5. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

by E. L. Konigsburg      

I loved this charming 1968 Newbery Medal winner!   So wish I had read this when I was in grade school, yet still glad I that I could finally read it in middle adulthood.  

It’s the perfect adventure book for city kids - about a 12-year old girl and her little brother who runaway to New York by taking the train from Connecticut.  I remember how funny it was to follow Claudia's logic in choosing the Metropolitan Museum of Art as opposed to, say, living off the wilderness.  Main reason?  She wanted to be comfortable!  What's more, her arguments with her brother were an absolute delight to read.

I ordered the nice special edition in the hopes that my daughter will one day enjoy it when she’s ready to read this.  My dream is if she loves FtMUFoMBEF as much as I do, we can plan a visit to the Met in Manhattan (once this pesky pandemic is over as I’m writing this retroactively on May 8, 2020).

Just to fill up some space, I'll include the first paragraph, which according The New Yorker, is "a masterpiece of graceful, efficient exposition":

Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away. That is, running away in the heat of anger with a knapsack on her back. 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.