From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

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

A book I’d throw into the categories of “Book With Titles that are Better than the Actual Story” and “Books with Plot Summaries that are Better than the Actual Story”.

I grew impatient with this book. Why did Claudia want to run away? If it was her family that was the problem, why did she take one of her brothers along? She picked the Metropolitan Museum of Art as her refuge, but she didn’t seem to enjoy much of the art there. The whole story is written as if Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is telling it to her lawyer, but we don’t really see Mrs. F well and the lawyer doesn’t seem that interested in the story. The resolution of the story seemed too easy (Mrs. F already had a document that solved the mystery). Claudia and her brother seem oblivious to the pain and fear they have inflicted on their parents. And for what? A rather unsatisfying week spent in a museum? What was it Claudia wanted? To be a celebrity? To be recognized? I honestly can’t believe the document Mrs. F promised Claudia would satisfy her in those ways.

Mixed-Up Files

This is one of the few Newbery winners that I read and loved as a child, though I never could remember the title correctly - I always mixed Konigsburg up with Frankweiler, and just last week I wrote "Frankenweiler".

Mostly, I remembered the kids living in the museum, sleeping in the antique bed, hiding in the bathrooms, and fishing money from the fountains for their meals. Somehow I thought that they made soup from ketchup from the free packets at fast food restaurants - but that scene wasn't in The Mixed-up Files, and a couple of files in my own brain must have been scrambled over the years. I do remember thinking about this book when my family went to the Art Institute and the Field Museum in Chicago when I was little. Chicago was also one of the places that I saw fountains with coins (there weren't any such fabulous things in my small town!), and I dreamed about swimming in the fountains around the sculptures, scooping up all that cash.

On my re-read, I appreciated the complicated characters that Konigsburg created (and illustrated! I didn't realize she did the wonderful drawings, too): Claudia, with her love of comfort - especially baths - and her careful planning, secrets, and her need for the occasional argument and something different; Jamie, the impulsive yet thrifty third-grade cardshark; and Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the domineering, wealthy, eccentric narrator.

Claudia reminds me more than a little of my mother:

"She didn't like discomfort; even picnics were untidy and inconvenient: all those insects and the sun melting the icing on the cupcakes. Therefore, she decided that her leaving home would not be just running from somewhere but would be running to somewhere. To a large place, a comfortable place, an indoor place, and preferably a beautiful place. And that's why she decided upon the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City." (p. 5)

My favorite quote, though (apart from the one Alicia already described about happiness here) was Mrs. Frankweiler's statement about knowledge:

"I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside you. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It's hollow." (p. 153)

The whole bit about Mrs. Frankweiler and the experience of motherhood is something that went right over my head when I read it as a child, but that I appreciated today. Also, when I re-read The Mixed-up Files, I suddenly remembered my childhood satisfaction with the surprise ending involving Saxonberg. I still liked it, and indeed I still loved the whole story. Unlike the commenter who said that "as a kid, the promise of excitement was there in a museum" but that it wasn't the same as an adult, I still get excited at museums, even after working in one for years. Those drawers of artifacts and all of the files with their type-written letters and the carbon-copy replies still hold secrets and exciting stories.

More on "From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler"

It seems as though we all love this book. I just finished reading it for the first time since elementary school. I don't think I ever finished it back then, but today i am in love with it. It's everything that I was hoping for when I started this Newbery project (not to sound too dramatic). I guess we're all looking for the same thing Claudia was, whether we knew it or not...that we would somehow be different after reading all of these books. Maybe that's why we start any new book or project or career.

Just a tip, I have the 35th anniversary edition of the book. There is a great section in the back by Konigsburg that talks about the Cupid sculpture that is mentioned in the book. I guess that the exact thing that Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler was afraid of happening to "Angel" actually happened years later to the Cupid statue in a random case of life imitating art! Beyond that, it goes into other little factual tidbits about the book. The drawings in the book are actual drawings of Konigsburg's children! She mentions stories she's written about her own grandchildren as well. I found the whole thing to be a great ending to this story.

I Can Stop Now! ("From the Mixed-Up Files...)

My son and I both finished "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" this morning. I LOVE THIS BOOK. I could stop my Newbery reading right now satisfied that I'd gotten something out of it. If I hadn't embarked on this project I probably would never have read it. What a loss that would be.

This had all the suspense, relationship drama, character growth and plot of an adult book. Yet it was accessible to children, too, without being condescending. There were even a few unexpected plot twists in the final pages. They weren't necessary to polish the story, but were delightful nonetheless.

I think my favorite take away quote was this:

"Happiness is excitement that has found a settling down place, but there is always a little corner that keeps flapping around."

How true.

And, honestly, my happiness with this gem of a book makes me nervous about reading other Newbery winners. I can't imagine any will match this.

Why are Kids always the protagonists?

I ask in jest of course. But in thinking about "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" yesterday, I wondered whether there are any children's books whose characters are primarily adult. Or at least whose protagonists are adults and children play only a minor role.

Obviously much of the appeal in reading, perhaps especially so with younger readers, is identifying with certain characters. Good children's literature is so validating for kids because it captures their feelings of curiosity, fear, injustice, elation. Children don't know what it's like to BE adult yet, so it makes sense they'd have less interest in adult characters and wouldn't know authentic adult characters if they read them.

On the other hand, children must wonder a lot about why adults do the things they do, act the way they (we) do. Imagine a book written for kids that gave insight into the adult view of the world.

Perhaps such books exist. I just couldn't think of them off the top of my head.

As for "From the Mixed-Up Files...," it's delightful. So far a woman on my bus and a mother at school have come up to me while I'm reading it to say it was their favorite childhood book. I can't believe I never read it.

My son is reading it, too. We haven't discussed it much yet, largely because he's on page ninety-something and I'm on 38.

I know there was a lot of discussion about what to read. It seems there are (at least) two groups: one that wants to read in Chrono order and another that is reading independent selections. That's great. I'll see if I can figure out a way to post a photo of "The Story of Mankind" on the right-hand panel for those who are proceeding as a group. Others, read and post as you see fit.