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

Killed two birds with one book - not bad.  Last week I mentioned being in a reading slump and from experience that means it's time  to switch gears.  If I've been reading a string of fiction, I move to non-fiction.  Too many best seller list novels, try a classic.  However, nothing suits me better than my all time favorite switcheroo - a nice big pile of play scripts.  Shorter than most novels, they challenge me in different ways and shake up my right brain considerably.  Reading a play lets me imagine a physical voice for each character, as well as create a back story for each of them - what was her life like before she spoke word on the page?  I can put any color paint or wallpaper in their drawing rooms, and manipulate delivers, tirades, love scenes, and long silences.  My favorite part of directing local shows was planning my director's book.

No plays for me this time though. Our most recent book discussion piece mentioned a tween novel which I had never read, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, a Caldecott winner.  I fell into it easily.  Although the author is acutely aware of her target audience, she does not talk down to them and crafted a plot that generates curiosity for her intended readers and beyond.  I flew through this book. Slump over. One bird down.

Bird number two...good grief, I need to escape.  I am guessing we all do.  The daily bombardment of political jockeying, along with disturbing images of rampant racism either raise one's blood pressure or numb the senses.  Add Covid to the mix and we just can't get away in the same ways we did before.  Claudia our young protagonist, feels put upon by her parents, forced to do dishes and other distasteful household chores.  She decides to escape and takes her younger brother, and family money bag, along.  She also takes readers along on a hide-out and hang-out at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.  I missed that museum when I was there, opting instead to visit  the Guggenheim, whose spiral, slanting floor plan got my inner ear all befuddled.  The kids took me through some of the major rooms in the museum as they worked to solve a mystery that presented itself.  Bold, curious, risk taking kids - why not spend a few more days away from home playing detective?  As part of their investigation we go to the New York Public  Library, several delis, and general searching and weaving through  Manhattan streets.  I went on an adventure with the.  I escaped.  Second bird down.

I'd say that was a pretty simple mixed-up fix.

Thanks for stopping by.

Stay safe. Stay healthy. Stay healthy.