3.5
The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place
ByPublisher Description
E.L. Konigsburg revisits the town of Epiphany to tell the story of Margaret Rose Kane, Connor's older half-sister. It's about the summer when Margaret Rose turned twelve--the same year that Cabbage Patch dolls were popular, that Sally Ride became the first woman to go into space, that El Nino turned the world upside-down. Margaret Rose begins her summer with a miserable experience at camp, from which she's rescued by her beloved, eccentric uncles. Little does she know that her uncles, in turn, need rescuing themselves--from a tyrannical city council determined to tear down her uncles' life work--three spectacularly beautiful towers that her uncles have been building since before Margaret was a baby. A rousing book about intelligence, art, and the fierce preservation of individuality, from EL Konigsburg.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place Reviews
3.5
“Margaret Rose attends summer camp but consistently recites a phrase from Bartleby the Scrivener whenever asked to participate. She is elated when one of her uncles, brothers living together, arrive to rescue her. The eccentric duo are defending their homemade towers, built over 45 years from scrap metal, china, porcelain, and glass, against a gentrifying community eager to demolish them. Margaret Rose is eager to advocate for the art community, leveraging support from unexpected places.
This book is an outstanding read that emphasizes the importance of recognizing art and history amid neighbourhood gentrification. With a compelling mission, it follows Margaret Rose’s active involvement. The quirky uncles provide humour and gravity as they face the potential loss of their life's work. Side⁹ characters give meaning to the words' neighbourhood' and 'community'. The towers also offer insight into Outsider Art, its significance, and its relevance in the digital age. A captivating and meaningful book for middle graders.”
“E. L. Konigsburg’s The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place (2004) feels like both a continuation and a departure from her better-known classics. Where From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and The View from Saturday won Newbery recognition for their charm and originality, this later work leans into heavier themes: gentrification, conformity, and the battle between personal expression and societal “progress.”
At its core is twelve-year-old Margaret Rose Kane, prickly and stubborn in the best ways. Abandoned for the summer by parents attempting to patch up their marriage in Peru, Margaret finds herself marooned at an unfriendly camp. When she refuses to play along with the clique-driven cruelty there, she opts out—famously saying, “I prefer not to”—and is rescued by her eccentric Hungarian uncles, Alex and Morris Rose.
The Roses are not just guardians but artists, having spent decades building towering sculptures from scrap metal and glass in their working-class neighborhood. These monuments, beautiful in their oddness, become the target of new residents intent on sanitizing the area for “property values.” From there, the novel unspools into a story of protest, unlikely alliances, and the struggle to preserve authenticity in the face of cultural erasure.
Konigsburg’s greatest gift lies in her characters. The Rose brothers are vibrant creations, full of warmth and stubborn pride. Jake Kaplan, the handyman labeled a fool, reveals a sharper mind than most around him realize. And Peter Vanderwaal—an unmistakably gay art director, rendered with subtlety and respect—is portrayed not as a stereotype but as a person with humor, complexity, and agency. For a writer born in 1930, this progressive empathy stands out; Konigsburg continually champions the overlooked and the marginalized, whether they’re immigrants, eccentrics, or children who don’t fit in.
Thematically, the book is rich with contrasts: camp rules mistaken for morality, lawyers depicted as embodiments of soulless ambition, and the hollow logic of suburban “beautification” projects that strip communities of life. Konigsburg doesn’t just tell a story about saving towers—she critiques the American obsession with tidiness and profit, where neighborhoods are reshaped into sterile imitations of themselves.
If there’s a limitation, it’s in the execution. The plot at times leans on contrivance, and while Molly Ringwald’s narration is competent, it lacks the sparkle that might have lifted the audiobook into something memorable. Still, Konigsburg’s empathy shines through. She never talks down to her audience, granting young readers the space to wrestle with questions of justice, loyalty, and what it means to stand one’s ground.
In the end, The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place is less about whether the towers survive intact, and more about the insistence that voices—particularly the inconvenient, odd, and stubborn ones—deserve to be heard.”
About E.L. Konigsburg
E.L. Konigsburg is the only author to have received the Newbery Medal and a Newbery Honor in the same year. In 1968, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler won the Newbery Medal and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was named a Newbery Honor Book. Almost thirty years later she won the Newbery Medal once again for The View from Saturday. Among her other acclaimed books are Silent to the Bone, The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, and A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver.
Other books by E.L. Konigsburg
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