Konigsburg, E.L. 1930–

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Konigsburg, E.L. 1930–

(Elaine Lobl Konigsburg)

PERSONAL: Born February 10, 1930, in New York, NY; daughter of Adolph (a businessman) and Beulah Lobl; married David Konigsburg (a psychologist), July 6, 1952; children: Paul, Laurie, Ross. Education: Carnegie Mellon University, B.S., 1952; graduate study, University of Pittsburgh, 1952–54. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Thorndike Press, 295 Kennedy Dr., Waterville, ME 04901.

CAREER: Writer and educator. Shenango Valley Provision Co., Sharon, PA, bookkeeper, 1947–48; Bartram School, Jacksonville, FL, science teacher, 1954–55, 1960–62. Worked as manager of a dormitory laundry, playground instructor, waitress, and library page while in college; research assistant in tissue culture lab while in graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh.

AWARDS, HONORS: Honor book, Book Week, Children's Spring Book Fair, 1967, and Newbery Honor Book, American Library Association (ALA), 1968, both for Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth; Newbery Medal, ALA, 1968, Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, 1968, and William Allen White Award, 1970, all for From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler; Carnegie Mellon Merit Award, 1971; Notable Children's Book, ALA, and National Book Award finalist, both 1974, both for A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver; Notable Children's Book, ALA, and American Book Award nomination, both 1980, both for Throwing Shadows; Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, About the B'nai Bagels, A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, and Journey to an 800 Number were all chosen Children's Books of the Year by the Child Study Association of America; Notable Children's Book, ALA, Parents' Choice Award for Literature, and Notable Children's Trade Book for the Language Arts, National Council of Teachers of English, all 1987, all for Up from Jericho Tel; Special Recognition Award, Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, FL, 1997; Newbery Medal, ALA, 1997, for The View from Saturday; Best Books for Young Adults selections, ALA, for The Second Mrs. Giaconda and Father's Arcane Daughter.

WRITINGS:

FOR CHILDREN; SELF-ILLUSTRATED

Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1967, published as Jennifer, Hecate, MacBeth, and Me, Macmillan (London, England), 1968, Cornerstone Books (Santa Barbara, CA), 1989.

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1967.

About the B'nai Bagels, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1969.

(George), Atheneum (New York, NY), 1970, published as Benjamin Dickenson Carr and His (George), Penguin (Harmondsworth, England), 1974.

A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1973.

The Dragon in the Ghetto Caper, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1974.

Samuel Todd's Book of Great Colors, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1990.

Samuel Todd's Book of Great Inventions, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1991.

Amy Elizabeth Explores Bloomingdale's, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1992.

FOR CHILDREN

Altogether, One at a Time (short stories), illustrated by Gail E. Haley, Mercer Meyer, Gary Parker, and Laurel Schindelman, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1971, 2nd edition, Macmillan, 1989.

The Second Mrs. Giaconda, illustrated with museum plates, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1975.

Father's Arcane Daughter, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1976.

Throwing Shadows (short stories), Atheneum (New York, NY), 1979.

Journey to an 800 Number, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1982, published as Journey by First Class Camel, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1983.

Up from Jericho Tel, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1986.

T-Backs, T-Shirts, COAT, and Suit, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1993.

The View from Saturday, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1996.

Silent to the Bone, Atheneum (New York, NY), 2000.

The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, Atheneum (New York, NY), 2004.

FOR ADULTS; NONFICTION

The Mask beneath the Face: Reading about and with, Writing about and for Children, Library of Congress (Washington, DC), 1990.

TalkTalk: A Children's Book Author Speaks to Grown-Ups, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1995.

OTHER

Also author of promotional pamphlets for Atheneum and contributor to the Braille anthology, Expectations 1980, Braille Institute, 1980. Collections of E.L. Konigsburg's manuscripts and original art are held at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.

ADAPTATIONS: From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler was adapted for a record and cassette, Miller-Brody/Random House, 1969; a motion picture, starring Ingrid Bergman, Cinema 5, 1973, released as The Hideaways, Bing Crosby Productions, 1974; and a television movie, starring Lauren Bacall, 1995. Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was adapted for a television movie titled Jennifer and Me, NBC-TV, 1973, and for a cassette, Listening Library, 1986. The Second Mrs. Giaconda was adapted for a play, first produced in Jacksonville, FL, 1976. Father's Arcane Daughter was adapted for television as Caroline?, for the Hallmark Hall of Fame, 1990. About the B'nai Bagels and From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler are available as Talking Books. From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is also available in Braille. The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place was adapted for audiocassette.

SIDELIGHTS: An impressive figure in children's literature, E.L. Konigsburg is the only author to have had two books on the Newbery list at the same time. From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler won the 1968 Newbery Medal and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was a runner-up for the award in the same year. Konigsburg also won the coveted Newbery Medal in 1997 for The View from Saturday. Known for her witty and often self-illustrated works for young people, Konigsburg has carved out a unique niche with her score of published books, generally writing out of personal experience, but sometimes also verging far afield to the medieval world and the Renaissance. As Perry Nodelman noted in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Konigsburg is an innovator and tireless experimenter, "a creator of interesting messes." The term "messes" is for Nodelman hardly pejorative; rather, it is an indication of a truly artistic temperament at work.

Konigsburg did not set her sights on writing as a career until later in life. Born in New York, NY, in 1930, she was the middle of three daughters. She grew up in small towns in Pennsylvania, not only absorbing books such as The Secret Garden and Mary Poppins, but also such unabashed "trash along the lines of True Confessions," as she once reported in the Saturday Review. "I have no objection to trash. I've read a lot of it and firmly believe it helped me hone my taste." Konigsburg also mentioned that as a child she did much of her reading in the bathroom because "it was the only room in our house that had a lock on the door." She also drew often as a child and was a good student in school, graduating valedictorian of her class. Yet for a young person growing up in the small mill towns of Pennsylvania as Konigsburg did, college was not necessarily the next step. There were advantages to such an upbringing, however. As Konigsburg has commented: "Growing up in a small town gives you two things: a sense of place and a feeling of self-consciousness—self-consciousness about one's education and exposure, both of which tend to be limited. On the other hand, limited possibilities also means creating your own options. A small town allows you to grow in your own direction, without a bombardment of outside stimulation."

Konigsburg did grow in her own way and decided to head for college. Completely ignorant of such things as scholarships, she devised a plan whereby she would alternate working for a year with a year of school. The first year out of high school she took a bookkeeping job at a local meat plant where she met the brother of one of the owners—the man who would become her husband, David Konigsburg. The following year, Konigsburg enrolled in Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, choosing to major in chemistry. She survived not a few laboratory accidents to eventually take her degree in chemistry. Early in her college career, however, a helpful instructor directed her to scholarships and work-study assistance, so that she was able to continue her studies without break. Konigsburg noted that college was "a crucial 'opening up'" period. "I worked hard and did well. However, the artistic side of me was essentially dormant." She graduated with honors, married David Konigsburg, and went on for graduate study at the University of Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, her husband was also studying, preparing himself for a career in industrial psychology. When her husband won a post in Jacksonville, Florida, Konigsburg picked up and moved with him, working for several years as a science teacher in an all-girls school. The teaching experience opened up a new world for her, giving her insight into the lives of these young girls whom she expected to be terribly spoiled. But she quickly learned that economic ease did nothing to ease inner problems.

Konigsburg left teaching in 1955 after the birth of her first child, Paul. A year later a daughter, Laurie, was born, and in 1959 a third child, Ross. Konigsburg became a full-time mom, taking some time out, however, to pursue painting. She returned to teaching from 1960 to 1962 until her husband's work required a move to New York. With all the children in school, Konigsburg then started her writing career. She employed themes and events close to her family life for her books. She also used her children as her first audience, reading them her morning's work when they came home for lunch. Laughter would encourage her to continue in the same vein; glum faces prompted revision and rewrites. Konigsburg once commented that she had noticed that her kids were growing up very differently from the way she did, but that their growing up "was related to this middle-class kind of child I had seen when I had taught at the private girls' school. I recognized that I wanted to write something that reflected their kind of growing up, something that addressed the problems that come about even though you don't have to worry if you wear out your shoes whether your parents can buy you a new pair, something that tackles the basic problems of who am I? What makes me the same as everyone else? What makes me different?"

Such questions led Konigsburg to her first two books, Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, inspired by her daughter's experience making friends in their new home in Port Chester, New York, and From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which was inspired by the finicky manner in which her kids behaved on a picnic. Konigsburg also illustrated both these books, as she has many of her titles, using her children as models. The first novel tells the story of Elizabeth, who is new in town, and her attempts to make friends. It does not help that she is small for her age, and Cynthia, the cool kid in school, is quick to dismiss her. But then Elizabeth meets Jennifer, another classic outsider who styles herself as a witch. Elizabeth soon becomes her apprentice, and suddenly life is full of adventures. Jennifer is a source of mystery for Elizabeth: she never lets the new girl know where or how she lives, and this is just fine for Elizabeth, smitten by Jennifer to the point of declaring that even if she "discovered that Jennifer lived in an ordinary house and did ordinary things, I would know it was a disguise."

Nodelman noted that, baldly told, the story sounds like a "typical wish-fulfillment novel…. [But] as its title suggests this is no ordinary novel. It is too witty." As Nodelman pointed out, Elizabeth comes face to face with the important issue of what it means to be "normal," and decides not to worry about that. "The idea that it is better to be yourself than to be 'normal' and accepted by others transcends the cheap egocentricity of most wish-fulfillment fantasies," according to Nodelman. It is this extra dimension of story-telling that has set Konigsburg apart from other children's writers from the outset of her career. She eschews the easy solution and turns cliches on their head. Critical reception for this first book was quite positive. Booklist contributor Ruth P. Bull called it "a fresh, lively story, skillfully expressed," and a contributor for Publishers Weekly warned against allowing a too-cute title scare readers away from "one of the freshest, funniest books of the season." This same reviewer went on presciently to say that the reader will have "the smug pleasure" of saying in later years—when the author would surely make a name for herself—that he or she had read Konigsburg when she was just beginning. Writing in Horn Book, Ruth Hill Viguers also praised the book, noting that the story "is full of humor and of situations completely in tune with the imaginations of ten-year-old girls."

Konigsburg's second novel, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, was published shortly after her first. Following a family picnic in Yellowstone Park in which Konigsburg's children complained of the insects and the warm milk and the general lack of civilization, Konigsburg came to the realization that if they should ever run away from home, they would surely carry with them all the stuffy suburban ways that were so inbred in them. This started her thinking of a pair of children who run away from home to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a safe sort of imitation of far-away places. Claudia, tired of being taken for granted at home, plans to run away and takes her younger brother Jamie—the one with a sense for finances—with her on this safe adventure. Together they elude guards at the Met, sleep on royal beds, bathe in the cafeteria pool, and hang about lecture tours during the day. Their arrival at the museum coincides with the showing of a recent museum acquisition, a marble angel believed to have been sculpted by Michelangelo. Soon they are under the spell of the angel and want to know the identity of the carver, and this brings them to the statue's former owner, Mrs. Frankweiler. The story is narrated in the form of a letter from Mrs. Frankweiler to her lawyer, and it is she who confronts Claudia with the truth about herself. "Returning with a secret is what she really wants," says Mrs. Frankweiler. "Claudia doesn't want adventure. She likes baths and feeling comfortable too much for that kind of thing. Secrets are the kind of adventure she needs. Secrets are safe, and they do much to make you different. On the inside, where it counts."

Booklist reviewer Bull concluded that this second novel was "fresh and crisply written" with "uncommonly real and likable characters," and Bull praised the humor and dialogue as well. Viguers, writing in Horn Book, noted that the novel violated every rule of writing for children, yet was still "one of the most original stories of many years." A Kirkus Reviews critic commented that whereas Konigsburg's first title is a "dilly," this one is a "dandy—just as fast and fresh and funny, but less spoofing, more penetrating." Plaudits continued from Alice Fleming, who noted in the New York Times Book Review that Konigsburg "is a lively, amusing and painlessly educational storyteller," and from Washington Post Book World reviewer Polly Goodwin, who commented that the book is "an exceptional story, notable for superlative writing, fresh humor, an original theme, clear-eyed understanding of children, and two young protagonists whom readers will find funny, real and unforgettable." Award committees agreed with the reviewers, and for the first time in its history, the Newbery list contained two titles by the same author.

In Konigsburg's acceptance speech for her first Newbery, she talked about her overriding feeling of owing kids a good story. "[I try to] let the telling be like fudge-ripple ice cream. You keep licking the vanilla, but every now and then you come to something richer and deeper and with a stronger flavor." Her books all explore this richer and deeper territory, while employing humor in large doses. However, instant success is a hard act to follow, and her third book, About the B'nai Bagels, a Little League baseball story with a Jewish Mother twist, was not as well received as the first two. A further suburban tale is (George), Konigsburg's "most unusual, messiest, and most interesting book," according to Nodelman. Ben is a twelve-year-old with an inner voice he calls George who acts as a sort of higher intelligence and conscience for the boy. When Ben, who is a bright student, is placed in a high school chemistry class, George starts acting out, causing a crisis of identity.

A fascination for medieval times led Konigsburg to a major departure from suburban themes with her A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, a historical fantasy—told from the participants' points of view in heaven—about the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Though some critics found the book to be too modern for the subject, Zena Sutherland in the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books called it "one of the most fresh, imaginative, and deft biographies to come along in a long, long time." Paul Heins, writing in Horn Book, also noted that Konigsburg's drawings "are skillfully as well as appropriately modeled upon medieval manuscript illuminations and add their share of joy to the book." Following in this historical vein is The Second Mrs. Giaconda, the story of Leonardo da Vinci's middle years. Konigsburg posits a solution to the riddle of the Mona Lisa and serves up a "unique bit of creative historical interpretation" with a glimpse of Renaissance culture she has "artfully and authentically illumined," according to Shirley M. Wilton in the School Library Journal. Another more experimental novel—though in theme rather than period—is Father's Arcane Daughter, a mystery. The novel tells of the return of Caroline after having been kidnapped and presumed dead seventeen years earlier. The story focuses on the effects of Caroline's reappearance on her father, his new wife, and their children in a "haunting, marvelously developed plot," according to a reviewer in Publishers Weekly.

Konigsburg returned to more familiar ground with The Dragon in the Ghetto Caper and Throwing Shadows, the latter a group of short stories nominated for an American Book Award. Both Journey to an 800 Number and Amy Elizabeth Explores Bloomingdale's are vintage Konigsburg, the second of which tells the story of a girl and her grandmother trying to find the time to see Bloomingdale's. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly called the book a "vivid portrait of a distraction-filled city—and of a most affectionate relationship." Up from Jericho Tel relates the encounter between the ghost of a dead actress and two children, who are turned invisible and sent out with a group of street performers to search for a missing necklace. "A witty, fast-paced story," is how a reviewer in Publishers Weekly characterized the novel. A contributor to the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, reviewing Up from Jericho Tel, provided a summation of Konigsburg's distinctive gift to children's literature: "Whether she is writing a realistic or a fanciful story, Konigsburg always provides fresh ideas, tart wit and humor, and memorable characters."

With T-Backs, T-Shirts, COAT, and Suit, Konigsburg tells of young Chloe, who spends the summer in Florida with her stepfather's sister. She runs a meals-on-wheels van and becomes involved in a controversy over T-back swimming suits. Rachel Axelrod, reviewing the book in the Voice of Youth Advocates, concluded that Konigsburg "has produced another winner!"

The View from Saturday tells the story of four members of a championship quiz bowl team and the paraplegic teacher who coaches them. A series of first-person narratives from the students display links between their lives in a story that is "glowing with humor and dusted with magic," according to a critic in Publishers Weekly. Julie Cummins concluded in the School Library Journal that "brilliant writing melds with crystalline characterizations in this sparkling story that is a jewel in the author's crown of outstanding work." Konigsburg won the 1997 Newbery Medal for this novel, her second in three decades of writing. Commenting on the connection between The View from Saturday and Konigsburg's previous medal winner, The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the author's daughter, Laurie Konigsburg Todd, noted in Horn Book: "Although the inspiration for these Newbery books was as disparate as the three decades which separate their publication, their theme is the same. In fact, every one of E.L. Konigs-burg's … novels are about children who seek, find, and ultimately enjoy who they are. Despite this common denominator, [her] writing is the antithesis of the formula book. Her characters are one-of-a-kind."

More one-of-a-kind characters are served up in Silent to the Bone, the story of a thirteen-year-old wrongly accused of injuring his baby sister. Branwell, shocked by such an accusation, loses the power of speech, and it is left to his friend Connor to reach out to him and discover the truth about what really happened. Accused by the English au pair of dropping and shaking his infant half-sister, Branwell cannot defend himself and is confined at a juvenile center. Employing handwritten flash cards, Connor is able to piece together the events leading up to the 911 call that opens the book. By the end of this journey of discovery, not only is the real villain revealed, but both Bran and Connor have come to grips with larger truths in their own lives, including the dynamics of stepfamilies. "No one is better than Konigsburg at plumbing the hearts and minds of smart, savvy kinds," commented Horn Book critic Peter D. Sieruta, who called Silent to the Bone an "edgy, thought-provoking novel … written with Konigsburg's characteristic wit and perspicuity." Booklist reviewer Hazel Rochman pleaded for a second reading of the book, not simply for clues to the identity of the real perpetrator, but for "the wit, and insight, the farce, and the gentleness of the telling." Reviewing the novel in the New York Times Book Review, Roger Sutton commented that Konigsburg "is one of our brainiest writers for young people, not only in the considerable cerebral powers she brings to her books but in the intellectual demands she makes on her characters."

The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place is a "poignant tribute to independent thinkers," commented a reviewer in the School Library Journal. Twelve-year-old Margaret Rose Kane, last seen in a brief appearance in Silent to the Bone, is dismayed at, for the first time, not being allowed to accompany her academic parents on their summer exploration outing. Instead she is sent to summer camp at Camp Talequa. At first pleased by the camp, she soon learns that her nonconformist ways put her at odds with everyone else, from the other campers to the counselors and all the way up to the administrators. Gloomy and declining to participate in forced-happiness camp activities with a demure "I'd prefer not to," Margaret Rose feels as though she is facing a summer of unrelenting misery. When Margaret Rose's unhappiness reaches a crisis point, she is rescued by eccentric great-uncles Alex and Morris, who have her released from camp mid-season. Delighted at spending the rest of the summer with her beloved great-uncles, Margaret Rose soon finds herself in the midst of another crisis. In Alex and Morris's back yard stand three sculptures, a trio of looming towers lovingly and painstakingly built over a span of nearly fifty years with bits and pieces of glass, old clocks, porcelain, discarded metal, and other items. What was once junk was turned into art within the towers. However much everyone else might like the tower sculptures, the homeowners association where Alex and Morris live have declared them a blight on the neighborhood, the area's "historical integrity," and on the neighborhood's property values, and have slated them for destruction. Determined to stand up to the bullying of the homeowners' association and to save the towers from demolition, Margaret Rose rallies a group of like-minded but equally freethinking allies to her and her great-uncles' cause. Konigsburg "offers readers so much, so well, that her book is a veritable feast, amply demonstrating how intelligence can triumph over pretense," observed a Publishers Weekly reviewer.

In her novel, "Konigsburg tackles some big themes—the meaning of art, the power of community, and the importance of nonconformity—without sacrificing her usual incisive characterizations and inventive storytelling," noted reviewer Peter D. Sieruta in Horn Book. A Publishers Weekly reviewer commented favorably on the book's "smart and memorable characters," while Booklist contributor Jennifer Mattson named it an "intelligently structured, humorously told, and richly observant story." Cindy Darling Codell, writing in the School Library Journal, concluded: "Funny and thought-provoking by turns, this is Konigsburg at her masterful best."

Some of Konigsburg's characters, such as Jennifer, Elizabeth, and Claudia, have become not only best friends to readers, but also telegraphic symbols of complex emotions and adolescent conditions. "The strong demands Konigsburg makes of her characters and the fine moral intelligence she gives them imply much respect for children, a respect she has continued to express in all of her books," asserted Nodelman. A writer who takes her craft seriously yet who manages to avoid heavy-handed thematic writing, Konigsburg views children's books as "the primary vehicle for keeping alive the means of linear learning," as she wrote in TalkTalk: A Children's Book Author Speaks to Grown-Ups. "[Children's books] are the key to the accumulated wisdom, wit, gossip, truth, myth, history, philosophy, and recipes for salting potatoes during the past 6,000 years of civilization. Children's books are the Rosetta Stone to the hearts and minds of writers from Moses to Mao. And that is the last measure in the growth of children's literature as I've witnessed it—a growing necessity."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Children's Literature Review, Volume 1, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1976.

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 52: American Writers for Children from 1960, Fiction, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1986.

Hanks, Dorrel Thomas, E.L. Konigsburg, Twayne, 1992.

Konigsburg, E.L., From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Atheneum, 1967.

Konigsburg, E.L., Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, Atheneum, 1967.

Konigsburg, E.L., TalkTalk: A Children's Book Author Speaks to Grown-Ups, Atheneum, 1995.

Schwartz, Narda, Articles on Women Writers, Volume 2, ABC-Clio, 1986.

Twentieth-Century Children's Writers, 4th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1995.

PERIODICALS

Book, November-December, 2002, "A Kid Classic That's Museum Quality," review of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, p. 37.

Booklist, June 1, 1967, Ruth P. Bull, review of Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, p. 1048; October 1, 1967, Ruth P. Bull, review of From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, p. 199; May 1, 1995, Hazel Rochman, review of TalkTalk: A Children's Book Author Speaks to Grown-Ups, p. 1582; October 15, 1996, Ilene Cooper, review of The View from Saturday, p. 424; August, 2000, Hazel Rochman, review of Silent to the Bone, p. 2135; December 15, 2003, Jennifer Mattson, review of The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, p. 749.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, September, 1973, Zena Sutherland, review of A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, pp. 10-11; January, 1976, p. 80; March, 1986, review of Up from Jericho Tel, p. 131.

Christian Century, December 14, 2004, review of The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, p. 24.

Horn Book, March-April, 1967, Ruth Hill Viguers, review of Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, pp. 206-207; September-October, 1967, Ruth Hill Viguers, review of From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, p. 595; July-August, 1968, E.L. Konigsburg, "Newbery Award Acceptance," pp.391-395; September-October, 1973, Paul Heins, review of A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, pp. 466-467; March-April, 1996, Nancy Vasilakis, review of TalkTalk, p. 229; January-February, 1997, Roger Sutton, review of The View from Saturday, p. 60; July-August, 1997, Laurie Konigsburg Todd, "E.L. Konigsburg," p. 415; November-December, 2000, Peter D. Sieruta, review of Silent to the Bone, p. 756; March-April, 2004, Peter D. Sieruta, review of The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, p. 184; May-June, 2004, Kristi Elle Jemtegaard, review of The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, p. 350.

Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, November, 2002, review of Silent to the Bone, p. 217.

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 1967, review of From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, p. 740; December 15, 2003, review of The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, p. 1451.

Kliatt, July, 2004, Sunnie Grant, audiobook review of The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, p. 54.

New York Times Book Review, November 5, 1967, Alice Fleming, review of From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, p. 44; November 19, 2000, Roger Sutton, "In the Blink of an Eye," p. 54.

People, May 3, 2004, Jennifer Brown, "Spring's Best Kids' Books," review of The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, p. 46.

Publishers Weekly, April 10, 1967, review of Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, p. 80; July 19, 1976, review of Father's Arcane Daughter, p. 13; April 25, 1986, review of Up from Jericho Tell, p. 80; January 12, 1990, Diane Roback, review of Samuel Todd's Book of Great Colors, p. 59; August 16, 1991, review of Samuel Todd's Book of Great Inventions, p. 57; July 6, 1992, review of Amy Elizabeth Explores Bloomingdales, p. 55; July 22, 1996, review of The View from Saturday, p. 242; November 11, 1997, review of The View from Saturday, p. 30; September 13, 1999, review of Amy Elizabeth Explores Bloomingdale's, p. 86; November 11, 2002, "Destination: The Met," review of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, p. 66; January 12, 2004, review of The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, p. 54; April 12, 2004, review of The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, p. 25; January 9, 2006, review of The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, p. 56.

Saturday Review, November 9, 1968, E.L. Konigsburg, "A Book Is a Private Thing," pp. 45-46.

School Library Journal, September, 1975, Shirley M. Wilton, review of The Second Mrs. Giaconda, p. 121; September, 1996, Julie Cummins, review of The View from Saturday, p. 204; January, 2004, Cindy Darling Codell, review of The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, p. 130; June, 2004, audiobook review of The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, p. 74; October, 2004, audiobook review of The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, p. S54.

Teacher Librarian, October, 2004, Kathleen Odean, review of The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, p. 18.

Time for Kids, March 19, 2004, Elizabeth Winchester, "A Writer's World: Kids Take Charge of Their Lives in E.L. Konigsburg's Creative Books," p. 7.

Voice of Youth Advocates, December, 1993, Rachel Axelrod, review of T-Backs, T-Shirts, COAT, and Suit, p. 254.

Washington Post Book World, November 5, 1967, Polly Goodwin, review of From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, p. 22.