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

Eleven-years-old Claudia Kincade is feeling underappreciated by her parents and the world in general. The best way to teach them a lesson, she decided, is to run away from home for a while. But what she hates more than being underappreciated is being uncomfortable, and so she chooses to run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (for all those poofy Marie Antoinette beds to sleep in) and drags along her nine-year-old brother Jamie (for his $24.43).

Thus begins the adventure of a life-time for both of them, between hiding from museum security in the bathroom, doing laundry, and scrounging for change in the museum fountain, Claudia becomes obsessed with a statue sold to the museum for $225 that may or may not be a Michaelangelo.

And why is the eccentric multi-millionaire Mrs. basil E. Frankweiler writing such a long letter to her dear lawyer Saxonberg?

A 1968 novel by the children's author E. L. Konigsburg, won her first Newbery Medal.


 * Eccentric Millionaire: Frankweiler, she sells a Michaelangelo to the Met for pocket change then refuses to provide authentication just so that she can watch the curators squirm.
 * Free-Range Children: Police and journalist reaction for missing children is really muted in the 1960s compared to today.
 * Senseless Violins: Claudia and Jamie packs most of their clothes in a viola and trumpet case.
 * Swiss Cheese Security: the Met overnight security.
 * Unusual Euphemism: Jamie's favorite minced oath is "BALONEY", which provides Claudia the Eureka Moment required to solve the Michaelangelo mystery.