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

by E.L. Konigsburg

“come home lost.”

Planning long and well was one of her special talents.

She was cautious (about everything but money) and poor; he was adventurous (about everything but money) and rich.

paper. I keep telling you that often the search proves more profitable than the goal. Keep that in mind when you’re looking for something in my files.)

you have as much romance in you as the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood.”

The mystery only intrigued her; the magic trapped her.)

But lying in bed just before going to sleep is the worst time for organized thinking; it is the best time for free thinking. Ideas drift like clouds in an undecided breeze, taking first this direction and then that.

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.

matter. I never really look past my eyes. That way I always feel pretty. Windows of the soul, you know.”

“The adventure is over. Everything gets over, and nothing is ever enough. Except the part you carry with you. It’s the same as going on a vacation. Some people spend all their time on a vacation taking pictures so that when they get home they can show their friends evidence that they had a good time. They don’t pause to let the vacation enter inside of them and take that home.”

“Returning with a secret is what she really wants. Angel had a secret and that made her exciting, important. Claudia doesn’t want adventure. She likes baths and feeling comfortable too much for that kind of thing. Secrets are the kind of adventure she needs. Secrets are safe, and they do much to make you different. On the inside where it counts. I won’t actually be getting a secret from you; I’ll be getting details. I’m a collector of all kinds of things besides art,” I said pointing to my files. “If all those files are secrets, and if secrets make you different on the inside, then your insides, Mrs. Frankweiler, must be the most mixed-up, the most different insides I’ve ever seen. Or any doctor has ever seen, either.”

could tell that she felt happy. Happiness is excitement that has found a settling down place, but there is always a little corner that keeps flapping around. Claudia could have kept her doubts to herself, but she was an honest child, an honorable child.

that. I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside you. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It’s hollow.”

“Because after a time having a secret and nobody knowing you have a secret is no fun. And although you don’t want others to know what the secret is, you want them to at least know you have one.”