From The Mixed up Files of Basil E. Frankweiler (Module 3)

Summary
Claudia lives in Connecticut with her family and decides it's time to run away. She feels stuck in her life and needs to be different, to make a change. She invites along her brother Jamie (because he has money, and she doesn't) and together they hide out in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for over a week. While there they discover a statue, The Angel, which is rumored to be created by Michelangelo. Claudia will stop at nothing to find out if that's true, and she drags Jamie along with her.

Suggested Activities
This book could be used in a literature circle setting about Utopian societies (or Dystopian societies) for students who dislike the futuristic, fantasy genre and prefer more realistic fiction. Claudia believes moving into the museum will make her different and make her life different. But she realizes in her idea of Utopia, things are just the same for her. This would be challenging for students to make that connection but would also help with the genre issues and could be good for lower level readers in middle school.

Another activity for this book would be grammar exercises! There are so many  moments in the book where Claudia badgers Jamie for his bad grammar habits. Mostly they relate to ending a sentence in a preposition, but there are several to choose from. It would be great to take these paragraphs where she is pestering him about his grammar, because she never comes out and says the problem, and have students find a pattern of what he's doing wrong. It would make grammar more interesting and hopefully make students want to read this book.

Reviews
What's your favorite kids book?

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E. L. Konigsberg

-Courtney CoxArquette, star of Friends

What's your favorite kids' book? (2003, Apr). Storyworks, 10, 4. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/213407570?accountid=7113

Two years later, in 1968, the Medal went to E. L. Konigsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Unlike Treviño's work, this novel remains a favorite title, not only because it is well written and amusing but also because, like Treviño's work, it offers a seductive fantasy of private mastery of public culture, set in more familiar territory: New York City, specifically the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In Konigsburg's story, Claudia and Jamie Kincaid run away from home and hide out in the Met. The novel includes a map of the Met so that readers can follow along. Claudia burns with intellectual curiosity, while Jamie is obsessed with money; Claudia calls him "Mr. Pinchpenny" (96). Capital and the desire for cultural capital inform their every move. They show "cultural goodwill" toward art, sensing "the magic of the name of Michelangelo" (65), and set off to determine the authenticity of a statue named Angel. Is Angel an original work of art, everyone wonders, or is it merely a copy?

Kidd, K. (2007). Prizing children's literature: The case of newbery gold. Children's Literature, 35, 166-190,271. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/195588802?accountid=7113

My Thoughts
 I loved this book. I loved the mystery, the improbability of it all, the idea of running away someplace as fancy as the MET, I just loved everything about it. I really enjoyed the depiction of each of the characters and their strong personalities. Claudia is the uptight planner who follows the rules, Jamie is the mischievous penny pincher, and Mrs. Frankweiler comes across as a grumpy old woman-until the very end. I felt like everyone could relate to someone in this story, and I must related to Claudia. I can be a big planner who allows does everything just so and sometimes I try to escape that persona. But as Claudia learned, it's hard to change your personality.
I also found the book to be full of wise wisdom that young kids could appreciate. One of my favorite lines is from Jamie, when he's talking to Claudia about being home sick, he says, "Yeah, I guess homesickness is like sucking your thumb. It happens when you're not very sure of yourself" (Konigsburg, 1998).I feel like that line really rings true, but it's something I've never thought about. I hope kids stop to understand and appreciate that line while reading. It meant a lot to me.

Bibliography
Konigsburg, E. L. (1998). From the mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Atheneum.