Anyone who has ever wanted to run away to escape the trials and injustices of family life will identify with Claudia, who chafes under the outrage of a small allowance and the responsibility of being the eldest child in a family with three younger boys. Anyone who likes adventure will admire the thoroughness and resourcefulness with which Claudia Kincaid plans and executes her escape from Greenwich, Connecticut, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Anyone who appreciates a mystery will be attracted to the enigma of Angel, which Claudia feels compelled to solve, even though it has baffled the museum experts. In short, for sheer entertainment value, this book has much to recommend it.

But its appeal goes beyond entertainment, for Konigsburg develops believable characters with whom young people can identify. Claudia, like many another bright eleven-year-old, feels unappreciated by her family. Tired of the arguments over television shows, weary of being responsible for her youngest brother, and basically upset because she is growing up on the inside but getting no recognition for it on the outside, Claudia has important reasons for getting away from it all. Her experience in the museum, which ultimately leads to a resolution of her problems, establishes her maturity. She learns about herself, and in her interactions with nine-year-old Jamie, whom she chooses to accompany her, she realizes the value and the pleasure one finds in teamwork, even when the other member of the team is one's brother. In addition to being an interesting and entertaining story, the novel deals with some important issues of growing up, making it a doubly valuable book to read.