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

When Claudia decided to run away, she planned very carefully. She would be gone just long enough to teach her parents a lesson in Claudia appreciation. And she would go in comfort-she would live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She saved her money, and she invited her brother Jamie to go, mostly because be was a miser and would have money.Claudia was a good organizer and Jamie bad some ideas, too; so the two took up residence at the museum right on schedule. But once the fun of settling in was over, Claudia had two unexpected problems: She felt just the same, and she wanted to feel different; and she found a statue at the Museum so beautiful she could not go home until she bad discovered its maker, a question that baffled the experts, too.The former owner of the statue was Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Without her-well, without her, Claudia might never have found a way to go home.

E.L. Konigsburg E.L. Konigsburg was born in New York City but did most of her growing up in small towns in Pennsylvania. She graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University as a chemist, and has done both research and teaching in that field. After the youngest of her three children entered school, she began writing. Her books are Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, a Newbery Honor book; From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the Newbery Award winner in 1968 and later a William Allen White Award winner; About the B'nai Bagels; (George); Altogether, One at a Time. A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver; The Dragon in the Ghetto Caper; The Second Mrs. Giaconda; Father's Arcane Daughter; Throwing Shadows; and Journey to an 800 Number.

She and her family now live in Jacksonville, Florida, where she enjoys painting, gardening, and walking on the beach-the latter two only in fine weather.