From The To Read Again (and Again and Again) List: FROM THE MIXED-FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER

I’ve been on a re-reading kick lately.  Part of this is because I’m working on an essay for my master’s thesis, and I need to go back and re-read the books I want to write about.  But once I started re-reading for school, I decided that I kind of liked it.  It’s something I rarely do, as there are so many awesome new books to read, but it’s nice to be reminded that books I read a while ago and thought were great are still really great.  It was in this vein that I recently returned to one of my all-time favorites: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg.

I loved this book in elementary school, but I hadn’t read it in…um…many, many years.  Like, about twenty-five years.  And I am very happy to announce that I still absolutely love it.  I love Claudia for being a practical dreamer and a grammarian.  I love Jamie for cheating at cards and hating to wash and having his life savings in coins that weigh down his pockets (and for being an anti-grammarian).  I love the fact that these siblings run away not to the woods, or even to some dangerous city streets, but to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  And I love the fact that a feisty and funny art lover and octogenarian tells their story as no one else could.

It may sound cliché, but this book makes me smile.  It is funny and timeless and just pretty wonderful.  When I get on another re-reading kick, this one is definitely going on the list.  I’m completely confident that I’ll love it again, and I’ll smile again, in twenty-five years.  In fact, I’m already looking forward to it.