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

Konigsburg uses the convention of a third party to tell an hilarious and memorable story of an upper middle-class suburban child's protest.  Elderly art collector Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler's letter to her lawyer and her mixed-up files on a most intriguing statue provide the suspense.  Yet it is the ingenuity, inventiveness and practicality of two young children alone in a big city, which cause admiration, consternation and joy in the reader.  Claudia, almost twelve, is determined to leave home, if only long enough to prove to her family that she is different and to alarm them into appreciation of her as the oldest of four and as a girl.  She persuades her tightwad nine-year-old brother, Jamie, whose financial resources she must have to exist, to be her companion.  Claudia's well thought out and highly imaginative plan rests not upon running from somewhere, and so she chooses comfortable indoor living and beautiful surroundings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.  The pair enjoy th elegance of a sixteenth century bed and convenience of midnight bathing in the restaurant fountain among dolphin statues, find anonymity in the daily school class tours and generally outwit the entire adult world.