Thursday 12 April 2012

Kicking myself, Konigsburg, Kipling

After the famine, the feast.

Wouldn't you just know it.  Hours after I put up a short and simple "K" post, the above walks into my brain.  I don't know how I could have forgotten either of these completely kickass authors, but there you go.  And another K as well.

E L Konigsburg is more likely to be familiar to US audiences.  As far as I know she is a fairly regular staple in American schoolrooms (that's how I found her), but From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler is well worth a look.  It won't even take you long.  Her books (children and YA with only a few exceptions) are extremely economical.  Don't let the length deceive you.  She packs a lot into those pages. 

The basic premise is wonderful.  Claudia decides to run away from her unappreciative family and picks the Metropolitan Museum of Art as her hideout.  This appealed to me hugely at the age of about 12.  She selects her brother Jamie to accompany her and they do exactly what they plan.  Once in the museum, she becomes obsessed with a small statue of an angel and Claudia's search for the artist becomes the story's focus.

Illustration from the book by E L Konigsburg.
Kipling is an obvious literary giant, but he isn't much in fashion today as he wrote in and about the colonial era and we all tend to prefer that never happened.  In the interests of redressing the balance a little, I draw your attention to the following:

The Jungle Book
The Second Jungle Book
Just So Stories
Puck of Pook's Hill
Rewards and Fairies
Kim

Technically all the above are children's books, but really, give them a try.  Disney did a great take on The Jungle Book but the original stories are another thing entirely.  Plus the man gives a flavour of India like nobody else I've ever read. 




13 comments:

  1. Wonderful post!

    I'm a new follower from the AtoZ Challenge. Nice to meet you.

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    1. Why thank you :0

      Welcome - and it's good to meet you too.

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  2. Great K post - Kipling does provide a rich taste of India from that period.

    Sometimes taking a few minutes to read a children's book can really refresh the brain. I love reading to my lil'man as much for me as for him :)

    *~ MAJK ~*
    Twitter @safireblade
    A to Z Blog Challenge

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    1. I seem to re-read my so-called children's books more often than anything else. Quite right on the brain refreshment.

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  3. What lay hidden in children's books ....more interesting than in adult books, I often find. ~Mary

    ps stopped by from Suze's blog.

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    1. Agreed entirely.

      Thank you for visiting and hope to see you again.

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  4. I absolutely agree, these are two kickass K authors!!! I haven't read Kipling since i was a kid, I think it's time to develop some adult appreciation for him!

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    1. Definitely. He's a masterly short story writer and it shows so clearly in the episodic way he approaches the longer stuff.

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  5. Love Konigsburg! I haven't read as much Kipling, though. About time to remedy that!

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    1. Always good to meet another Konigsburg fan :)

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  6. Hi Amanda .. I've just the Just So stories by Kipling to a youngster in the States - I'll post about it after the A - Z ... I had the most incredible email thanks back .. and he's loving the stories and says he knows he'll re-read them and re-read them .. so they are still well loved. Cheers Hilary

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  7. Mixed-Up Files was an absolutely formative book for me. Turned out it was for my father, too - he had an aborted attempt to pull a Claudia when he was around ten. (I suspect this was explained to me to keep me from camping out in the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, where I grew up, which was definitely a temptation.) I love Konigsberg for her straightforward writing style - she treats children like intelligent people. (The View From Saturday is another awesome one.)

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    1. Excellent story and entirely agree about Konigsburg's style. She's quite tricky to get hold of in the UK, but Amazon have turned up some of her books from time to time.

      I've got a fondness for A Proud Taste For Scarlet and Miniver and A Very Long Way from Anywhere Else, but Mixed-Up Files was my introduction.

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