E L Konigsburg, author of “From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler,” has died at 83.
I can’t say I ever read any of her other books, but “From the Mixed Up Files…” was a particular favorite as a kid.
I didn’t read the Frankweiler book until I was an adult, so it didn’t click with me the way it apparently did for a lot of people. However, I checked out
Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and me, Elizabeth from the library many times as a kid. A good book, although Jennifer wasn’t actually a witch. 
I remember that book. Perhaps it had more resonance for me because I also lived on the Metro-North New Haven line, although unlike the book characters, my father didn’t ride the train to work.
It resonated for both my wife and myself, and both of us were California suburban kids. It did become odd to start riding the Metro North regularly, in part because of memories of this book.
(“Sarah looks like a pharoah. Pass it on.”)
Yeah, I don’t think the appeal was based on geography. I remember the fun of running away from home, living in a museum, bathing in the fountain and scooping up coins on the bottom, plus the mystery of the statue. (Or was it a painting?)
Well, part of the appeal for me was the nearness of the setting. (How many children’s novels are set, even if only partly, in Southern Connecticut, anyhow?)
Connecticut. The World’s Geographic Punchline Invites You to Visit.
Touche. 
I should have said the appeal wasn’t limited to geography.
It was a statue. Remember after they moved it, the siblings found the imprint on the velvet of Michelangelo’s workshop? And I thought it turned out that her lawyer was their grandfather.
I loved that book.
I need to re-read Father’s Arcane Daughter. I remember enjoying the Ah-ha! moment.
Well, damn. But 83 is a good run. 
The only book I read of hers is the museum one, and I always wanted to run away and live in a museum [mainly because back in the 60s and early 70s there was no such thing as a Children’s section in museums where you could actually touch stuff, and I always wanted to see the backs of stuff, or underneath or inside. 
About the B’nai Bagels, about a majority-Jewish community’s Little League team, is a good one too.
How sad. I loved Mrs. Basil, the lesson I took from it is that kooky is not always bad. RIP, E L Konigsburg.
Aw, man. I haven’t thought of those books in years. Loved Mixed up Files. Loved Up From Jericho Tel too.