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A Prized Storyteller

For children's authors, the Newbery Medal is the ultimate prize--a match for Hollywood's Oscar or music's Grammy. But only one is awarded each year, and only four writers have managed to snag the precious medal twice. Last month E.L. Konigsburg became the fifth double-winner.

Konigsburg, who has written more than 15 books, first won back in 1968 for From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the tale of a brother and sister who run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

This year her "good humor" and "brilliant storytelling" in The View from Saturday (Atheneum; 163 pages) impressed Newbery judges. Says Konigsburg: "Any word I could use to express my reaction would be a total understatement."

The book is about Mrs. Olinski's sixth-grade academic-bowl team, which has trampled older teams on the way to the state finals. But the author stirs in other ingredients, including magic, turtles and the marriage of teammates' grandparents.

"I let the telling be like fudge-ripple ice cream," the author once said. "You keep licking the vanilla, but every now and then you come to something darker and deeper and with a strong flavor."

Stephanie Grimaldi, a fifth-grader in Scarsdale, New York, advises readers to savor the tale slowly: "You could read this book in one sitting, but you wouldn't get the meaning until later, after you thought about it. It is one of the best books I have ever read."

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