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    From the Mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
    From the Mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
    From the Mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
    Audiobook3 hours

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

    Written by E. L. Konigsburg

    Narrated by Jill Clayburgh

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    About this audiobook

    A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021)

    Run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with E. L. Konigsburg’s beloved classic and Newbery Medal­–winning novel From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

    When Claudia decided to run away, she planned very carefully. She would be gone just long enough to teach her parents a lesson in Claudia appreciation. And she would go in comfort-she would live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She saved her money, and she invited her brother Jamie to go, mostly because be was a miser and would have money.

    Claudia was a good organizer and Jamie bad some ideas, too; so the two took up residence at the museum right on schedule. But once the fun of settling in was over, Claudia had two unexpected problems: She felt just the same, and she wanted to feel different; and she found a statue at the Museum so beautiful she could not go home until she bad discovered its maker, a question that baffled the experts, too.

    The former owner of the statue was Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Without her—well, without her, Claudia might never have found a way to go home.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateNov 24, 2009
    ISBN9780743597166
    Author

    E. L. Konigsburg

    E.L. Konigsburg is the only author to have won the Newbery Medal and a Newbery Honor in the same year. In 1968, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler won the Newbery Medal and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was named a Newbery Honor Book. Almost thirty years later she won the Newbery Medal once again for The View from Saturday. Among her other acclaimed books are Silent to the Bone, The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, and The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World.

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    Reviews for From the Mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

    4/5

    2,780 ratings150 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I remember this being one of my favorite books as a kid, I'm sure I read it several times, but couldn't remember anything about it. So, I decided it was time to read it again. How fun... now I understand why I liked it so much. I even remember taking it to the library and saying "I want more like this one." Art, mystery, adventure, curiosity... what's not to like?

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      Still no luck I can’t relisten please fix this ok?
    • 5/5
      My son and I loved this little story. The way it’s told by the narrator, sort of passively incorporating her point of view more and more as the story unfolds, is cool, and different. The characters are interesting and charming, and the mystery of “Angel” adds a nice element of suspense. We’ll be looking for more stories from this author in the future.
    • 4/5
      Brought back nostalgic memories of reading this in grade school in the 70s. I wanted to run away and live in a museum too! Excellent narration by Jill Clayburgh.
    • 5/5
      FANTASTIC, i cannot believe how incredible this. MIND BLOWING. YES
    • 4/5
      I have read so many positive reviews about this book and indeed it is worth reading! What an enjoyable story telling of two kids running away from home to hide in the Metropolitan Museum and adapting to life while searching to grow up faster, to be different. I very must have enjoyed the afterward chapter as well that brought everything more in prospective and got me even more excited. I know what I would buy as a present to my younger ones now!
    • 2/5
      This book wasn’t my favorite I would of liked it better if the kids figured out the mystery of Angel ?. But that is OK ??.

      Also NO one ☝️ could live on $27.65.

      Plus the narrator was really boring.
    • 5/5
      This is such a gem!
      I heard this book from Gretchen Rubin's podcast and I searched it immediately.
    • 3/5
      It wasn’t as good as I had hoped. Since it was mentioned in “Escape From Mr. Lemoncello’s Library” by Chris Grabenstein, I guess I was expecting something up to scratch with that masterpiece. This book didn’t live up to my expectations. I’m not saying that it was terrible, but it’s not one I’d necessarily recommend to anyone above the 5th grade. It was more elementary than I was hoping.
    • 4/5
      I remember this being one of my favorite books as a kid, I'm sure I read it several times, but couldn't remember anything about it. So, I decided it was time to read it again. How fun... now I understand why I liked it so much. I even remember taking it to the library and saying "I want more like this one." Art, mystery, adventure, curiosity... what's not to like?
    • 5/5
      It was delightful to revisit one of my favorite books from my childhood, this time on audiobook. E. L. Konigsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler was the 1968 Newbery Medal winner, and I've never met a reader who disliked it. Claudia Kincaid is tired of the boring routine of her life and her family's lack of Claudia Appreciation. She wants adventure... but it has to be comfortable. No roughing it for Lady Claudia! And so she decides to run away from home to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. She brings her brother Jamie along for the ride, because he can keep secrets (and also because he is rich, being a confirmed miser at age nine). But soon the adventure becomes more than just a fun flight, as the children become engrossed in the mystery of the museum's newest acquisition, a sculpture called Angel. Did Michelangelo sculpt her? The characters are just so real. I have a friend who swears Claudia is her literary twin—Claudia, with her love for planning and being in control, for fine things and (let's face it) extravagance in money matters. Jamie is quite different, much more practical than his older sister (and much tighter with the purse strings). They interact just like real siblings do, arguments and childish logic and all. Sometimes it's hilarious; other times it's poignant (but never sappy... you just can't get sappy about two characters so pragmatic and realistic as Claudia and Jamie). The story is narrated by Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, who is telling it to "my dear Saxonberg," the children's grandfather who also happens to be Mrs. Frankweiler's lawyer. Her excuse for telling the story is to explain certain changes in her will—but I think she just relished the adventure and the telling thereof more than anything. As a young reader I always knew she was quite a character, but rereading this as an adult gives me a new perspective on her. She reminds me of my grandmother in a lot of ways... a collector of antiquities, with rooms full of treasures and a lifetime of stories, a woman with a practical, humorous, determined outlook on life and relationships. And stubborn!What Konigsburg does brilliantly is to make the story more than just a fun tale about two kids who run away from home and stay in a museum. They set out to learn everything about the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but end up learning something else, too. Claudia said, "But, Mrs. Frankweiler, you should want to learn one new thing every day. We did even at the museum.""No," I answered, "I don't agree with that. 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 inside 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 you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It's hollow."Jan Miner reads this audiobook and her narration is wonderful. Her voice for Jamie is especially good. It's a quick read at just over three hours, and I relished every minute. Highly recommended!
    • 5/5
      Great book so excited about the run away.I love this book!
    • 5/5
      A must read for any youth. You can hear the echoes of the characters’ voices throughout the vastness of the museum. A timeless classic!!
    • 4/5
      I wish I had discovered this as a child. I find it charming as an adult. At the correct age, I might have found it magical. It's a nice adventure. Somewhat didactic of course, but not overly so. I like what it says about differing values.
    • 5/5
       I love this book. I must have read it when I was a kid - I know I did - but beyond the museum, and the statue, I remembered almost nothing. Which was great, because I got to discover it all over again. It starts a tad slow, as Claudia meticulously plans her running away, but once they hit the museum, it's an adventure for the reader as well as Claudia and Jaime. I can't imagine nowadays you'd ever be able to so much as touch the floor of the Museum after closing hours, but how amazing would it have been to spend the night there? Still a classic, even if the prices and the lack of pressure sensitive security dates it. I doubt kids will care.
    • 5/5
      Just a great book! Just read it now as I was an adult when it was first published. Giving it to my granddaughter and I’m sure she’ll love it.
    • 4/5
      This is an apparently very famous children's book that I had never heard of, until it appeared on a list of 'best children's books' where I loved everything else and had never heard of this.I really enjoyed it. There is something gleefully possible about Claudia and Jamie's adventure, they are lucky but practical. The book is wonderfully well drawn. I don't think I quite understand secrets and why people keep them and why they are important, but whatever the truth is this book is a really good insight into it.
    • 4/5
      I read this because I saw it on an episode of Mr. Robot. I thought that Mr Robot reading this to Elliot might be somehow important. I believe that the secrets that Claudia and Mrs Frankweiler enjoy does say something more about the show, a show that is built on hackers and secrets..

      I didn't expect to enjoy the book as much as I did my favorite line "often the search proves more profitable than the goal." from the book mirrors how I found it. I don't know how I missed reading this when I was growing up but if I had any kids I'd read them this for sure.
    • 5/5
      It follows two children-12-year-old Claudia Kincaid and her brother Jamie-as they run away from home and hide out in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. The children become involved in researching the past of an angel statue sold to the museum by Mrs. Basil E.
    • 4/5
      Crimethinc for elementary school kids. haha.
    • 1/5
      all i remember about this book is that it was so boring that i had no idea what was going on the entire time.
    • 5/5
      This is a reread, but a story I haven't visited since probably before high school. I'm so happy to find I still love it! I can totally relate to Claudine's need to plan and learn and know things, and even her desire for internal change. I think her relationship with her brother is great - they have disagreements, but still understand and complement each other. They feel very real. This is a charming story. Even though it's wild thinking about kids being able to eat a decent lunch for $0.75, the story holds up well over time.
    • 3/5
      This children's book is not particularly well-written for kids under 10, yet the storyline is likely unappealing to older readers. Children will appreciate the wish to run away and would admire Claudia's fore planning. Hiding out in the Metropolitan Museum was brilliant fun. However, the lawyerly solicitor asides by Mrs. Frankweiler emphasized how disruptive those interludes were when reading the book out loud to a bright reader, aged 8.
    • 5/5
      William, my 11-yr-old, and I just finished reading this together. We both loved the mystery as well as the family dynamics.
    • 4/5
      Claudia Kincaid decides to run away from home (no reason ever given) and takes her little brother James along. But she has planned carefully. They will hide out in the Metropolitan Museum of Art while they are on the lam. The museum has just acquired a smallish marble sculpture of an angel that may or may not be a lost work of Michelangelo. Claudia becomes obsessed with solving the mystery of Angel, which the museum purchased from a wealthy widow, Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.Most of the book is filled with the conversations and interactions between Claudia and James. It is those interactions that make the book. But the story is being told, not by one of the children, but by Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. One wonders as it goes along how she knows all these minute details about what happened when she wasn't around, but it all is clear in the end.
    • 5/5
      I loved re-reading this classic story about a brother and sister (Jamie and Claudia Kincaid) who run away from home and live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan for a week. I didn't remember how Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler came into the story so it was fun to read about the mystery around the statue of an angel that she had donated to the museum.
    • 4/5
      I remember this being one of my favorite books as a kid, I'm sure I read it several times, but couldn't remember anything about it. So, I decided it was time to read it again. How fun... now I understand why I liked it so much. I even remember taking it to the library and saying "I want more like this one." Art, mystery, adventure, curiosity... what's not to like?
    • 4/5
      Hilarious, whimsical, rather unrealistic, but still a ton of fun!
    • 4/5
      A fabulous tale of children who take up residence in the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a time. Especially good for New Yorkers.
    • 5/5
      I read this in Grade Five, and haven't since. Lately I saw it come up as a related read to contemporary art and other middle grade mysteries, and I'd forgotten it had that mystery element. It was a great re-read, absolutely timeless in its storytelling and characterization. Despite it taking place when it was written, in the 1960s, the characterization of Claudia and Jamie were both so immediately identifiable that it would take only slight changes to make it take place in any other time period. It's very short, and a modern version would likely delve more into the hidden familial relationship between some of the characters. Such a great book, I think young kids would enjoy this as much as teens and adults. Claudia is especially such a well-rounded, contradictory, realistic tween girl character, and Konigsburg captures both her and Jamie's character entirely through dialogue. Incredibly well-written, very recommended.