VVMBookBlog

Have you read From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler? Well, this is by the same author but you might have to do a little more work to read this book!

The main characters are 6th grader Amedeo who has just moved to St. Malo, Florida, with his mother, and moved to a house next door to Mrs. Zender, an eccentric, elderly, formerly well-to-do opera singer, who was in the process of selling her things so she could move into a retirement home. Mrs. Wilcox, with the help of her son, 6th grader William, has been hired to inventory, sell, and dispose of Mrs. Zender’s things. Amedeo has a secret wish to gain fame by discovering something big, and as he’s helping William and Mrs. Wilcox, that might just happen!

So many times when I read a historical fiction book, I learn about something I never knew before or knew very little about. In this case the issue concerned something the Nazis did during their rise to power in Germany. In order to maintain the purity of the Aryan race, Hitler determined that all Modern Art, which they called Degenerate Art, was a bad influence on Germans, especially if the artists were Jewish, and that the art should be destroyed or at least removed from museums. These artists included name like Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, and Paul Klee. Many times the paintings were stolen and after the war were recovered and returned to the rightful owners. And that’s the issue that comes up in this book.

Through a few too many coincidences, members of Amedeo’s family and members of Mrs. Zender’s family are connected by the issue of Degenerate Art from Germany, but that way that the author develops the story makes it very compelling to read to the end.

The vocabulary is very complex, as are the references to cultural items or historical events, so that’s what I mean when I say that you have to do a little work to read this. As with most of Konigsburg’s books, the reader needs to be ready for a challenge and open to learning things along the way.