up in the city. Her family
> moved to Pennsylvania when she was young, and most of
> her childhood was spent in small towns in that state.
> When she attended Carnegie Mellon University in
> Pittsburgh, she majored in chemistry, and after
> graduation she worked as a chemist, doing research and
> teaching. It wasn't until after she was married and
> had three children in school that Konigsburg began
> writing books.
>
> What is exceptional about Konigsburg is her ability to
> communicate convincingly from the point of view of a
> child. As the reviewer for The Horn Book said of
> Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me,
> Elizabeth, "The story is full...of situations
> completely in tune with the imaginations of
> ten-year-old girls." One of Konigsburg's characters,
> Ben in (George), has an ornery inner voice called
> George that seems to have come from the mind of a real
> child.
>
> Konigsburg, who now lives with her family in Ponte
> Vedra Beach, FL, is the author of many books for
> children with a wide variety of subjects and settings.
> One of them is a novelized biography of Eleanor of
> Aquitaine; several are collections of short stories;
> another is a historical novel about the Mona Lisa; and
> the rest are wonderful novels. Most of her books were
> named American Library Association Notable Children's
> Books, and a number were chosen by The Horn Book
> magazine for its Fanfare List. From the Mixed-Up Files
> of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler won the Newbery Medal and
> Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me,
> Elizabeth was named a Newbery Honor Book.
>
>
> I sure do miss my old dinosaur!
>
>
>
> =====
> Indigo Nights
> [log in to unmask]
>
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