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

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

Realistic Fiction (Chapter Book)

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is a fun book that follows the adventures of Claudia Kincaid and her little brother Jamie. They are bored with their lives and decide to run away to the glamorous Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. They hide in the bathrooms each night as the museum is closing and come out once everyone has gone home, bathe in the fountain, and sleep in a bed from the sixteenth century. They become transfixed by a small statue in the museum rumored to be sculpted by Michelangelo, and embark on a journey to discover the truth. They decide to find out anything they can about the statue, and discover it was sold to the museum by Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. They spend the last of the money they have saved on a cab ride to Mrs. Frankweiler's house in Connecticut in hopes to discover the truth about the sculpture. Mrs. Frankweiler tells them the secret lies in her files, which are extremely unorganized! She lets Claudia and Jamie into her mixed-up files and there they find the truth about the sculpture. Excited and exhausted, Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler sends them home to their worried family and their journey ends.

I would use this book to talk about money with my students. Throughout the book we see Claudia and Jamie's money supply fluctuate as they buy themselves food and other supplies and take coins from the fountain. I think it would be neat to give my students each $5 in fake money and go through a series of scenarios with them just like Claudia and Jamie went through where they need to decide how to spend their money and keep track of how much they spend on what.