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Health & Fitness

Death of a Heroine: E.L. Konigsburg

E. L. Konigsburg died last month at age 83. Reading her book 'The Mixed-up Files of Basil E. Frankweiler' will encourage you plan your next great adventure.

When you decided to go on your "Great Adventure" or run away from home as a child, where was your destination? Who would you take with you? Did your getaway take you to deep space, back in time, the ocean floor, the mountains, a silent wood, grandma’s house, a book location, or the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City?

For many, thanks to two-time Newbery Award winner E. L. Konigsburg’s book The Mixed Up Files of Basil E Frankweiler (1968), it was the Museum of Art in New York. Like 10-year-old Claudia in the book and her younger brother Jamie, who she dragged along on the escape, you knew you could go on a great search like they did. Ignored at home, Konigsburg has Claudia and Jamie running off to New York and living in and beating the security in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They did leave a note for their parents!

While sleeping in Henry the VIII's bed, pilfering food money from the wishing fountain, and beating security by standing on the toilets during guard bathroom checks, the adventuresome duo almost knock an angel (The Angel) off of its pedestal. Claudia and Jamie fall in love with the statue and notice an M in its dust. Off to the museum’s office records they go. They have to know its secret. Michaelangelo…Yes? Michaelangelo…No?

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Enter Mrs. Frankweiler, who donated the statue to the museum and who lives in Connecticut. Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is played by Lauren Bacall in the movie. She wants to know the children’s secret of how they beat a museum she donated millions to and they want to know the secret of the statue. Here lies the mystery and the decision the children have to make. Here lies the encouragement for the book reader’s next quest and adventure.

Konigsburg is one of only five authors to win the Newbery Award for best book twice. She holds the distinction of being the only writer, though, to win the Newbery and the Newbery runner-up book in the same year. Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, was selected as a Newbery Honor book in 1968 and was actually written before the Frankweiler book that was the winner.

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Elaine Lobl (E.L.) Konigsburg died last month at age 83. Something about the way she shaped her museum adventure for all adults and children will live on as her work is continually shared. The new reader will realize there are so many other creative adventures that can be taken. You, of course, after reading the book, don’t have to be a child to be encouraged to take an adventure. In the spirit of E. L. Konigsburg, begin planning that quest today!

Please drop your email in the 'follow' box at (thomasjpalumbo.wordpress.com) to get my weekly reviews of movies, theater, books, education and the arts.

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