From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
by E. L. Konigsburg
Middle grade · ages 8–12 · 790L (~4th grade) · 1977
Why we'd hand it over
A book that trusts kids to be intellectually bored and emotionally complex—Claudia's runaway isn't melodrama, it's a quiet reckoning with identity that lands harder on rereads.