Arts: From the Gloriously Eccentric Files of Mrs. E.L. Konigsburg

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Brow Beat From the Gloriously Eccentric Files of Mrs. E.L. Konigsburg By Katy Waldman Posted Tuesday, Apr 23, 2013, at 01:17 PM ET I received From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler as a gift from my grandmother. I was nine. I didn't read it and didn't read it and didn't read it, because the title sounded fusty to me and because it came from my grandmother, whom I adored but didn't trust to know my tastes, which ran to the ghoulish. I knew the book had to do with New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art—another place I associated with my grandmother, and tired legs, and lots of solemn adults communing with painted kings and gods. The novel sat on my bookshelf. A few years later, I was deeply engrossed in a quirky, lovely book called The View from Saturday. It followed four sixth graders whose life stories overlapped in strange, almost magical ways: Noah, Nadia, Ethan and Julian. The kids formed an Academic Bowl team that won the local and then state competitions, not because they were whizzes, but because they were especially attuned to the connections underlying all things. They attended a place called Epiphany Middle School. I had my own epiphany when I realized that the name on the spine—E.L. Konigsburg—looked familiar; it was the same one that marked Basil E. Frankweiler, and the two monikers had a similar charming nuttiness, one that harmonized with the oddities throughout The View from Saturday. I decided to give Mrs. Frankweiler another chance. So I opened the Newbery Medal-winning novel, first published ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Of Course Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Is Not an Enemy Combatant Why Obama Couldn't Turn 90 Percent Into 60 Votes Taco Bell Says Doritos Locos Tacos Have Created 15,000 Jobs	Advertisement
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