From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (Yearling Newbery)

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 live in comfort-at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  She invited her brother Jamie to go, too, mostly because he was a miser and would have money



The two took up residence in 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 had discovered its maker, a question that baffled even the experts.  The former owner of the statue was Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler And without her help Claudia might never have found a way to go home.

E.L. Konigsburg has never spent the night in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, like the heroine of her Newbery Medal-winning novel, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, does. But she was born in New York, and she is a part-time painter. In fact she's done the illustrations for a number of books.
 
Konigsburg did not grow up in the city. Her family moved to Pennsylvania when she was young, and most of her childhood was spent in small towns in that state. When she attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, she majored in chemistry, and after graduation she worked as a chemist, doing research and teaching. It wasn't until after she was married and had three children in school that Konigsburg began writing books.
 
What is exceptional about Konigsburg is her ability to communicate convincingly from the point of view of a child. As the reviewer for The Horn Book said of Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, "The story is full...of situations completely in tune with the imaginations of ten-year-old girls." One of Konigsburg's characters, Ben in (George), has an ornery inner voice called George that seems to have come from the mind of a real child.
 
Konigsburg, who now lives with her family in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, is the author of many books for children with a wide variety of subjects and settings. One of them is a novelized biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine; several are collections of short stories; another is a historical novel about the Mona Lisa; and the rest are wonderful novels. Most of her books were named American Library Association Notable Children's Books, and a number were chosen by The Horn Book magazine for its Fanfare List. 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.