The Boxcar Children Guide to Adventure: A How-To for Mystery Solving, Make-It-Yourself Projects, and More

by Gertrude Chandler Warner (Creator)

The Boxcar Children have long been known for being creative and resourceful. This hardcover book is filled with fun how-to guides for everyday adventures. It includes tips and tricks for mystery solving (how to make invisible ink and create secret codes), travel (how to pack a suitcase; how to take great snapshots), and enjoying the great outdoors. Each of the four Boxcar Children has his or her own section—practical advice from Jessie, a “roughing it” guide from Henry, crafts and art projects from Violet, and recipes from Benny! A great gift for Boxcar fans.

Genres: Nonfiction, Childrens, Mystery

144 pages, ebook

First published September 1, 2014

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

[Alicia]

1. This is an intermediate book and would be a book Mya could read independently.

2. This has several elements of what Mya indicates she looks for in a book: detectives, adventure, and art. The book is told from the perspective of the Boxcar Children, who are well-known detectives. Supposedly they compiled the book together with advise, projects, games, and guides for solving mysteries. Mya can learn how to create some art using secret codes, make disappearing ink, dust for fingerprints, learn how to find directions using the stars in the sky, or even how to make up her own really scary ghost story to tell friends. She will get to feel like she is truly a detective because this book is loaded with ideas that she could explore!

3. The reading hook I would use: Detective stories are fun to read because of all the adventures they have discovering the different clues. The Boxcar Children are story detectives who happen to have a lot of practice at finding clues and solving mysteries and they are willing to share all of their secrets. They are willing to share how you can track footprints to the right person, locate missing objects, write secret messages that only friends can read, learn sign language, and so much more...the possibilities seem endless...you just need to read this book to discover them!

[June Jacobs]

My fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Binkley, liked to read aloud to our class each day after lunch. I'm assuming she liked to read to us because of her pleasant voice and smile, but I loved when she read to us! I can vividly remember her reading 'The Boxcar Children', 'My Side of the Mountain', and 'Little House in the Big Woods' to us. When I saw this 'Guide to Adventure' from 2014 in the local library's online catalog, I knew I wanted to read it.

The book is organized into eight chapters, each covering a different topic for adventure. Readers learn some simple detective skills in the first chapter; they learn ways to keep occupied on road trips in Chapter Three. Some simple recipes are included in the fifth chapter, while 'Violet's Workbag' shares stepped-out instructions for several craft, art, and gardening projects.

The 'A Friend in Need' chapter covers various ways children can 'pitch in to help' the community. Suggested jobs for readers include pet sitter and dog walking, babysitting and parent helper, volunteering, and yard work. This chapter stresses having fun and working together to get things done.

One chapter I especially appreciated was the final chapter, 'Unplugged Games'. The chapter starts off with tips for how to play fairly and how to show good sportsmanship. Lists of outdoor games and indoor card games are included. Did you know there are at least thirteen different versions of Tag? {Oh, how I wish I had known this when I was teaching primary grades.}

Another attractive feature of the book is that most of the chapters include a sidebar listing books from the Boxcar Children series that apply to the theme of the chapter. For instance, the chapter entitled 'Outdoor Adventures' lists seven mysteries in the series where the characters used their detective skills to solve a mystery. 'Violet's Workbag' lists three 'Great DIY Boxcar Children Moments' referring to crafts the children made in the stories and in which book they appear.

Highly recommended! This book was written for children but it is a great resource for teachers, librarians, parents/grandparents, youth group/scout/4H/church school leaders/camp counselors, and anyone who spends time with or works with middle-grade aged children.

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Borrowed from the local public library.

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[Eve Huang]

“The Boxcar Children guide to adventure: a how-to for mystery solving, make-it-yourself projects, and more”

An intermediate book. A Read aloud book, may need help from adults.

I am not sure if Natalia will like book at her first glance, since this book asks a higher reading skill than a 2nd grader has now, but, try it! She can open and read this book with adults, and she wills LOOOOOVE it. This book involved science (like how to make invisible ink and create secret codes), art (What is the “Jungle in a jar”) and other creative everyday adventures!

I know you like science, but do you know how to make invisible ink and create secret codes? I know you like art, but have seen a jungle in a jar, have you known how to make it? Come on, open this book with me or with anyone who you would like to read and explore together, you will LOOOOOOVE it!

[hhertzof]

Typical stuff to make and do guide with Boxcar trappings. It has the same problem I have with the later books - they grabbed on to one or two things about each character and ignored the rest of the character development in the first 19 books.

[J.E.]

James loved this book so much. As I read aloud to him, he created the world of the boxcar children with his Legos.

[Terry]

Read. Not reviewed.