E. L. Konigsburg

When suburban Claudia Kincaid decides to run away, she knows she doesn't just want to run "from" somewhere, she wants to run "to" somewhere -- to a place that is comfortable, beautiful, and, preferably, elegant. She chooses the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Knowing that her younger brother Jamie has money and thus can help her with a serious cash-flow problem, she invites him along. Once settled into the museum, Claudia and Jamie find...

Two fifth-grade girls, one of whom is the first black child in a middle-income suburb, play at being apprentice witches.

Kidnapped seventeen years before, a man's daughter by a former marriage appears at his new home in Pittsburgh and affects the entire family.