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

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • There is this one two-page picture that is a Everybody Remembers the Stripper Moment. It consisted of the two main characters wading naked in a inches deep fountain (Barbie Doll Anatomy was involved) with statues of Cupid around. And for some reason, as far as I know, Rule 34 hadn't got to this yet, and the critics never even mention this! It was the only two-page picture, the only! BANG BANG BANG. This bothered me so much that I had to complain even though the page doesn't exist yet.
    • What's wrong with it? It clearly wasn't supposed to be sexual in nature (thank God), and taking a quick glance at my own copy, I find that the illustration in question happens right around the midpoint of the book, which is the perfect spot for a two-page illustration--in other words, the only reason that scene got a two-page illustration is because it coincidentally happened around the middle of the story. If another scene had fallen there, that scene would have gotten it instead. Given that E. L. Konigsburg did the illustrations herself, I seriously doubt that the intent was to give pervs fapping material. In short: Dude, lighten up, it's a kids' book. I'm honestly a little disturbed that you're getting so worked up about it.
    • The book was written in the 1970s (if memory serves) and that was about a decade before Hunt the Pedo became a national pastime. This troper has read the book, and there's nothing at all sexual going on.
      • It was written before that, since it won its Newbery in 1968.
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