Henry also shows a knack for repairing things and is a natural athlete.

Given that the Boxcar Children zeitgeist has lasted more than 90 years, there’s got to be something behind these stories that generations of readers have grown to love. Why did the Boxcar Children go live in a boxcar after their parents' death? In April 2014, the animated film The Boxcar Children was released. They eventually meet their grandfather, who is a wealthy and kind man (although the children had believed him to be cruel). The Boxcar Children is a children's book series originally created and written by the American first-grade school teacher[1] Gertrude Chandler Warner. He takes her to his own home to recover and invites the other children to stay there as guests. Jessie is described as being very tidy and organized. The film won Best Animated Feature Film at the 2015 St. Tropez International Film Festival. They moved to a new house in The Mystery of the Singing Ghost. Both kids and educators love these books. They are very self-sufficient and do their investigating with little or no adult help. Set in Botswana, Precious Ramotswe is a Miss Marple-style detective heroine who keeps careful watch on all of her neighbors and solves the local crimes. Because of this, he became known as her dog. They run away and find an abandoned boxcar, which they make into a little home for themselves. Aunt Jane was once unkind, but was changed in Mystery Ranch, the fourth book of the series. The age range reflects readability and not necessarily content appropriateness.

In a way, the series always felt a little odd to me for not saying much about the circumstances of the parents’ deaths. The series centered on the four Alden siblings — Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benjamin — whose parents die. She often came under fire for presenting children who are able to survive with no parental supervision, thinking it would encourage rebellion, but Warner never backed down from the fight, saying in her biography that that's precisely why she wrote it: children wanted to read about their resourcefulness and independent spirit. The Boxcar Children is a children's book series originally created and written by the American first-grade school teacher Gertrude Chandler Warner. Their parents die and four children, as young as 6, are just allowed to disappear into the woods? ", For the children's novel by E. Nesbit, see, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Boxcar Children Mysteries: The Boxcar Children®", "Gertrude Chandler Warner and the Boxcar Children at Albert Whitman & Company", "Children's Notes, Boxcar Children Redux", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Boxcar_Children&oldid=981839326, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 4 October 2020, at 18:22.

Benjamin "Benny" Alden: is the youngest child at 6 years old (5 in the original 1924 edition). Only the first 19 stories were written by creator Warner. The Boxcar Children is a curious combination of practical and fanciful. #45 The Mystery of the Stolen Music (1995), #47 The Mystery of the Hot Air Balloon (1995), #49 The Mystery of the Stolen Boxcar (1995), #55 The Mystery of the Secret Message (1996), #62 The Mystery of the Lake Monster (1998), #67 The Mystery of the Stolen Sword (1998), #70 The Mystery of the Pirate’s Map (1999), #76 The Great Bicycle Race Mystery (2000), #77 The Mystery of the Wild Ponies (2000), #78 The Mystery in the Computer Game (2000), #79 The Mystery at the Crooked House (2000), #81 The Mystery of the Midnight Dog (2001), #84 The Haunted Clock Tower Mystery (2001), #85 The Disappearing Staircase Mystery (2001), #86 The Mystery on Blizzard Mountain (2002), #87 The Mystery of the Spider’s Clue (2002), #88 The Mystery of the Mummy’s Curse (2002), #96 The Mystery in the Fortune Cookie (2003), #98 The Mystery of the Runaway Ghost (2004), #100 The Mystery of the Haunted Boxcar (2004), #102 The Ghost of the Chattering Bones (2005), #103 The Sword of the Silver Knight (2005), #105 The Mystery of the Orphan Train (2005), #116 The Ghost at the Drive-In Movie (2008), #117 The Mystery of the Traveling Tomatoes (2008). There are several aspects of the children’s past that are never completely explained. James Henry Alden: is the wealthy and kind grandfather of the Alden children, allowing them a lot of freedom and always offering them advice. Although they do have a grandfather that they have never met, they are determined not to let him find them. In the early books, the children aged in the stories, but as the series was continued, their ages became frozen with Henry as age 14, Jessie as age 12, Violet as age 10, and Benny as age 6. Dippe. The book is named for the abandoned boxcar in which the kids make their home, so it makes sense that it's the most important part of the setting. Written for kids reading at a second- or third-grade level, the series is easy to flip through now, especially if you’re using (as this author was) the Scholastic paperbacks released in the late ’80s and early ’90s and featuring what looks to be about 22-point font. He takes care of the kids after the death of their parents. I finished eight books in maybe four hours total. Mike: Mike is Benny's best friend and appeared on Surprise Island. He acted as a "watchdog" when they lived in the boxcar and protected them. As a surprise, Alden arranges to have the boxcar completely restored, repainted, and moved into his backyard where the children can visit it whenever they like. In Warner's original books, Henry ages and eventually goes off to college in The Lighthouse Mystery. But as Henry gets to be the wise problem-solver, 12-year-old Jessica, or Jessie, is described as very neat and tidy, and she does all of the cooking. Suspecting that Henry is not telling the full truth about himself, Dr. Moore follows Henry home in secret and sees the children's living conditions.