74 pages 2 hours read

E. L. Konigsburg

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

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1967

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Introduction

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

  • Genre: Fiction; middle grade realistic  
  • Originally Published: 1967
  • Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 700L; grades 4-7
  • Structure/Length: 10 chapters; approx. 178 pages; approx. 3 hours, 45 minutes on audio
  • Protagonist and Central Conflict: Young Claudia Kincaid hatches a successful scheme to run away from home with younger brother Jamie to the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, but she doesn’t count on stumbling upon a mystery regarding a strange statue and its seller—the enigmatic Mrs. Frankweiler—while hiding out there.

E. L. Konigsburg (Elaine Lobl Konigsburg), Author

  • Bio: 1930-2013; born in New York but raised in a small Pennsylvania mill town; first in her family to graduate from college (Carnegie Institute of Technology); began writing for children once her own children began attending school; met with immediate success with her first two novels; winner of two Newbery Awards (for The Mixed-Up Files in 1968 and The View from Saturday in 1997); also received the Hans Christian Anderson Award (2006)
  • Other Works: Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth (1967); Father’s Arcane Daughter (1976); Throwing Shadows (1979); Silent to the Bone (2000)
  • Awards: Newbery Medal winner (1968)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

  • Self-Discovery Through Adventure
  • The Enriching Influence of Art
  • Finding Strength in Difference

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