Better for children than adults.

This was a reread from my younger years, yet another example of my foray into recapturing my childhood literally. Only kidding ... partially. I was rather disappointed. Not necessarily in the book, but more in my recollections of it. As a child, it had read like some sort of great masterpiece and now I discover in my later years that it wasn't as outstanding as I had believed. To the mind of a child though, it is a wonderful read - which is probably why it's a book marketed towards children.

The story is told by Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which can sometimes be a bit frustrating as she really shouldn't know some of the details she is narrating about. It is the tale of two young children, Claudia and Jamie Kincaid - ages 11 and 9, respectively. Claude, as her brother affectionately calls her, is dissatisfied at home and thus she brainstorms a plan to get her family to appreciate her more. She persuades Jamie to join her because he is the more practical minded of the two, and he has a large piggy bank.

The brother-&-sister team run away to the Metropolitan Museum Of Art in New York City. They wash in the bathrooms, take baths in the fountain, and sleep in a bed that is part of an existing exhibit. It is truly quite an adventure. And, like true adventurers, they soon discover a mystery waiting to be solved. Claudia has fallen in love with a sculpture on display. This sculpture, called 'Angel', is shrouded under secrecy, as it's rumoured to be a work of Michaelangelo's but no real proof exists.

The ending was probably my least favourite part of the book. It reads as if the author wanted to neatly tie up all the loose ends in a few short pages, concluding with a slightly unbelievable ending.

8/10