The Boxcar Children #1: The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

image from: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/w/gertrude-chandler-warner/boxcar-children.htm

The Boxcar Children #1: The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Published by Scholastic 1989

Novel

Summary:

Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny are orphans who have run away from the cruel grandfather. They find a bakery where they work in exchange for shelter. One day they overhear the owner talking about taking Benny to a boy’s home because he is young so the children again run away. They find an old abandoned boxcar in which they make their home. Henry goes into the city and works odd job to make money for food. They also find a stray dog whom they take in and name Watch as he is their watchdog. The children are getting by fine until Violet gets sick. They need to take her to a doctor so they take her to Dr. Moore who Henry has been helping. Dr. Moore read that the children’s grandfather was looking for them and was offering a reward to those who could help find him so Dr. Moore calls him. Not wanting to scare the children away again, the childrens grandfather calls himself Mr. Henry. The children come to like the old man and are shocked to find out he was their once mean grandfather. The children go back home with their grandfather and to their delight he moves the boxcar into their backyard.

Response:

After reading the baby-sitters club book I wanted to find a series that would be more appealing to both genders and came across The Boxcar Children. I quite enjoyed this book and liked how it would appeal to a variety of different readers due to the gender and age variety of the characters. Children running away and living in a boxcar is not super realistic though, and I would hope that reading this story would not make any child want to do so. Regardless, I empathized with the children and hoped that they would find a happy family, though I was surprised to find out it would be their grandfather.

For the Reader:

I would recommend this book for children starting at about grade two. It is a great chapter book series that would help early readers transition into longer chapter books. As previously mentioned I think that this book would appeal equally to boys and girls. The series continues on as a mystery series.

Similar to the Baby-Sitters Club I did a search and was again surprised to see that there were 127 books in this series and 21 Boxcar Children Specials. I do not recall hearing much about these books as a child so I was very surprised to see that there were so many.