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!



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Indigo Nights
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