I enjoyed this one more than the kids, it's an odd little book. The central story does capture the imagination of a child like few can, but the trappings are so fussy and odd. I think the narrative device (the titular Mrs. Frankweiler has a first-person narration) confused the kids, and I don't think they really connected with the themes of secrets and adventure. There are some very complex ideas here. But all those things work beautifully for adults and after you read it as a child all those things fall away and you just remember the magic.

I related to this book as a child, myself the oldest of four children in a house that was too loud for my liking. Claudia is a stickler and so was I. Neither of my children is much like Claudia, though, and it's that specific personality type that is this book's ideal reader.

In fact, I may be this book's ideal reader right now, as an adult who remembers it fondly. On the other hand, the kids loved the stuff about the museum and I wished we still lived close by so they could see it.

My oldest grandson Philip is an avid reader, a trait my wife and I like to encourage. He'd encountered this Newbery award winner in his school library, and wanted to own a copy, so we gave him one for his 11th birthday last fall. When he discovered that I'd never read it (it was first published in 1967, by which time I was in high school, and focusing my reading on more "grown-up" books), he wanted to share it with me, so he loaned me his copy. (Last year, he likewise introduced me to another kid's classic, Stone Fox.) I'd heard of the book, but had no real clue what it was about.

Elaine Konigsburg (like some other women writers in the earlier decades of the past century, when the book trade was more male-dominated, she hid her gender behind her initials) became an instant success in children's literature with this essentially debut novel. (It was technically the second one she had published, but both books were submitted at the same time.) That's a deserved tribute to her skill as a writer; the craftsmanship of the book is of a pretty high order.

As we learn from the outset through a short "cover letter," the body of the book is supposedly a narrative composed by Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler to her longtime (and long-suffering) lawyer, Saxonburg, to explain a change she wants made to her will. She's a childless 82-year-old widow, as rich as Croesus, and definitely eccentric, imperious and opinionated. Ordinarily, she's not the sort of narrator many kids would readily relate to; but she immediately focuses her tale on two kids, Claudia (age 11) and her nine-year-old brother Jamie. In fact, it's not immediately made clear what relation Mrs. Frankenweiler is going to have to the events of her story. That's a deft move on the author's part, giving child readers child protagonists to relate to, and a bit of mystery as a hook. Claudia's made up her mind to temporarily run away from her home in the New York City suburb of Greenwich, dragging Jamie along for the ride to get the benefit of his assiduously-saved allowance money, and plans to stay in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art (an actual institution that's still there today) for the duration of her adventure. The expedition will involve both children in a mystery surrounding a Renaissance statuette of an angel that may or may not have been sculpted by Michelangelo --and in some life lessons and self-discovery as well.

Like most books aimed at this age group (older pre-teens), this chapter book is a short (182 pages of main text) quick read. It's also well-written, with the kind of story-line that keeps you turning pages compulsively to see what happens next. The author had a genius for characterization; the two kids are extremely realistic embodiments of children their age (while being nicely differentiated individuals with distinctive personalities and speaking styles). She also laces her writing with an undercurrent of dry humor that frequently crops out. Both the humor and the characterizations, as well as the subtleties of the psychological content, IMO, might actually be perceived and appreciated better by adult readers than by kids. The plotting isn't predictable, and we get one surprise near the end that fits like a jigsaw puzzle and was foreshadowed by clues hidden in plain sight, but which most readers won't see coming. On the whole, it's a kid's book that can hold adult interest. Still, I think I might have liked it better as a child than as an adult reader. Why, you ask?

As I said, Claudia and Jamie are very realistic child characters; I could recognize a lot of traits of my grandkids in them. But these include a lot of traits that (even though I love my grandkids!) are very calculated to drive me up the wall, and I expect many other parents and grandparents have the same reaction. These kids aren't evil or cruel, but they do have a basically self-centered orientation and ethical cluelessness at times, an aversion to responsibility and a feeling that mild chores are an insufferable imposition. Add to this a capacity for sibling rivalry thick enough to cut with a knife, and a willingness of a younger kid to check his brain at the door and let an older sibling lead him around by the nose into outrageous behavior that he should never even have considered. (Been there, see that every day --want to scream at it.) The whole runaway scenario factors into this. Claudia isn't an abused, unloved child trying to escape a horrible home life. She's a pampered, well-to-do kid who doesn't think she's pampered enough, and just wants to run off to subject her family to "a lesson in Claudia appreciation." Yes, she mailed them a letter (which they wouldn't get until at least the next day!) telling them not to worry --as if they wouldn't! Konigsburg keeps the adults in Claudia's family largely offstage, so that readers can put them out of mind. But you don't put people you genuinely love out of mind, and you don't put them through hell just for purely selfish reasons --and as a father and grandfather myself, whenever I'd let myself think about it, I knew Claudia and Jamie were putting the adults in their lives through hell. Yes, if I'd been the parent, I'd have been unspeakably thankful and relieved to get them back safe. But I might also have grounded them for about 47 years, and possibly packed them off for a semester at a boarding military academy in northern Alaska as a lesson in family appreciation. (Okay, I might be exaggerating slightly for effect. :-) ) That colored my reaction to the tale in a way that it might not have as a kid. (It's also why I recommend the book only for mature kids, who wouldn't blindly consider these characters role models and be encouraged to run away themselves!)

Interestingly, a book I read last year, Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick (b. 1966) has a similar plot structure: his protagonist is a runaway who sets out for, and hides out in, another real-life New York museum (the American Museum of Natural History). Selznick isn't a Goodreads author, so I don't know if he ever read Konigsburg's classic; but I think it's possible that he did, and that it may have been one of his literary influences. The difference between the two books, though, is instructive (and helps to explain why I rated the later book higher): Selznick's protagonist Ben manages his escape in a way that won't leave his family members insane with worry, and does tell a family member where he's going. And he has a psychological need to go, to deal with a question that's crucially important to him in learning who he is; it's not just a whim, and he doesn't pull a nine-year-old sibling along into the venture.

The edition of this book that I read was a 35-year anniversary reprint, with an afterword by the author, which explained a bit about the models for the characters in her own family, the changes in New York City and the Museum itself since she wrote, some of the inspiration for the story, the reason she never wrote a sequel (and I agree with that decision, because I think this is a story that's truly artistically complete in itself, as it stands) etc.; I enjoyed this feature, and felt it enhanced the book. At the time, she mourned the recent passing of both her husband and her longtime editor, who'd both loved the book. Sadly, Mrs. Konigsburger herself passed away as well, in 2013. But this book alone would be a worthy legacy (and she wrote other prize-winning tales as well!), and I give it a solid rating of three earned stars!

A very sweet story of two young siblings running away...to the Metropolitan Museum of Art!!!

At least 20 years ago, I read this book for the first time, and I can say that I have never looked at a fountain the same way!

Twelve-year-old Claudia decides to run away with her younger brother Jamie. Tired of living a boring life, Claudia sets her sights on the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. One day, they notice an exhibit, an angel with a mystery. Did the famous Michelangelo create this sculpture? Will Claudia and Jamie get to the bottom of this mystery?

The first half of this book is legendary; decades later, I still remember the children’s time in the museum. During the second half of the book, I wasn’t as invested in the mystery portion. In fact, this is the portion of that book that I forgot. Although now as an adult, the feelings of Mrs. Frankweiler resonated more strongly with me.

Overall, a charming children’s book filled with wonder, a book that has stood the test of time with witty sayings from Claudia.

2025 Reading Schedule
JantA Town Like Alice
FebtBirdsong
MartCaptain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
AprtWar and Peace
MaytThe Woman in White
JuntAtonement
JultThe Shadow of the Wind
AugtJude the Obscure
SeptUlysses
OcttVanity Fair
NovtA Fine Balance
DectGerminal

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99c Kindle sale, Oct. 23, 2017. This short novel is a classic of middle grade fiction, and the 1968 Newbery Award winner. Eleven year old Claudia decides to run away from home.

She was tired of arguing about whose turn it was to choose the Sunday night seven-thirty television show, of injustice, and of the monotony of everything.

You can tell this is set in an earlier time, before our media entertainment options multiplied. :)

Because her little brother Jamie is a lot better at saving money than she is, she invites him to run away with her. And because she wants to run away to somewhere beautiful and elegant, she chooses to run away to the NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art. They hide when the museum closes for the evening, and then have the place pretty much to themselves at night.

But then Claudia and Jamie come upon a new MOMA acquisition: a lovely angel statue donated by one Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Could it be a Michelangelo sculpture? The art experts aren't sure. And suddenly Claudia has found a mystery she deeply wants to solve, something that may alter her plans.

It's a short, enjoyable MG story, and I've had a paperback copy of it since I was a young teen. It's survived a few rereads and bookshelf purges over the years, so this one was a keeper for me. It really captures the thoughts and feelings of pre-teens. A wealthy older lady, Mrs. Frankweiler, narrates the entire story (for reasons that become apparent later on); I loved her dry humor and no-nonsense demeanor. She reminded me of one of those sharp-minded, crusty, but ultimately kind dowager duchesses that occasionally grace the pages of my Regencies.

Another book I missed when I was the "right" age to read it. I tried to judge it as I would have when I was ten, and not as a 50-year-old appalled at the ungrateful brat protagonists. I'd have enjoyed it quite a bit, I think.

Reader was good.

I have to admit that I'm pretty disappointed in this one. The premise of kids running away to and living in the Metropolitan Museum of Art sounded pretty fantastic, but it really wasn't very exciting at all. There was a lot of "filler" dialogue and constant rambling on that didn't really drive the story. The "secret" about Angel just seemed pretty anti-climactic. Half of the book seemed devoted to describing bathing, eating, and planning things, and the "mystery" aspect just got lost. Claudia was really kind of a selfish brat, and her banter with Jamie seemed less charming and witty and more petulant. It just could have been so much better.

This was a ridiculously charming little book.

I think the thing that made it such a great children's book even though I'm definitely not the target audience was because I really grew to care for the main characters, Claudia and Jamie. Reading about them getting into scrapes and going on adventures filled me with a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Claudia and Jamie had a wonderful sister-brother relationship that was portrayed realistically. While they teased and got annoyed by one another, they also grew closer over the course of the novel and were constantly looking out for each other.

n  

Jamie couldn’t control his smile. He said, “You know, Claude, for a sister and a fussbudget, you’re not too bad.”
Claudia replied, “You know, Jamie, for a brother and a cheapskate, you’re not too bad.”

n
When Claudia plans to run away from home, she brings her younger brother, Jamie, with her. They pack their clothes in a trumpet case and take the train to New York where they hide out in The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

It made me feel so cozy to follow these two wonderful children as they camped out in the museum, hid from the night watchmen, fell asleep in the bed of Marie Antoinette, and bought food with their pocket money from cafés.

This was so heartwarming and was just the kind of uplifting story I needed. I read it while sipping a cup of tea and couldn't have had a more enjoyable reading experience.

I liked how the ending was satisfactory without getting too sentimental. While it never became philosophical, Claudia and Jamie were able to bring back memories from my childhood and filled my heart with a longing for adventure.

Oh my god, I have been trying to remember this book for YEARS. When I was in elementary school, my entire grade watched the movie adaptation of this book in the auditorium together. I could not remember the name for the life of me, and I'm so happy I stumbled upon it! I MUST read this soon.

January 1967 Birthday Read

I want to go back to 1967, where it was free admission to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the daily New York Times cost a dime. And I want to be 12-years-old and live in the Met! This was another great read that I think I missed as a young reader. Brother and sister runaways, a little bit of a mystery, and a whole lot of art, this was a really fun read!

all i would like is to be a girl in the greater new york area who spends her entire allowance on hot fudge sundaes, up to the point where she saves it to go to the city and live in a museum and sleep in a historical bed the description of which i STILL remember, approximately 15 years later.

seeing as this does not seem like too much to ask for, i will begin my wait now.

part of a project i'm doing where i review books i read a long time ago and think about hot fudge sundaes.

When we get right down to it, this short YA novel from the late '60s has everything a bookworm needs while growing up. A little rebellion, a little running away, and a lot of time spent in a museum. You know, the kind of thing that absolutely leads to heroin and smack.

These troubled kids.

Seriously though, I liked the mystery and adventure and liked it even more because it was referenced directly in Dash & Lily's Book of Dares. A spiritual successor? Maybe!

Definitely worth the read.