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

by E.L. Konigsburg

as chancellor of the exchequer, as holder of the veto power, and as tightwad of the year, he got his wish.

Claudia had begun her research confident that a morning’s study would make her completely an expert; but Michelangelo had humbled her, and humility was not an emotion with which she felt comfortable; she was irritable.

“You better not touch it,” Claudia warned. “It’s probably poisoned or filled with marijuana, so you’ll eat it and become either dead or a dope addict.”

“We’ll go to bed now, and we’ll think about the statue very hard. Don’t fall asleep until you’ve really thought about the statue and Michelangelo and the entire Italian Renaissance.”

I feel as if I jumped into a lake to rescue a boy, and what I thought was a boy turned out to be a wet, fat log.