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