Book Description About the Author American author Gertrude Chandler Warner (1890–1979) wrote several stories for children, and her 1924 book, The Box-Car Children, was so successful that she published 18 sequels. The series’ popularity has continued to grow: there are currently 150 other books, written by many authors, as well as two animated films. Warner was also a schoolteacher who read the original story to her classes and rewrote it many times to make sure that it would be both engaging and easy to read. She noted that the book “raised a storm of protest from librarians who thought the children were having too good a time without any parental control! That is exactly why children like it!” Read more Customers Review: Google this book. The original is available on gutenberg.org.Read the original as written in 1924 as “Box-Car” with a hyphen.Be amazed!Read this watered down 1942 reissue.Be appalled. Flat. Elements of survival and danger removed. Names of cities changed for no reason. Sad. By watering down the story the actions of the children seem less daring, less significant, less accomplished.
These books are great! I bought this set for my 7 year old grandson. We read two chapters last night and he was completely engaged! On page 3 he says “grandma, I can see the children in my imagination! I see them walking down the road”. By the time we got to the second chapter, he says “Why don’t you read one page and I will read the next page”. My plan is working! I am hoping that within a couple more evenings, he will want to read these books all by himself as he falls asleep. UPDATE: night 3, we read the first 5 chapters together, and he wakes up the next morning telling me how the books end! After I left his bedroom – assuming he was going to sleep – he pulled out the last book in the series to find out what happens to the children! He couldn’t wait to know! And the best part is he picked up the book on his own to read. I am super happy!
Bought these for my 8 year old niece who is not a native English speaker, and she LOVES the stories! They are nice stories and i actually enjoyed reading then with her. The characters in the books are respectful, sweet, and fit with my niece’s family’s conservative values. Highly recommend these books!
The children are curious, humorous, and resourceful. This is a great example of the kind of literature that both stimulates young minds with excitement and provides an example of children who face challenges and solve those challenges without much adult intervention. I believe that it inspires a sense of agency in young readers, and my 6 year old son enjoys reading these with me. I expect that he will soon be reading them without me, and I’ll miss that shared experience.
If you only know this story from the revised version and its sequels: The Boxcar Children Bookshelf (The Boxcar Children Mysteries, Books 1-12) or the recent movie: The Boxcar Children, you are in for a surprise because while some things in this 1924 first edition reprint remained the same, others did not. In 1942 Warner rewrote the book with a prescribed vocabulary of six hundred words and a text of about 15,000 words, so that it could be used as a children’s school reader. I don’t know all the changes that were made, but one that leaped out at me was the changing of the opening; in the original their father is still (barely) alive but in the final stages of drinking himself to death at the beginning of the book. (The reason is never explained but can be surmised as his response to the death of their mother.)Lovers of the revised version and its sequels who wish to seek out this first edition are advised to select one that reproduces the charming original illustrations by Dorothy Lake Gregory, as this South Oxford Press (2014) reproduction of the first edition does.
I remember reading (and loving!) the Boxcar Children books when I was younger, so when my oldest daughter was old enough to enjoy reading chapter books, I immediately bought these for her. Just as I had hoped, they are a hit! We often read the books together before bed time and we cannot get enough of the good old fashioned adventure. I love the lack of cell phones and gizmos and gadgets in the books as the author, Gertrude Chandler Warner, began writing them in the 1940s. It has been years since I read the books on my own and I sometimes find myself reading ahead of where my daughter and I are in the books because I am anxious to know what is going to happen. They are simple and entertaining! We have given this particular box set as a gift on several occasions and the recipients have always come back and expressed how much they enjoyed the books as well. They are perfect for children who are just beginning to show interest in reading chapter books, or for younger children who are being read to by an adult. My one and only complaint about this set is the new cover artwork. I miss the covers from when I was a child! But that has no bearing on the stories themselves or the memories I have of reading them as a child, and now I am creating similar memories with my children.
Trying to get a young reader hooked on books requires a story that captures their interest but is written within their reading abilities. This series does just that. I purchased it for a Grandson who is 10, but not a great reader, and because he wants to know what happens next, so he keeps reading.
Love these books!! They are just so cute. My 8 year old reads these over the summer to keep his mind sharp. They are very easy reads but that’s why we read them over the summer. Nothing too tough, but definitely cute. |
1086 reviews