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

'Delightful... I love this book... a beautifully written adventure, with endearing characters and full of dry wit, imagination and inspirational confidence' -- Sally Morris, Daily Mail

'Mischievous and metropolitan... A wild rumpus... Japes abound' -- New Yorker

'One of the finest storytellers of her era and genre... [From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler] is a story of discovery and self-discovery' -- Washington Post

'E. L. Konigsburg is one of our brainiest writers for young people, not only in the considerable cerebral powers she brings to her books but in the intellectual demands she makes on her characters' -- The New York Times

'In the US... [Konigsburg] is pretty much required reading for anyone under the age of 11 and, indeed, over, too... From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler... dominated my imagination in the way only a really good book can wholly inhabit the head of a child... Re-reading From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler,... it was, if anything, even more wonderful than I remembered' -- Hadley Freeman, Guardian

'This US classic about two runaways inspired writers such as Hadley Freeman, Wes Anderson and Judy Blume. Astonishingly, it's been out of print in the UK for the last 50 years but it's back with a brand new cover, and it's still just as enthralling' -- Mumsnet's Summer Book Club

'I really loved the setting because I think museums are wonderful and the idea of living in one and exploring it would be my idea of heaven!' -- Guardian Children's Books

'A small miracle... the ultimate escape fantasy which conveys the thrill and fear of being a minor loose in the big city' -- Times Summer Book Club

'It sticks in the mind like a personal memory, like a secret childhood experience. A perfect, miniature adventure' --Wes Anderson, writer and director of Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Grand Budapest Hotel

'A sweet little tale of discovering secrets and growing up' -- An Awful Lot of Reading

'Fun and witty' -- The Reading Fangirl

'It has an all-encompassing air of mystery' -- It Was Lovely Reading You

'Absurdly funny, exciting, highly original and wonderfully rich in its detail... up there with the best in the canon of great 20th century children's literature' -- Lancashire Evening Post

'The nitty-gritty of the runaways penny-pinching is terrifically drawn, as is the mystery's denouement' -- Observer

'An author beloved by readers young and old' --LA Review of Books

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