There is a book that I remember listening to on cassette tape as a child. (Yes, it was on cassette tape. No, I don’t walk with a cane.) It was about a brother and sister who ran away from home and camped out in the Museum of Art in New York City. But I forgot the name of the book as the years went on. Until recently, all I could actually recall about the book was the basic plot point I just mentioned, a vague sense of thinking the book was funny, and something about the younger brother being lippy. I thought it was destined to be one of those books I read and enjoyed but never found again.

Thankfully, I recently saw on social media that someone had posted that they were reading From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg. That little part of my brain that holds onto all of my dim recollections suddenly lit up: “That’s it! That’s the book!” 

Elated to have a childhood memory restored to me, I immediately checked the audiobook out from my library’s app and listened to it again. It was just as fun as I remember it being. So, I made Michela listen to it, since she had never read the book before. She enjoyed it too. And that’s how it ended up here on our family media blog. 

A Runaway Plot

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler takes place in 1960s New York. Claudia Kincaid feels, as most 11-year-old girls do at some point in their young lives, that her parents simply do not appreciate her the way they ought to. And what better way is there to show them how valuable she is than to run away?

The problem: she’s broke because she spends all of her money on ice cream sundaes every week. (Again, a problem typical of 11-year-olds the world over.) She needs financial support to pull off her escape. Enter her younger brother, Jamie. Jamie has saved every penny he has ever been given or won by cheating his school friend at cards. He’s loaded. We are talking big bucks here, folks: a whopping $24. A fortune sufficient even for Claudia’s needs.

Claudia convinces Jamie that they should run away together, and Jamie agrees. He understands that he is mostly there to manage the money and leaves much of the planning to Claudia. She decides that the best place to hide out would be the Metropolitan Museum of Art in nearby New York City.

The day of their escape arrives, and everything goes according to plan. They secret themselves in the museum at nightfall, and nobody has any idea they’re there. Perfect.

The next morning, the two set off to explore the museum. They visit the section focusing on the Italian Renaissance and discover that the museum has a mysterious new statue of an angel that many are saying was crafted by Michelangelo himself. Entranced by the mystery and beauty of the statue, Claudia and Jamie make it their mission to be the first to uncover the angel’s origins. After all, who else has unfettered access to the statue all night long?

The Best-Laid Plans

I was not inspired to run away by this book, but I do have to admit that, on the single occasion I did run away from home, my plans probably were influenced by From the Mixed-Up Files. We lived about 7 miles from the nearest town when I was growing up. That town was extremely small and definitely not in possession of a museum of any kind. But I figured that if I could just get inside my elementary school, I could live in the library and pinch food from the kitchens. Nobody would find me (because who goes to the library anyway, right?), and I’d have all the little smokies I could eat. Perfect plan, right?

Well, I didn’t make it very far. If you have to either trek across rattlesnake-infested desert or walk along the single, slightly less-infested highway into town, you take the highway (even if you’re only 7). And if you’re the only 7-year old walking along the highway in the middle of the desert, your mom finds you pretty quickly. (After a surprisingly gentle discussion with my dad, I never tried to run away again.)

I may not have been an excellent planner, but I have always appreciated how much thought Claudia and Jamie put into their adventure in the museum. I do have to sort of suspend my disbelief a bit to swallow the idea that they could have camped out in the museum for a week without detection, but I’m all right with that. It’s just fun to watch them plotting and executing their activity.

It also just cracks me up that Claudia thought that a simple note telling her parents “not to worry” was going to prevent any degree of concern. As a kid, I absolutely would have thought the same thing. I obviously know better now, but still. That kiddishness is part of what makes the book so palatable and enjoyable. Claudia and Jamie are believable children in most aspects. Even Claudia’s precocious idea that they need to use their time to learn things instead of dinking around makes sense for her personality. Again…I was the kind of nerdy kid who probably would have done exactly the same thing. (Hence my plan to live in the library…)

Michela and I also appreciated that the adults in the book are not total idiots. Sometimes in kids’ media, and especially in YA, adults are completely inept and exist solely to worship and be led by the inexperienced youths. Not so here. Even if the adults at the museum aren’t the most attentive, they are not excessively dim. When Claudia and Jamie think they’ve discovered things that the adults have never thought of, it turns out the adults actually have thought of them. And that pleases me because it adds to that sense of realism. You wouldn’t expect a team of trained experts to overlook very simple things that an untrained child could discover.

“Oh Bologna, Claude!”

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is just full of wholesome, charming humor. That’s really why it has stuck with me so long (even if I did forget the title). The story is told through a letter that Mrs. Frankweiler writes to her lawyer in order to explain an alteration she wants to make to her will. She’s not shy about directing jibes at her attorney. Since I’m a lawyer myself, Michela and I thought these jokes were pretty funny, especially since they’re never mean-spirited.

Mrs. Frankweiler’s narration also adds flavor to some of the things that Claudia and Jamie do. You can almost hear her chuckling to herself when describing some of these interactions. I just crack up at  some of the ending scenes when Claudia and Jamie actually meet Mrs. Frankweiler in person, or at the scenes where they’re trying to do research in the public library but can’t focus because they’re kids. It’s such a charming sort of humor that makes you fond of the Kincaids, even as annoying as Claudia can be sometimes.

Graceful Aging

A large part of this book’s wholesomeness comes from the fact that it was published in the 1960s. In 2002, the author provided a new foreword for an anniversary edition of From the Mixed-Up Files, and she recognized some of the changes in everyday living since the book’s initial publication. But even that foreword is now nearly twenty years old. (Did your gray hairs just perk up? Because mine did.) Things have definitely changed since this book first came out, but that’s honestly part of what makes it so much fun. It’s a little piece of history and a small window into not-too-long-gone culture. 

That original publication date also helps to explain little oddities for modern audiences, such as why Jamie is excited to wear sneakers instead of shoes (which…I would have thought were the same thing), or why the museum described in the book is not at all the museum a modern patron would experience today. While the charm of some things has acquired a certain patina with time, other things might estrange or confuse a modern audience.

First and foremost, even as a child I recognized that you couldn’t properly eat for a week on $24 or buy a meal for seventy-five cents. You can’t even get a mouthful of gumballs from the machine with just seventy-five cents. Honestly, $24 would still have been a big deal for me to have at the time I listened to this book, but only because I might have been able to procure a used Pokémon game, not because I could have eaten out for a week. I haven’t verified the inflation rates, but holy cow it’s depressing to think that a bowl of macaroni and cheese now costs $10 instead of $1.

Second, Claudia, as the eternally irksome older sister, constantly rags on Jamie’s grammar. But the problems she sees wouldn’t be at all obvious to anyone who didn’t study grammar 60 years ago. Even Michela, who worked as an editor for a few years before Geekling was born, wasn’t sure what all of Claudia’s nits were about. Regardless, it leads to a running gag and a charming (if a little annoying) dynamic between the siblings.

Listen Together

We have never read this book in print form. We’ve only listened to the audiobook. The audiobook version we listened to together recently was the same recording I listened to nearly twenty years ago as a kid. It is still amazing. Jill Clayburgh really brings the characters to life with her narration. It’s a short audiobook, only about 4 hours long, but it’s well worth a listen. It’s available over on Audible, and it might be available through your local library too (so be sure to check).

Who to Read With

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is geared towards middle-grade students, but it really could be enjoyed by everyone. It’s certainly clean enough to read or listen to even with young children around. We, as adults, loved listening to it together and cracking up at all of Claudia and Jamie’s escapades. It’s good, clean fun for the whole family.

Have you read/reread any really old books that made you smile lately? Comment with your favorites, and be sure to subscribe to our blog so you don’t miss our upcoming posts! (And take a gander at our read together archives for more books to read with your family!)

You can grab a physical copy of this book over on Bookshop (which helps to support local bookstores) or Amazon. And you can get the audiobook version on Audible.