From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Ratings144
Average rating4.2
Weird and fun at the same time. The reasons they ran away was kinda dull tho... the museum mystery was cool and kinda predictable. Mrs. Basil was odd...
I remember reading this when I was in 8th grade. Read it again after my first time visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It made me feel like I haven't aged.
This is a charming chapter book that plays as straight-forward childhood escapism for much of the time. But the penultimate chapter includes a couple of lovely insightful observations about life. Plus, I very much enjoyed how well the author brought 1967 to life. Lots of little details that reminded me of my youth.
I was an art major and can imagine sleeping over in a museum. It would be so cool hahaha plus solving a mystery at the same time.
Go on an adventure in a museum!
Claudia and Jamie are off on a grand adventure. They have run away from home and are living in New York City in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They have a grand time, until the money starts to run out, and then they have to think of something else. But in the meantime, they are trying to solve the mystery of the Angel statue.
Delightful read for kids and adults alike!
What a wonderful book! I had not heard of this book until recently but I'm glad I did. I highly recommend this book for children around the age of 10. It's a story that I think would interest both boys and girls around that age.
I enjoyed this book so much when I was a kid that I'm re-reading it now as an adult.
And it was still as much fun as it was back then. I still recommend it.
A truly excellent book. Another one I tried to read when I was too young (I'm not sure how old I was, but I know I read the first few pages and never went back to it). I wish I had gone back to it in middle school, I probably would have really enjoyed it back then. Highly recommended to just about anyone.
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.
I have always remembered this book fondly, having read it for the first time at some point in early elementary school. So I decided to revisit it and I still enjoyed it, though probably not quite as much or in quite the same way as I did when I was a child.