I really loved the first 3/4 of this book, and then the pacing changed and I felt a little flung toward the end. It also had a very similar feel to "From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" once I got through it, and that was a bit disappointing; I understand authors who intentionally theme their work, but I didn't believe that to be what ELK was doing here, so it made it fall a bit flat. Still worth having read, just not as unique as I'd anticipated. ( )

3.5/5

I didn't enjoy this as much as Konigsburg's previous works. Things really didn't pick up until the middle of the book and the characters felt underdeveloped. That said, the premise is fascinating - Konigsburg does excel at weaving art history into her plots.

Reading some of the reviews surprised me. Yes, there are more complex* topics covered in this novel. Does that make them inappropriate for middle schoolers? I don't believe it does. Often times, teachers and parents underestimate children's comprehension and awareness and unwittingly shape negative attitudes around certain themes by avoiding them altogether.

*I'm referring to Nazi Germany and nudity in art. While the global history of homosexuality is complex (as is any type of history), homosexuality itself is not. Love is love is love is love is love. It's way past time we treated it as such. ( )

Amadeo begins helping William and his mother, who manage estate sales, as they pour over the belongings of his eccentric former opera star neighbor, Mrs. Zender. Meanwhile, Amadeo's godfather is preparing an art show of artworks that Hitler's regime declared degenerate.
Two thirds of the book focuses on Amadeo, William, and Mrs. Zender, when it suddenly veers off into a past story about Nazi's stealing artworks and how Mrs. Zender ended up with a particular piece.
The book felt profoundly off balance, The characters of William and his mother, who are so much a part of the first half of the book, are completely irrelevant to the second half. I never felt any real affinity for Amadeo or William. For a young adult book, it doesn't work that the ultimate plot has nothing to do with the young characters, but only with a handful of people who are either very old or dead. ( )

Thank you Andrea for recommending this to me. I really enjoyed it. Good characters, a bit of a mystery, satisfying ending. Well read by Edward Herrmann. ( )

Should I have remembered more from The Outcasts of Schuyler Place than I do from one read? E.L. Konigsburg is sometimes great, and when she is great she is wonderful, and sometimes not (but I can recall only one shockingly mediocre book). This had most of her great usual motifs -- responsibility, art, history, Judaism, friendship, Otherism -- that she treated so well in Frankweiler, Jennifer, Proud Taste, Jericho, Saturday, but they failed to cohere. I didn't find the friendship between the boys realistic, and the two storylines lay side-by-side without quite aligning. Overlapping is not alignment.