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The Boxcar Children (The Boxcar Children #1)

Gertrude Chandler Warner,

L. Kate Deal (Illustrator)

4.09 · Rating details · 103,275 Ratings · 2,608 Reviews

The Aldens begin their adventure by making a home in a boxcar. Their goal is to stay together, and in the process they find a grandfather.

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Paperback, 160 pages

Published January 1st 1989 by Albert Whitman Company (first published 1942)

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Jun 07, 2010 Lin rated it liked it

I read this book as a child and oh, did I ever cherish it. I'm a detail-oriented person, and this book speaks to the super organized control freak in me. Warner weaves so many details into the lives of the Boxcar children that, as a young'un, I found myself mentally picturing their home in exquisite detail. Over a decade since I last read it, I still remember the milk kept cool by the waterfall, or the kids carrying the cherries back to the boxcar between them. These details are the strength of ...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Sherry rated it it was amazing

When I was young, around the age of 7 I think, my mother was hospitalized for several months. I went to stay with my aunt and uncle. I missed my parents dreadfully. One warm afternoon while wandering around around on their property, I found a box of old books in a barn of sorts. I picked up The Boxcar Children and begain to read. My loneliness disappeared, and my life changed forever. The story pulled me in and I couldn't put it down. I felt as if I was a part of their adventures and the boxcar. ...more

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Feb 15, 2017 Phrynne rated it liked it

Shelves: 4000-books

I never came across this book as a child - presumably it did not cross the Atlantic to the UK where I grew up on a diet of the Secret Seven and the Famous Five. So I thought I would check it out now as it sits at the top of many popularity lists.
Having read all the reviews I think many people must be giving it five stars just for nostalgia value because to an adult outsider like me it certainly does not get five stars for content! However it is a nice, child friendly story with a degree of actio ...more

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May 13, 2016 Pamela rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens, adventure, orphans, fiction, classics

I absolutely LOVE this book and the entire BOXCAR CHILDREN series!!! Seeing this on a list of the Top 100 Children's Books, I simply had to add it to my Goodreads shelves. It was the book that pulled me in - hook, line, and sinker - as a passionate reader and supporter of public libraries. And praise be, many of my grandchildren are now discovering the magical joy of reading and have contemporary copies of this wonderful series, too.

For more titles on the Top 100 Children's Books list: www.good ...more

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Jul 11, 2012 Greg rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure, children-s-books

Never having read any of The Boxcar Children series as a kid, a friend recently gave me a copy of an ebook comprising the first 12 volumes to see what I missed out on. As a boy, I had been a fan of Enid Blyton's books, which were largely set in Britain, so I was curious to see how something similar from the US would read. I had also read that The Boxcar Children series is still very popular among kids despite having started in the 1940s.

As the book was first published 70 years ago, I was expecti Never having read any of The Boxcar Children series as a kid, a friend recently gave me a copy of an ebook comprising the first 12 volumes to see what I missed out on. As a boy, I had been a fan of Enid Blyton's books, which were largely set in Britain, so I was curious to see how something similar from the US would read. I had also read that The Boxcar Children series is still very popular among kids despite having started in the 1940s.

As the book was first published 70 years ago, I was expecting it to be somewhat old-fashioned and sexist. To some degree this is true. The four orphaned children mimic the typical white middle-class family with the older boy and girl taking on parental roles towards the younger girl and boy according to a largely traditional sexual division of labour. Henry, the older boy, goes into town to do odd jobs so that he can earn money to buy food and other needed items, such as a tablecloth, for himself and his siblings. Jessie, the older girl, stays at home to mind the younger kids (at one point cutting Benny's hair) and acts as a housekeeper, washing clothes and cooking meals. Similarly, Henry makes a cart for Benny while Violet is thrilled to hem the new tablecloth and Jessie makes a broom. However, the girls are also resourceful in locating an old dump from which cracked, but serviceable, crockery and a cooking kettle could be salvaged. They also make, with the help of little Benny, a stone-lined fire-pit over which the kettle could be suspended from a wire strung between two trees. Jessie also made a ladle from a tin cup fastened to a stick and used charcoal to write words on sheets of wrapping paper so that Benny could start learning to read.

But the kids also work together to build a small dam across a stream and instead of Henry using his age and gender to dictate what the group should do, he often asks Jessie for her advice. It is probably because he is the eldest that Henry is always the one to light the fire, and it is his strength (as the oldest and biggest child) that is sometimes needed to lift heavier rocks.

The book subtley teaches some practical wisdom - to always drink water from a water pump or fountain as opposed to a brook, that things can be recycled, to use boiling water to rinse off crockery found in a dump instead of just washing it in cold water, to use sand as a scouring agent, how to manage time (Jessie washing everyone's stockings while the others built the dam), using pine needles as bedding, locating a hearth away from anything that might catch fire (and having a container of water to hand in case something did catch light), and so on.

The children are also respectful of other people's property, with for example Henry asking permission to take stunted vegetables thinned out from a vegetable patch or bent nails from a garage rather than presuming to take them even though they would've been discarded anyway.

The overall impression I have of reading the book is that the kids are very practical and independent (except, not unreasonably, when it comes to illness). They seem to belong to a can-do generation unlike many of today's children whom, I feel, are more dependent and infantilised. Many schools in the US apparently ban kids of even high school age from possessing or using a pointed pair of scissors because it could hurt somebody. Likewise pen-knives are forbidden. And how many kids today could make a broom, hem a cloth or make a cart without the help of parents or other adults? Books like The Boxcar Children therefore serve as useful and accessible repositories of practical knowledge and advice that kids today and in the future can learn and that will hopefully encourage them to explore, make, repair, and innovate in ways that endless hours of computer games and cartoons on TV will not.

A couple of things that made me go 'hmmm' include the kids not hearing thunder as they slept outside in a wood (is that even possible?), or the description of the kids after a day spent cherry-picking as being 'better than most workers, because [they] are so happy' (so most workers should go about their work gleefully in order to be considered 'good'?). Henry also seems to be a bit dense later in the story in not recognising a man he had only seen a day or two before - but this is probably to add a little tension to the narrative and to get any kids reading the book a bit frustrated over how long Henry was taking to figure it out.

Apart from these minor quibbles, this is a book I would recommend to any child old enough to read it - and maybe for those adults who want to catch up with aspects of their childhood that they missed. ...more

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Oct 14, 2010 Brooke rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-i-own, boxcar-children

I read this in 1993 when I was in 3rd grade and just loved it.
I never thought of all the gender stereotypes because I knew that it was an old book and you often see that in old books.
Come on, there is a "horse and cart" coming down the road, the boys are wearing short pants and stockings, and the girls have on kerchiefs over their heads.
Clearly this is not a modern book and we don't need to expect it to be modern.
Kids reading it should not be changed or affected by the gender stereotypes bec

I read this in 1993 when I was in 3rd grade and just loved it.
I never thought of all the gender stereotypes because I knew that it was an old book and you often see that in old books.
Come on, there is a "horse and cart" coming down the road, the boys are wearing short pants and stockings, and the girls have on kerchiefs over their heads.
Clearly this is not a modern book and we don't need to expect it to be modern.
Kids reading it should not be changed or affected by the gender stereotypes because they should be able to understand that in the past, things were very different than how they are now.

To children reading this when it was re-released in 1942, children who had been through the great depression, this book told them what kind of people they should be... ever optimistic even in hard times, good at working together toward a common goal without fighting with each other, self-relient and hard working. Good lessons for kids in any time period, including today.

History of it, for those interested.....
People think it came out in 1942.
But they often don't know this actually came out in 1924 but few copies were made and it is extremely hard to find an original. The books is very different from the current version.
I do have one, and many things were changed. Some of the characters names are different, there are a lot more adventures in the book (the current version is shortened), and the kids actual mom and dad are included in the beginning of the book before they died (and it was a bit darker, because apparently they got drunk a lot and were not said to be good parents- so if you thought it was odd that the kids aren't upset over their dead parents, well, maybe that's why).
The book was also a lot more descriptive than now.
But anyway, it was published by a different company in 1924. Then, in 1942, it was re-published but the new company had the author re-write it to simplify it for younger children to read. That's why there are all the changes.
The current version, the 1942 version, is the same as the version you read today.

...more

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Mar 23, 2008 Katie rated it it was ok

If I had just given this a rating instead of feeling the need to re-read it, I would have clicked five stars and moved on with my life. I remember REALLY liking these books when I was a kid. And I like to think of myself as fundamentally the same person. Turns out, The Boxcar Children series is terrible! The only reason I gave it two stars was out of respect for the sliver of memory I have left of enjoying it. The writing is uninspired, the situations are improbable, and the stories aren't even ...more

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Nov 13, 2014 Amanda NEVER MANDY rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, prologue

My love for reading was formed during my early years and I can clearly remember the books that brought it about. The picture books were all a blur of toddling first steps, a means to get to the main event…chapter books. I was never the child you had to force to check out the “big kids’ books”, I was the one that had to be reminded of the checkout limit. To be submerged in an ocean of bound together written words was and still is divine!!!

This book deserves a nod for creating two reading interest ...more

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Feb 01, 2008 Stacy rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: babies

Recommended to Stacy by: Mom

I wanted to read this book because my mom said it was one of her favorites from her childhood. She said she identified with the children who had to take care of themselves. I don't think that's a compliment to my grandparents.

Anyway, reading this makes me realize how much children's literature has changed. The plot is like Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events - orphan siblings using their own resources to help themselves. But the tone is so sugary sweet it gives me a toothache. The c ...more

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Dec 20, 2011 Esti rated it it was amazing

Shelves: children-ya-media-class

Bonus review (not following the rules, but very heartfelt): I re-read this book out of sheer nostalgia, after typing up my review of the very unfortunate graphic novel adaptation. Though I probably read it a dozen times as a child, I hadn't looked at it since about fourth grade. I was impressed, when I read the graphic novel, how much I remembered from the original... Benny's pink cup, the swimming pool, the wonderful domesticity of everything, to the point of spending scarce money on salt and s ...more

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Nov 25, 2017 Nadin Adel rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: novel, audio-book, children

A novel about orphan siblings whom ran away from their grandfather that they never saw and knew he would treat them badly, as he didn't like their late mother. The story ending is wise as it turns out into a great conclusion.

To sum up, sometimes the things we are most frightened of are the things we should, actually, embrace with all our senses. Finally, never close your ears of what you thought was the mere truth, everything needs consistent testing and evaluation by both our mind and heart.

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Feb 09, 2009 MEGAN C rated it really liked it

Shelves: children

I happened to stumble across this and I was addicted to these when I was younger so I thought a re-read was in order. It was a little different than I remember but just as charming. I can see why I wanted to live in a boxcar when I was little. However, there is some weird gender things and other stuff that I never would have noticed as a child but seems glaringly obvious and weird as an adult. Overall reading it again was a heck of a lot of fun.

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Apr 02, 2016 ellie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: embarrassing-books-younger-me-read, five-star-favorites, so-soft-my-heart-went-whoosh

This is the book that made me a reader. I know many people don't have any way of knowing this, so I'm so grateful that I know. I still remember the day I walked into my 5th grade classroom in 2008, and there was a little bookshelf in the corner with a green beanbag. It was my first time in an American classroom, and I had never read an English book before. My homeroom teacher told us that if we read anything there, she'd give us a sticker! So I went, sat on the beanbag, and looked at the books. ...more

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Jul 28, 2015 Jenne rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: jf, logistics

hahaha wow this is such a weird story! But also just the kind of thing I like. I mean who wouldn't want to set up a little house in an old boxcar in the woods and eat delicious food and play in the creek.
In closing, I have two words: CHERRY. DUMPLINGS.

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Jun 12, 2013 Kris Irvin rated it it was amazing

I read The Boxcar Children as a child. I think I was 7 or 8 when I started reading them. It was the first series I ever collected and I loved these books.

I wanted to introduce them to my 5 year old. He's mildly autistic and has a very short attention span, but surprisingly, he sits still and listens to the story here. He loves Benny and Watch, and though he may not understand all of what is happening, I think he is getting the gist of it all. It's been a great experience to read these and re-li ...more

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Apr 11, 2009 Leslie rated it it was amazing

I loved these books as a child. I just re-read this one again, now as an adult. In reading many of the comments made here, I realize that most of you may not know this book was published in 1942, right after the Great Depression. This is a book about children who start off with nothing, but managed to survive and even thrive on their own resourcefulness. This was probably a very powerful book in 1942 and it is still relevant, perhaps even more so, today.

I love that these children are respectful ...more

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Aug 04, 2017 Ann rated it it was amazing

I read all of these books as a child and I loved them. great books for kids but beware it might want to make your kids live in a boxcar... I know it made me want to and my mother just laughed at me when I told her so... 😑

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Sep 29, 2016 Sarah rated it it was amazing

Ahh, this just stirs up happy childhood memories. I loved this book and series so much. It is one of those series that our family lends out all the time,

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Aug 04, 2017 Linh rated it it was amazing

Loved these books when I was a child:)

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May 09, 2017 Aaron rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: childhood, fiction, classics, youth

I believe it was my second grade teacher who read this to our class. All I have is fond memories of childhood escapism, kids being able to forge their own way in the world without depending on adults.

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Mar 06, 2012 Alana rated it really liked it

Shelves: children-youth, in-a-series, mystery, 1001-children-s-books

What a sweet re-visit to childhood! A story of siblings who are unrealistically kind to each other, sharing, resourceful, and a little too picture perfect in all their friends and family, but a fun children's adventure nonetheless. Who didn't want to have their own little boxcar home as a child?

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Mar 28, 2018 Chloe (aka Crystal) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Younger audience for interest

Shelves: 2018-read-finally, childrensbooks-2018, childrens, kindle-2018, kindle, library-books, library-2018

I remember when I was little that I did not want to read these books. The cover kind of made it seem boring and I was intimidated. I ended up reading it eventually, and I decided to give it a try again. It's be fun to try reading the whole series one day, but that'll take a long time.

Anyways, this is an easy read for the young reader and something that would hold their interest. I can't say it would hold an older reader's interest as it is aimed at the young audience and really is not interestin ...more

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Dec 27, 2014 Stephanie Sun rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: alternating-close-3rd-person, debuts, dead-tree, ebook, bechdel-test

A nice nostalgia read courtesy of Worldreader Mobile and Open Road Media. I was so glad to find that the ebook has the gorgeous illustrations by L. Kate Deal, which make living in a boxcar and eating stew made of castoff runt vegetables just seem even that much more idyllic:

The Alden siblings divide loaves of bread.

Dumpster diving! Benny finds a pink cup.

Jessie stirs stew made from tiny vegetables.

Although not without creepy Pleasantville moments ("'Tomorrow will be Sunday, and I can stay at h ...more

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Oct 15, 2009 Delicia rated it it was amazing

Genre: fiction, chapter book
Topic: runaways, life in a boxcar,
Theme: independence, trusting adults, becoming self-sufficient,
Illustrations: There are very few illustrations in this book. The few there are depict scenes from the story.
Use: read aloud, guided reading, independent reading
Reading level: Fluent
Literary Elements: vivid descriptions

Thoughts:

Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny, four orphaned brothers and sisters, suddenly appear in a small town. No one knows who these young wanderers are o ...more

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Aug 21, 2007 Bookwormdragon rated it it was ok

Recommends it for: children

Shelves: dont-own, reviewed

This is one of the many classics from my childhood. I greatly enjoyed the whole series as a child, and would certainly recommend them to other readers in the targeted age-group, but I can't say that I have an overwhelming urge to re-read them as an adult. The Boxcar Children books fall into what I like to call the 'Library' category: worth checking out from the library, but not worth buying sight-unseen. While young children will probably enjoy them, I doubt that they will want to read most of t ...more

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Mar 03, 2009 Greta rated it liked it

Shelves: juvenile

I never read these as a child and don't think I had much interest in them until searching for more books for my son to read. He's 7, in 2nd grade, but reads on a 5th grade reading level. I'm always trying to find books he can read that are on his level where the content isn't too old for him. This was one of the books I picked off the library shelf in hopes that it would meet that criteria. I thought it was a nice story and look forward to reading a few more of the boxcar books to see how they m ...more

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Jul 04, 2014 Michelle [Helen Geek] rated it it was amazing

Shelves: tbr-kindle, grammy-girl, 5star_k

One of the first books I ever had read to me. I remember my third grade teacher - Ms. Murray. I loved this book. I just bought it to read to my grand-girl. Third grade for me was in 1969. Wow! I never read others in the series and frankly didn't know there were others. I hope she likes this one so we can read them all!

Happy Reading!

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Jun 25, 2016 Ashley rated it really liked it

A re-read of a very beloved book from my childhood. This story seemed so exciting when I read it as a child. Of course as an adult I can see why it probably wasn't a good idea for the children to live alone. It was a fun adventure, though!

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Oct 17, 2013 Michelle rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: childhood-favorites, level-juvenile

What a fun reread! It was every bit as delightful as I remembered. Didactic yet utterly charming. The fierce independence of the Alden children is fantastic. There's also a humor element in the absurdity of it all that wasn't there for me as a child.

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Feb 27, 2017 Judy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: easy-reads-for-kids

This was a favorite of mine when I was a child. I checked it out of the library many times, and shared the story with my sister (three years younger than I am). It fit right into our favorite form of play -- she always wanted imaginary animals, and I wanted at least one young child, and then we'd set about playing house, whether it be in the backyard, our bedroom, or under a pine tree in the mountains. (Of course, no adults were involved. Maybe we assumed the parents had abandoned us.)

It's a who ...more

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About Gertrude Chandler Warner

Gertrude Chandler Warner

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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 CH 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. ...more

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