There’s one moment that involves an x-ray machine that strains a bit of credulity, but the strength of the other elements more than make up for it. The crazy thing about the mystery at work here is that Fitzgerald honestly makes you believe that a pair of 12-year-olds, with a whole summer of nothing to do, could indeed successfully identify a Renaissance painting and, with a little research and intelligence, determine its origins. Now with the help of the daughter of a pair of acting celebrities, a punk librarian, an Episcopalian priest, a guy selling nuts on the street, and more, Theo’s about to peel away not just the mystery behind the painting, but also her own grandfather’s role in one of the greatest WWII capers of all time. The more Theo starts to look into the painting and its history, the more determined she is to track down its story. And as strange as it sounds, beneath his plain picture of an egg lies an incredibly old image of Madonna and Child.

It's when things look particularly dire that Theo accidentally spills rubbing alcohol on one of her grandfather’s favorite paintings. With a mother incapable of dealing with reality (and addicted to pricey tea), Theo knows their money is coming to an end. It was after Jack died in a freak accident that things took a downward slide. When Theodora’s grandfather Jack was alive, the family didn’t have a ton of money but at least they got by pretty well on his salary as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

If you ever felt that Konigsburg could have done better in the whole solving-an-art-mystery department, allow me to lead you by the elbow over here to where I’m showing off my latest delight Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald marks a strong debut, daring to take the reader from contemporary New York City to WWII and back again without breaking so much as a sweat. The mystery had to do with a statue and had a solution that, let’s face it, was a bit contrived for its young audience. What you might have forgotten was that there was also a mystery at the heart of the book. I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that it’s most probable that what you remember from the title was the whole kids-running-away-to-live-in-a-museum aspect. But before we go any further, consider for a moment precisely WHY you love the book. Frankweiler? And, if your answer is yes, did you love it? At the very least, do you remember it? I think it fair to say that for significant portions of the population the answer to both these questions would be yes.

Have you ever read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs.

Laura marx fitzgerald