2013 book 198

E.L. Konigsburg's The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place
Here's another Konigsburg book I've never read--mainly b/c it came out in 2004, when YA wasn't really on my radar. I kind of love that there are all these delightful and charming books I have yet to discover--especially because some days it feels like there aren't any charming books left in the world. This one starts with twelve-year-old Margaret Rose being rescued from summer camp (and a cabin of mean girls) by her great-uncle. I kind of wish I'd known about her "I'd prefer not to" method of activity avoidance when I went to camp, because man, I'd have preferred not to have to play tetherball. Or camp outside in the mud. (I had very nice girls in my cabin, though.) Anyway. Margaret returns home, but things there are . . . not quite right. Can she--with the help of some others--save the day? Not to make this sound simplistic.  It's not as clear-cut as that--Konigsburg tells a more complicated tale (and I can think of few other YA authors who'd have outsider art as a major plot point) with an ending that is actually fairly bittersweet. A good antidote to yesterday's book (and an episode of Luther), nonetheless. A/A-.