I'd heard of this, but it was never one I read in my younger years. I had [book:Ban This Book|31702735] on my "to read" list and knew from its blurb, that this book was featured heavily in it ... so I figured I'd give it a quick read first.  While I liked it fine, I guess I'm not sure what makes it stand out so much to be a favorite or award winner ... perhaps if I'd read it myself when I was closer to the age of the MCs, to really imagine myself doing something like that (different perspectives reading as an adult, and 50+ years after original publication). 

I went with the audio edition, and the narration was good. I checked out the Kindle copy too, and did refer to it when the tense/tone shifted ... there is a prologue by the titled Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, a letter (in italics in the Kindle copy) to her lawyer (1st person, past tense) ... then it moves to the chapters (3rd person, past tense) ... and these chapters, this book, is actually the "file" referenced in the letter? Mrs. Frankweiler writing Claudia's story (until in intersects). So, throughout the book, there are sudden breakthroughs, where Mrs. Frankweiler is again talking in an aside to the lawyer, dropping little additional tidbits. I wondered if these would be italicized like the letter at the beginning, but they were just included in parenthesis.  Quick shift to a 1st person presentation, then back to 3rd person as the story continues. Then in Chapter 9, the story being told shifts as Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is not only telling the story, but is IN the story (so first person pretty much from there until the end). There is also a write-up from Sheldon, Mrs. Frankweiler's driver, giving a recap of things that happened outside of Mrs. Frankweiler's perview, and ends again with a writing to her lawyer. 

It was cute, and when I came to GoodReads and looked up some of the quotes that others had saved, there were some that I liked and added to my quotes collection.