Women's Classic Literature Enthusiasts discussion
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From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
From the Mixed-Up Files
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February 2025 Group Read, Spoiler thread
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☯Emily , The First
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Feb 01, 2025 11:11AM
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In an ironic twist, this book is the reason Alan Gratz wrote a children's book called Ban This Book. In his book, a fourth grader fights back when From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg is challenged by a well-meaning parent and taken off the shelves of her school library.
Amy Anne is shy and soft-spoken, but don’t mess with her when it comes to her favorite book in the whole world. Amy Anne and her lieutenants wage a battle for the books that will make you laugh and pump your fists as they start a secret banned books locker library, make up ridiculous reasons to ban every single book in the library to make a point, and take a stand against censorship.
It will not surprise anyone in the USA that Banned This Book has been banned in Florida!
This is an AI synopsis: Ban This Book was banned in a Florida school district in May 2024 because the school board objected to the book's message and the secret banned book library that the main character starts.
The school board objected to the book's message and the secret banned book library. One member of the school board believed the book's message was about how to "overtly subvert school boards".
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She felt her parents took her gor granted, spoiled the boys, but not her, was bored and wanted adventure.
I looked on our libraries website for Ban This Book. It is missing. Coincidence, misshelved, or subversive way to get rid of it?
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I think the author is playing into the secret wish of escaping that many children have and they admire Claudia and her brother for doing so. She also shows the problems the children encountered when they ran away.
I found the bathing scene a little unsettling. I know every family has its own standards for nudity amongst members so I tried to keep that in mind. However, I know I would have been mortified to be naked in front of a brother at that age and I had not yet hit puberty. My brothers are older. Perhaps little brothers are different.
I really enjoyed this book. I guess the reason I didn't read it as a young person was I was 3 or 4 years past the intended audience when it was published. When I was talking on the phone to my daughter last night she said it was a favorite reread of hers but apparently it didn't encourage her to runaway.
I read this when I was around Claudia and Jamie's age. That was decades ago so I didn't remember the story, but I always remembered the long crazy title. I enjoyed reading their adventure, but I was surprised that they rarely gave their parents any thought while they were gone. I feel I would have known at Claudia's age that sending a note to my parents that I'm leaving wouldn't have relieved their worries. I can't imagine that parents think this would encourage children to run away. While they are free from their parents rules these two children don't have what most kids would consider fun. Hanging out in a museum and learning history would seem very boring to most kids. I was impressed how well the two siblings actually got along for an entire week with only minor squabbles. Emily, that is great information about the Gratz book. I've never heard of it and unsurprisingly my library does not have it. I live in Texas and we have a shamefully healthy book banning/challenging culture.
I can get a copy for our consortium, but our local copy is missing. It surprises me parents of the time would think it encourages running away but not parents of today. I see today's parents upset when someone calls anybody a name in a book. The author is not advocating calling another kid "stupid ", it is just the kind of things kids do.
Jan wrote: "I found the bathing scene a little unsettling. I know every family has its own standards for nudity amongst members so I tried to keep that in mind. However, I know I would have been mortified to b..."I haven't got to this scene yet, but it was mentioned in a review I read, and it was actually the reason I decided to vote for a different book for February. It just put me off slightly.
I also haven't read far enough yet to say whether this book would have encouraged me to run away, but I was certainly the kind of kid who would have found the idea of living in a museum appealing. On the other hand, I also found My Side of the Mountain very tempting. I did once try running away. For about half an hour... I didn't exaclty put in the kind of planning Claudia did. I don't think anyone even noticed.
I did not think it made it a bad book, I just found it odd. I did vote for a different book, though.
I am enjoying this story more than I thought I would. I am at the part where Claudia and Jamie decide to discover the author of the "Angel". Jamie's idea of analysing Michelangelo's fingerprints made me chuckle.
That was funny. It would have been touched by so many people through the years. Things would have been dusted and polished. Kid brains. They are impulsive and do not think things through.
I have finished the story. I found it odd, but interesting, and I liked all the characters, especially Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.Being the eldest of three, I think I understand why Claudia wanted to run away. Like her, I was always taught to be the most responsible one, at all times, and it can be tiring. Unlike Claudia, I learned to be so responsible, that it would have never occurred to me to run away. :D
I was the 6th of 7 kids. When there were only 4 of us left at home, my parents would put my oldest brother in charge. While I was not perfect, I was the only one ever responsible. In 1976, we crossed the Canadian border at Niagara Falls. My oldest brother was on a mission to procure foreign cigarettes. So we had to trail after him as we got kicked out of all kinds of establishments. Not sure what the charm was, but I should have stayed with my parents because it was way more interesting
I'm sure that at the time, it felt like an adventure an older and mature you would not understand. I was more or less always a good girl (could not disappoint my mom), but sometimes, when I remember some events in my life, I ask myself what the heck was I thinking. :D
I was perfectly willing to skip out of church. I was the only one with good grades. The only one who did not throw a rager every time my parents left the house.The Adventure would have sounded fun to me as a child. I grew up in a very small town.
Jan wrote: "I was perfectly willing to skip out of church. I was the only one with good grades. The only one who did not throw a rager every time my parents left the house.The Adventure would have sounded fun..."
Oh yes, it makes perfect sense. I lived outside of my city of birth (and my current place of residence) for the majority of my childhood, and coming here always felt like and adventure. Now, I live here, but outside of the historical centre, and going to the centre always feels like and adventure. :D
I enjoyed this quite a lot. I don't think it would necessarily encourage children to run away, it would be interesting to understand when that was used as a challenge to the book - a certain generation of parents? I quite like the idea of the museum as a place to run to, I agree with Claudia on the importance of some comforts!
There was nowhere to run to in my small town and no big cities for hundreds of miles. My parents had a vast network of spies. We were all subject to "What were you doing at x place at y time?" This included when I was a young adult doing volunteer work for the Special Olympics. 18 or 19 years old.
I just finished my reread last night and I really enjoyed it. As I mentioned when I voted for it, I did actually read and love this one as a child - although it never made me runaway. I do think that, like most kids, I had the occasional running away fantasy, and I'm sure that what I imagined it would be like was greatly influenced by reading this, but I also recognized that reality would be much more difficult! I also was not at all savvy about public transportation or really much outside my neighborhood, even though I grew up in a city.
I also reread this book when I was in graduate school, but even that has been a good number of years now. I'm sure at that point I would've been able to give you more details about how it and other Konigsburg had been challenged, but I don't recall them now.
I finally made a bit more progress on this one (I know, I know, the month is over). I'm pretty exclusively a paper-copy reader, so reading a whole book (even a children's/ya book) online hasn't been easy for me. And yes, I did check my local library; I guess maybe it isn't as well-known over here in the UK. I'm about halfway through now.Anyway, for the record, the bath scene didn't strike me as nearly as disturbing as I thought it would from the descriptions, probably because the narrative focus was mainly not on bathing but on finding coins in the fountain. It is pretty weird if I take a step back and think about it, but I don't think it would have even stood out to me if others hadn't pointed ou the weirdness.
I still don't know whether this book would have encouraged me to run away as a child, but as an adult, it is making it more and more tempting to go live in a museum. And I work in a museum...
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Finally finished. Really enjoyed it. I wonder what I would have thought as a child.It is driving me a little bit batty that Claudia's violin is just knocking around the house without a case now though.
