The Great Turkey Heist

The Boxcar Children #129

by Gertrude Chandler Warner (Creator), Robert Papp (Illustrator)

A new restaurant is opening up in Greenfield, and the Aldens are first in line to help the owner start up a food pantry. They do everything they can to collect donations, from putting up signs to offering a free Thanksgiving dinner for the whole town, but someone keeps moving the signs and even steals the giant turkey that was meant for the dinner. The clock is ticking to get it back, but never fear, the Boxcar Children are on the case.

Genres: Mystery, Thanksgiving, Childrens, Fiction, Audiobook, Middle Grade, Adventure

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Gertrude Chandler Warner was born in Putnam, Connecticut, on April 16, 1890, to Edgar and Jane Warner. Her family included a sister, Frances, and a brother, John. From the age of five, she dreamed of becoming an author. She wrote stories for her Grandfather Carpenter, and each Christmas she gave him one of these stories as a gift. Today, Ms. Warner is best remembered as the author of THE BOXCAR CHILDREN MYSTERIES.

As a child, Gertrude enjoyed many of the things that girls enjoy today. She loved furnishing a dollhouse with handmade furniture and she liked to read. Her favorite book was ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Often on Sundays after church, Gertrude enjoyed trips to visit her grandparents' farm. Along the way, she and Frances would stop to pick the wildflowers they both loved. Gertrude's favorite flower was the violet.

Her family was a very musical one. They were able to have a family orchestra, and Gertrude enjoyed playing the cello. Her father had brought her one from New York ---a cello, a bow, a case and an instruction book. All together, he paid $14. Later, as an adult, she began playing the pipe organ and sometimes substituted for the church organist.

Due to ill health, Ms. Warner never finished high school. She left in the middle of her second year and studied with a tutor. Then, in 1918, when teachers were called to serve in World War I, the school board asked her to teach first grade. She had forty children in the morning and forty more in the afternoon. Ms. Warner wrote, "I was asked or begged to take this job because I taught Sunday School. But believe me, day school is nothing like Sunday School, and I sure learned by doing --- I taught in that same room for 32 years, retiring at 60 to have more time to write." Eventually, Ms. Warner attended Yale, where she took several teacher training courses.

Once when she was sick and had to stay home from teaching, she thought up the story about the Boxcar Children. It was inspired by her childhood dreams. As a child, she had spent hours watching the trains go by near her family's home. Sometimes she could look through the window of a caboose and see a small stove, a little table, cracked cups with no saucers, and a tin coffee pot boiling away on the stove. The sight had fascinated her and made her dream about how much fun it would be to live and keep house in a boxcar or caboose. She read the story to her classes and rewrote it many times so the words were easy to understand. Some of her pupils spoke other languages at home and were just learning English. THE BOXCAR CHILDREN gave them a fun story that was easy to read.

Ms. Warner once wrote for her fans, "Perhaps you know that the original BOXCAR CHILDREN. . . 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! Most of my own childhood exploits, such as living in a freight car, received very little cooperation from my parents."

Though the story of THE BOXCAR CHILDREN went through some changes after it was first written, the version that we are familiar with today was originally published in 1942 by Scott Foresman. Today, Albert Whitman & Company publishes this first classic story as well as the next eighteen Alden children adventures that were written by Ms. Warner.

Gertrude Chandler Warner died in 1979 at the age of 89 after a full life as a teacher, author, and volunteer for the American Red Cross and other charitable organizations. After her death, Albert Whitman & Company continued to receive mail from children across the country asking for more adventures about Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny Alden. In 1991, Albert Whitman added to THE BOXCAR CHILDREN MYSTERIES so that today's children can enjoy many more adventures about this independent and caring group of children.

Books about Gertrude: https://www.goodreads.com/characters/...

Reviews

[Amy]

I was pleased to find this because there are not many Thanksgiving-themed chapter book. In this book, the kids are helping set up a food pantry, but it keeps getting sabotaged.

The ending was a little too happy-happy. I guess they wanted to finish the book on an upbeat note since this is for little kids.

It teaches two useful words: "fraud" and "heist".

[Joseph D.]

Book 129 of the Boxcar Children. This one was fun romp through Greenfield. Lots of strange happenings and a missing turkey. It was a great view at how good things came be misconstrued and only as people see the good that will come to their business as they take care of the less fortunate, do they begin to understand the power behind charity. A great lesson in a fun children’s book. ​

Joseph McKnight
http://www.josephmcknight.com

[Cherish Brown]

(4☆ Would recommend)
I loved these books as a kid & I'm really enjoying reading through the series again. I liked the mystery & the suspense. I like how there is more than one possible suspect, who each have reasonable motive. Would recommend.

[aem]

not sure that lessons learned are good even though it turned out alright in the end... - the man was sneaky and lied... do the means justify the end???

[Alex]

Adorable as always.

[Charles Reed]

80%

Yay free food!

[Adam Carman]

More a standard Boxcar mystery than some of the recents. It follows a low-stakes business rivalry and some vandalism against the backdrop of holiday do-gooderism.

[Lisa]

A fun book to read with students in the week leading up to Thanksgiving m. My 4th graders enjoyed creating a list of suspects and trying to solve the mystery.

[Kari Galer]

Wonderful, children’s mystery. Very sweet with a surprising ending.

[Jack O'Lantern]

If I was going to paint the pantry, I would paint it blue on top and yellow on the bottom. 'Off the hook' is an expression, it means people are calling him on his phone like crazy. If I had a cat I would name it Jellybean, like my friend Zander's cat. Benny was excited to be in the newspaper. I want to be in one commercial when I grow up. I don't care what it is about, maybe a cleaning commercial, or a phone commercial like Verizon. That would be fun. I would like to be in that ad, I really like those ads. - Jack, age 9

[Stacie]

Someone is sabotaging a food pantry.... I mean come on, that is the lowest of the low. But that won't stop the kids, they keep charging forward. Every wonder if they will be adult jerks if they ever manage to grow up?

[Allyssa]

It was a great book, and I liked the part where the turkey sign went missing.

[Cori]

Read May 23, 2019

[Mackenzie]

Good

[Y]

As usual, the adults in this series have ridiculously poor social skills and act like morons.