#e.l. konigsburg

[e-b-reads]

@therefugeofbooks tagged me forever ago to make a poll with my five favorite books for others to vote on, and it's taken until now because choosing five favorites is so hard!

seen several of these lately so I'm not sure who has and hasn't done this! Non-obligatory tags (and of course you all may also have already done this): @beardedbookdragon, @gardenforsparrows, @tinynavajoreads

Plus as always, if I didn't tag you and you want to do it, make a poll anyway and tag me so I see it!

[specificpollsaboutbooks]

Famous Authors, Lesser Known Works

Round 1

Persuasion :

Jane Austen is better known for Pride and Prejudice

Almost a decade ago she broke their engagement out of caution. Now his sister is renting her house. They’re both pretending they’re totally over the other, but one slip up makes that impossible.

The View from Saturday :

E.L. Konigsburg is better known for From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

This is my favorite of E.L. Konigsburg's books. I love all of the characters and the way their individual stories come together to form something greater than the sum of their parts. Real found family vibes.

[agmagazinescans]

Who's That Girl? E.L. Konigsburg

American Girl Magazine, July/August 1998

[Ko-Fi Donations]

[lostography]

I wanted something to happen, but I wanted it to be...oh, I don't know...I wanted it to be something that just happened, not something I made happen.

E.L. Konigsburg, Silent to the Bone

[kingsbridgelibraryteens]

A Few Fun Facts About 'From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler' & Its Author

We weren't surprised that the children's classic The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler came out on top in the 2023 edition of NYPL's #LiteraryMarchMadness. Written by E.L. Konigsburg and published in 1967, it has been beloved by generations of children (and adults) and has never been out of print. 

[newberyandchai]

The View from Saturday (1997)

This was a short book, so I’ll (hopefully) keep this a short review. I enjoyed it a lot (much, much more than the author’s previous book, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler) but you’ll have to skip to the end for my rating. (Fun fact: E. L. Konigsburg is one of only a handful of authors to win the Newbery Medal twice.)

What I especially liked about this book was that it did a good job communicating that the decisions you might think are relatively unimportant can be very nuanced and meaningful to others in the smallest ways. The story begins with a pretty long explanation of how a teacher came to choose four particular sixth graders to be on the school’s academic team. It then explores the backgrounds of the students in question and how they’re all connected to one another while they’re participating in an important Academic Bowl.

It’s a Breakfast Club-type story in that kids who wouldn’t normally be close are brought together and maintain a bond that extends beyond their social lives at school:

The fact was that Mrs. Olinski did not know how she had chosen her team, and the further fact was that she didn’t know that she didn’t know until she did know. Of course, that is true of most things: you do not know up to and including the very last second before you do. … They called themselves The Souls. They told Mrs. Olinski that they were The Souls long before they were a team, but she told them that they were a team as soon as they became The Souls.

It also had a bit of a Slumdog Millionaire-esque feel because as each question is asked at the competition, the book breaks into personal stories told in first person that explain why each character knows the answer to the question — Noah answers a question about calligraphy, Nadia answers a question about seaweed, and so on. One of the stories introduces the new (weird) kid at school, Julian, who is responsible for starting The Souls: he slips secret notes to the three other kids and invites them to a tea party at his new house, where his father is starting a bed and breakfast. They begin to meet regularly:

Something in Sillington House gave me permission to do things I had never done before. Never even thought of doing. Something there triggered the unfolding of those parts that had been incubating. … I told jokes I had never told before. I asked questions I had never asked before.

Outside of the tea parties, no one speaks to or acts like they’re friends with one another. However, the only part of the book I didn’t like involved them coming together at the end to prevent Nadia’s dog, Ginger, from being drugged during a school stage production of Annie so some other kid’s dog could take her place. It was pretty gross: “…laxatives and tranquilizers and those four little legs will buckle, and those little bowels won’t hold…”

… Did they really need the laxatives? On top of the sedatives? (Really?)

But I’ll end on a bit of a less gross, more bittersweet note: I resonated with this small passage after rereading it for this blog post in ways I didn’t when encountering it for the first time just a few months ago. The team has [spoiler, as you may have guessed] just won the Academic Bowl:

Mrs. Olinski felt a strange sense of loss. … She drove for miles worrying about it. Finally, almost involuntarily, she said out loud, “Win some, lose some.” She glanced at Mr. Singh and laughed. “Why did I say that?” Mr. Singh replied, “Because it is how you feel at this moment, Mrs. Olinski.” “I am happy that we won, Mr. Singh, But I don’t understand why I feel a sense of loss. This is not like my accident when my loss was overwhelming. Why, after this wonderful victory, do I feel that something is missing?” “Because something is.” Miles hummed past before his voice floated back to her. “For many months now, you have been in a state of perpetual preparation and excitement. Each victory was a preparation for the next. You are missing future victories. … Now you must put down anchor, look around, enjoy this port of call. Your stay will be brief. You must do it, Mrs. Olinski.”

Something-something about aging, the ephemeral nature of existence, the danger of losing yourself to the past, recognizing the present as always transient, each moment is fleeting, something-something… I already have too many gray hairs for this.

“Victories” isn’t exactly the word I would use when talking about this scene in a wider context, but comparing different points of your life to a ship coming in, staying a while, and inevitably setting sail once again for a different destination is a lovely, tranquil thought. The focus isn’t on the end of the stay, but always on each new beginning — on that first step off the gangplank, onto the sands of an unfamiliar shore...

This feels like a true 7, but because that number is still banned, I’ll go with 8/10, Recommendable.

[everythingiread]

The postman hardly looked puzzled. People working at the Grand Central Post Office grow used to strange remarks. They hear so many. They never stop hearing them; they simply stop sending the messages to their brains. Like talking into a telephone with no one on the receiver end.

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

[novelsforhungrypeople]

Claudia read the paper while they ate breakfast at Horn and Hardart's. That morning she didn't eat breakfast food for breakfast. Crackers and roasted chestnuts in bed at night satisfied only a small corner of her hunger. Being hungry was the most inconvenient part of running away. She meant to eat heartily for every cent Jami gave her. She bought macaroni and cheese casserole, baked beans, and coffee that morning. Jamie got the same.

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

[bookcoversonly]

Title: A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver | Author: E.L. Konigsburg | Publisher: Yearling (1985)

[dettiot]

Oh, man, what a perfect reference, though!

I was talking to my husband about the Trump documents case and how many places they found document: boxes, storage rooms, his literal desk.

Me: “It’s like some Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler shit.”

Hubs: “…”

Me: “Maybe that’s an EL Konigsburg deep cut.”

Hubs: “…Okay.”

🤣

[haveyoureadthispoll]

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 he was a miser and would have money. Claudia was a good organizer and Jamie had 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 had 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.

[pixiedustandpetrichor]

E.L. Konigsburg, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler || underscored, this is a story about wolves || @chloegoround || serendipitysirius, perfectly normal || @stardustandvanilla

[winderlylandchime]

9 Fandom Peeps to Get to Know Better:

thank you for the tag @lostcol 🩷

3 ships I like: brian/justin from qaf, aziraphale/crowley from good omens, and spin a wheel and pick one because they're all sexy from iwtv

first ship ever: thank gods that my early lois/clark fanfiction has been lost to the early internet sands of time

last song you heard: oh god, look, i found a recording of david tennant singing sunshine on leith on spotify and i have listened to it an embarrassing number times since then. i would blame my period for making me emotional but we would all know that's a lie.

favorite childhood book: anne of green gables (the entire series) by l.m. montgomery and up from jericho tel by e.l. konigsburg

currently reading: lots of fic, the vampire armand, and i just got the black unicorn out of the library

currently watching: abbott elementary, what we do in the shadows, somebody, somewhere, DRUK5, DRDU4

currently consuming: water and i just had some chips and salsa

currently craving: a bowl of chocolate frosted flakes and sex <- prev

no pressure tagging: @sheisraging @maryp50 @madsworld15 @bumblegremlin @toddisawarlock

[grounded-parasocial]

♡ 9 fandom peeps to get to know better ♡

➤ tagged by @k-pepp thanks for the tag!

➤three ships i like: Wilmon, Wilmon, Wilmon (what can I say I have one brain cell)

➤first ship ever: Maybe Edward and Bella (that can’t be my first)

➤ last song you heard: Laisse-moi t’aimer by Laurie Darmon

➤ favorite childhood book: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

➤ currently reading: Wilmon Fanfic

➤ currently watching: The Great British Baking Show

➤ currently consuming: coconut oatmeal raisin cookie

➤ currently craving: mini snickers

no pressure tags: I don’t know who has done these already @margotdanslebois @impossibleknots @justfriendsbestthings @zee-has-commitment-issues

@dreamyelectronicmusic @sadhappylady @peakotp

[whoslaurapalmer]

what three books, do you think, that beatrice baudelaire the second has a practical permanent check out on from her local library? 👀✨📕

-i think an e.l. konigsburg book -- view from saturday? mixed-up files? (i go back and forth on if like, the child loneliness/independence and mystery in mixed-up files, or silent to the bone, or even a book like, the westing game, yknow, is comfortable to her or just a little too close to home for babybea to be able to enjoy.)

-but i DO think she'd like, books about sort of eccentric families that make her think of the many exciting people in her own family, so i think she'd like hilary mckay's books about the casson family, namely saffy's angel/indigo's star/permanent rose. there's still some child loneliness in it, especially in permanent rose, but i think the family shenanigans are just very precious, and just, incredible, and still something she'd enjoy. i feel like even if she did see pieces of herself in it, it would be in the way that did feel comfortable, and not too much. (i haven't read them in like. over ten years but i loved them dearly, oh my god. has anyone else ever read them. i still think about rose all the fucking time oh my god)

-would she like fantasy books? i think she would. look i really want to give her inkheart bc i remember the physical book looking so Big and magnificent and feeling like it had such a story in it and i am still only two chapters in and actually really pissed off now that i never read it when i was a kid. UGGGGGGG. still too early for me to 100% say if i think it would be a babybea book but goddamn she would definitely get the lines about books collecting memories and picking the right ones as companions. 

-related bonus: i think she likes where the sidewalk ends, too. it has a little bit of that like, almost sort of lemony quality in some of the wordplay? so i think she'd find it joyful and comforting and fun. i think of babybea as very like, quietly, distinctly whimsical and optimistic and i think where the sidewalk ends has that charm.

-oh, i do think she uses the library a lot, though. i think she's very careful with her possessions and it doesn't occur to her for a while that she's allowed to have more than just a handful of things bc she has a permanent home and places to put actual things. that she had the OPPORTUNITY at all to HAVE actual things! so she DOES obsessively check them out of the library for a great deal of time before finally getting her own copies.